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Behind the Craft — Case Study
This is a documentation of a real project, produced in full at Street Style Sign Studio’s Gramercy shop. Eight videos. Eight steps. One finished plaque series, built for the Harrison Football Hall of Fame and designed to stay on a wall for decades. If you want to understand what custom plaque fabrication actually involves, this is where to start.
Episodes
DPI Print
In-House
Years Experience
The Project
The Harrison Football Hall of Fame commissioned Street Style Sign Studio to produce a series of custom plaques honoring their program. The design combines the full Hall of Fame member roster with player numbers and names, the Harrison Huskies identity, and the program’s coaching record. Every element was printed, laminated, applied, and trimmed by hand in our shop on East 24th Street.
Who’s Behind It
Gayle Vendola, who founded Street Style Sign Studio over 25 years ago, oversaw the project. Jason documented the production process across 8 episodes, every step, nothing skipped.
The videos below follow the production sequence from start to finish. Each episode covers one stage. Watch them in order for the full picture, or jump to the step you want to see.
Episode 1
Jason loads the media roll into the HP Latex 365 large-format printer at our Gramercy shop, the first step in the Harrison Football Hall of Fame plaque production run. This clip covers the full loading sequence: mounting the roll onto the feed spindles, threading the vinyl through the feed path and under the platen, and checking alignment at the control panel before the job starts.
Episode 2
The print file is queued in the production software and sent to the HP Latex 365. The camera moves from the workstation to the machine: the graphic film loaded on the platen, then the full plaque design printing and exiting, Hall of Fame member roster, player numbers, ‘All Huskies Were Built On This Hill’ visible as it comes off the printer.
Episode 3
Jason guides the printed graphic film as it exits the machine, supporting it by hand to prevent creasing or dragging. The take-up reel controls at the base of the printer manage the media feed during the run. Handling the print correctly as it comes off is what keeps the material flat before it enters the laminator.
Episode 4
The overlaminate roll is loaded onto the laminator spindle, then the printed graphic film and the clear overlaminate feed through the rollers together, bonding into a single, durable sheet. Player numbers, names, and the Hall of Fame roster are readable through the laminate as the finished sheet comes out the other side.
Episode 5
The laminated graphic is trimmed to the exact dimensions of the plaque substrate: steel ruler positioned along the substrate edge, cutter running a clean line the full length of the piece. One pass. The cut line is visible on the finished plaque, the ruler has to be right before the blade moves.
Episode 6
The laminated graphic goes down onto the large plaque substrate. Liner removal, initial positioning, squeegee work across the ‘All Huskies Were Built On This Hill’ section, and close detail work on the Hall of Fame roster, player numbers, names, the Coaching Awards grid. Jason gets down close to chase out air and set every section of the graphic onto the board.
Episode 7
Corner cuts, peeling the excess film, squeegee work along the edges, and the final pass that brings the graphic flush to the board. By the end you can see the full plaque laid out clean on the table: ‘All Huskies Were Built On This Hill’, the Harrison Huskies panel, and the Hall of Fame member roster. The trim is the last step before quality check.
Episode 8
Graphic film application and final finishing on one of the large-format plaques in the series: liner removal, laying the graphic onto the aluminum composite substrate, squeegee work to set the film and eliminate air, edge pressing, and the finished piece lifted off the table. The full plaque design, Hall of Fame member roster, player numbers, coaching record, visible at the end of the clip.
Aluminum composite board rigid, lightweight, and flat enough to receive graphic film without warping. It is the standard base for interior recognition plaques that need to look premium and last.
Printed on an HP Latex 365 large-format printer at 1,200 dots per inch. Latex ink cures inside the printer, which means the film can go straight into the laminator after printing.
A clear protective film bonded to the print by the laminator’s rollers. It determines the surface finish, matte or gloss and protects the print for the life of the plaque.
Done by hand using a squeegee. The graphic goes down once. How you tack, how you work the film across a large surface, how you chase air out of the corners, this is the step that separates a clean finished plaque from a visible defect.
just 20 minutes north in lower Westchester
When a retail client on the Lower East Side needed a new illuminated storefront sign ahead of a grand opening, the timeline was unforgiving, under three weeks from approval to installation.
Because we fabricate in-house at our facility in lower Westchester, just 20 minutes north of the city, we didn’t have to wait on an outside vendor’s queue. Our team moved straight from design approval into production, controlling each stage , fabrication, finishing, and quality checks, under one roof. Being close to Manhattan meant the finished sign was on-site and installed without the delays that come with shipping work in from far away.
The result: a fully custom, code-compliant storefront sign delivered on schedule, with the client’s brand front and center for opening day.
THE RESULT:
A fully custom, code-compliant storefront sign delivered on schedule, with the client’s brand front and center for opening day.
“They handled everything from start to finish, and the turnaround blew us away. You’d never guess the sign was built outside the city — it was that seamless.”
THE TAKEAWAY:
Our Manhattan sales presence keeps us close to clients, while our dedicated Westchester production facility gives us the capacity and control to deliver fast, high-quality signage, no outsourcing, no surprises.
Street Style Sign Studio produces custom plaques for sports programs, schools, corporations, and institutions across New York City and the tristate area. We handle the full scope in-house: design, printing, fabrication, and installation. If you have a Hall of Fame, an awards program, or a recognition series, let’s talk.
The Harrison Football Hall of Fame plaques are built on aluminum composite substrate with a high-resolution graphic film face printed on an HP Latex 365 at 600 DPI, finished with a clear overlaminate. The full production process is documented across 8 episodes on this page.
A custom plaque series like the Harrison Football Hall of Fame project typically takes 3 to 6 weeks from approved design to finished pieces. Production time depends on quantity, complexity, and material lead times.
Large-format graphic film application requires hands-on squeegee technique to manage the film across the substrate without air pockets or wrinkles. The film goes down once — no repositioning — so placement and squeegee pressure are judgment calls made in real time. This is documented in Episode 6.
Yes. Street Style Sign Studio handles installation in-house across Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. For locations outside New York City, we coordinate through our national installer network.
Yes. We design plaque systems with a consistent template that can be reproduced as new honorees are added. The Harrison Football Hall of Fame series is built this way — each addition matches the existing plaques in materials, dimensions, and finish.
