HDSigns&Display

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Linemark presented with second Queen’s Award at glittering ceremony

We were delighted to be presented with the Queen’s Award for International Trade during a glittering ceremony.

Our representatives were presented with the coveted award by the Lord-Lieutenant of Lancashire, Lord Shuttleworth, at St Mary’s Chambers in Rawtenstall.

Linemark and group companies, HD Signology and N-Virol are based in Rossendale, Lancashire and Linemark manufactures world-leading line marking products, which are sold through a network of distributors to customers around the world.

Overseas sales have grown by over 80 per cent over the last three years with an increase in UK employees and overall sales. Currently the Linemark Group exports to 34 countries and has a single distributor for each of its main markets in USA, Australia, South Africa, Denmark and France.

The Queen’s Award for International Trade was awarded for outstanding growth in overseas sales over the last three years.

To celebrate the achievement, staff from Linemark, HD Signology and N-Virol were given the day off work to attend the presentation of the award, alongside suppliers, local dignitaries and distributors from the UK and around the world.

Director Tony Holt said: “Being presented with this award is a huge honour for everyone at Linemark, HD Signology and N-Virol, and the celebration was a chance to reflect on all the hard work and progress that has been made.

“The Queen’s Award is probably the most prestigious honour a business can receive, and to pick up a second is an outstanding achievement for everyone involved. Winning the award has been a real team effort and the team here at Linemark is like a family, every single person is passionate about the business.”

Speaking at the award ceremony the Lord-Lieutenant of Lancashire, Lord Shuttleworth said: “This is the second time that I have had the privilege of presenting a Queen’s Award to Linemark.

“It’s probably one of the most enjoyable duties that a Lord-Lieutenant has to carry out in the county, to go around successful companies in Lancashire, to see modern technology, and some good old fashioned hard work, and to be able to present this award on behalf of the Queen.

“Queen’s Awards are hard to win and they are very rare; Linemark is one of only 25 winners in this International Trade section in the North West. I think that is a measure of the success achieved, and of the significance of this award.”

Linemark was established in 1995 and supplies line-marking paint products and machines to major international stadiums.

HD Signology, a specialist in signage and graphics, offers everything from commercial and stadium signage through to all forms of surface graphics.

N-Virol produces a range of building restoration and preservation products, and a full range of basement waterproofing, basement tanking and damp proofing materials for the construction and DIY industry.

The company won the Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2011.

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Royal invitation to meet the Queen

Two members of our team have been on a trip of a lifetime to Buckingham Palace, in honour of being awarded the Queen’s Award for International Trade.

Kenny Kenyon, Linemark group general manager and Brian Barnsley, Linemark export manager, were invited to the palace to meet the Queen, where they represented The Linemark Group.

In April the group was notified that it had been awarded the prestigious accolade for the second time after recording huge export growth.

Linemark and other group companies, HD Signs and N-Virol are based in Rossendale, Lancashire and manufacture world-leading line marking products, which are sold through a network of distributors to customers around the world.

At Buckingham Palace the pair attended a reception where the Queen was present, and they were treated to champagne and canapés. They were also approached by the financial director of the household who spoke to them about the firm’s success in being awarded their second Queen’s Award.

Kenny said: “It was a honour to have been gifted the chance to visit Buckingham Palace and see the Queen on behalf of Linemark UK. It was a fantastic experience and an opportunity of a life time. It’s all thanks to the hard work and efforts of everyone at Linemark UK in getting the award.”

Brian added: ‘’ To have had the honour of representing Linemark UK at the Queen’s Awards ceremony at Buckingham palace, is in itself, the opportunity of a lifetime. The knowledge that it was done on behalf of every single member of the company that together enabled us to be a recipient of the award for the second time was a very proud moment, one to be cherished’’

Linemark was established in 1995 and supplies line-marking paint products and machines to major international stadiums. HD Signs, a specialist in signage and graphics, offers everything from commercial and stadium signage through to all forms of surface graphics. N-Virol produces a range of building restoration and preservation products, and a full range of basement waterproofing, basement tanking and damp proofing materials for the construction and DIY industry.

The company’s export strategy is based on investment in market research, identifying and educating distributors, and market specific product development.

Overseas sales have grown by over 80% over the last three years with an increase in UK employees and overall sales.

Currently the Linemark Group exports to 34 countries and has a single distributor for each of its main markets in USA, Australia, South Africa, Denmark and France.

The proportion of sales exported has increased to 29% of total sales. It won the Queen’s Award for International Trade for outstanding growth in overseas sales over the last three years.

The company won the Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2011. The Queen’s Award for International trade will be presented to the group in September.

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Kicking off the U20 World Rugby Championships

We helped the 2016 World Rugby U20 Championship kick-off last week.

The Championship, which brings together the best young talent from across the globe and is held over 18 days, started on Tuesday June 7th at the AJ Bell Stadium in Salford.

Our team along with Linemark and Infield 3D Advertising, which are all part of the Linemark UK Group, were called on to carry out pitch branding at both the the AJ Bell Stadium and Manchester City Academy Stadium, where all the matches are being held.

Infield 3D Advertising surveyed the ground to ensure that the branding appears to be standing up from the halfway line, when it is in fact a 2D image.

From the survey, we created a bespoke stencil to replicate the branding to be installed. This was positioned on the ground so the branding could be applied to the surface using Linemark UK Ltd paint products.

Teams battling it out to be crowned champions include New Zealand, England, Argentina, Australia, France, debutants Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Scotland, South Africa and Wales.

Previously known as the Junior World Championship, the under-20 tournament was introduced in 2008 after the amalgamation of the previous under-19 and under-21 World Championships. The World Championship is a two-tier tournament with the winner of the Junior World Rugby Trophy promoted to the Championship the following year in place of the side finishing bottom of the standings.

Jan Korab, Linemark Director, Director of Infield 3D and Managing Director of HD Signs & Display said: “We have previous carried out work for the 2016 World Rugby U20 Championship, and are delighted to have been called on once again.

“It is a testament to the quality of our work and the dedication of our teams that we continue to secure such high profile contracts.”

The work follows a string of high profile sporting contracts including work undertaken for DACIA Magic Weekend, William Hill Scottish FA Cup Final, The Emirates FA Cup Final and the FA International Friendly, England V Turkey.

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WORK AIRED ACROSS GLOBE DURING WEEKEND OF ICONIC SPORTING EVENTS

We were thrust into the spotlight during a weekend of iconic sporting events in May.

We had our work aired across the globe when we were called on to produce graphics, logos, banners and carpets for DACIA Magic Weekend, William Hill Scottish FA Cup Final, The Emirates FA Cup Final and the FA International Friendly, England V Turkey.

Over the course of the weekend work we produced and installed was seen by hundreds of millions of TV viewers, across the globe.

Based at Riverside Business Park in Rawtenstall, HD Signs & Display is part of the Linemark Group of companies, which also includes N-Virol and Ultra Membranes. The Linemark Group of companies manufacture world-leading line marking, damp proofing treatments and anti-condensation products, which are sold through a network of distributors to customers around the world.

For the DACIA Magic Weekend, we installed 3D painted pitch logos for DACIA and First Utility at St James’ Park in Newcastle. The work, which was carried out through Infield 3D Advertising with stencils produced by our team and paints by Linemark, was used in all six games and shown on Sky Sports.

While on the Saturday, the 3D PVC mesh banners Infield 3D produced and delivered for both ends of Hampden Park were shown on Sky Sports 1, during the William Hill Scottish FA Cup Final. In addition, two large printed carpets that we manufactured for Emirates were aired live on BT Sport and BBC One during the FA Cup Final.

And to top off the weekend, we also produced and installed a large 10 square metre printed pitch side mat for the FA International Friendly between England and Turkey at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, which was aired on ITV.

David Hickey, our Business Development Manager said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been called on to produce and install work for a number of iconic sporting events, which were seen by hundreds of millions of viewers across the globe. It was our very own magic weekend!

“We have developed a well established reputation for producing signs, banners, graphics and logos for sporting events, as well as undertaking other work such as vehicle graphics and surface advertising”

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HD SIGNS & DISPLAY IN LIMELIGHT DURING FA CUP SEMI-FINALS AT WEMBLEY

We were in the limelight once again when we helped the FA Cup semi-finals kick off at Wembley.

Carpets we produced were aired around the globe during the Everton Vs Manchester United and Watford Vs Crystal Palace matches.

Our specialist team were commissioned to produce and install two large printed carpets for the matches, on behalf of the FA Cup’s main sponsor Emirates.

The carpets were placed at the end of the players’ tunnel for when they walked on and off the pitch.

The huge 10m by 4m carpets, printed on our specialist 5m printer, took eight hours to print before being finished by hand.

Jan Korab, our Managing Director said: “We were delighted to be asked to produce the carpets on behalf of the FA Cup’s sponsor Emirates.

“We are of only a few specialist printers who have the ability to print onto carpet for this kind of large format.  The carpets were printed using solvent based inks, using a slow print technique in order to lay down more layers of ink, which improved the overall finish.

“Being commissioned to undertake the work was a significant coup for us and we are delighted to have been able to produce and supply these products for such a prestigious event in our sporting calendar.”

Headquartered at Riverside Business Park in Rawtenstall, we use the latest manufacturing and printing technology and have our own in-house design and manufacturing capabilities.”

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HD Signs & Display helps the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup get off to racing start

We were thrilled to be called on to help the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup get off to a racing start.

Our specialist team was called on to produce a range of signage and graphics for round two of the event, held at the National Cycling Centre at Manchester Velodrome’s indoor BMX Arena.

We worked on behalf of British Cycling to produce, print, install and then remove: the track branding; arena event signage; podium boards; interview backdrops; printed carpets; directional signs and posters and the starting line graphic boards.

The highly anticipated world cup features the fastest, bravest riders in the world competing at five events, held in three continents from March to October.

 BMX Supercross has been part of the Olympic programme since 2008. The races take place on tracks around 350m in length, with four straights and three corners with racers starting on an eight metre high start ramp. The track also features numerous bumps and jumps.

In the past year we have undertaken a number of cycling related contracts, including installing logos for sponsors at the historic London Six competition, and painting on track lines and sponsor logos for round two of the 2016 UCI World Track Championships.

Jan Korab, our Managing Director said: “We are delighted to have been approached by British Cycling to undertake the work for the highly anticipated UCI BMX Supercross World Cup.

 “We have undertaken a number of velodrome based projects over the past year and are well known in the field for the highly specialised, quality work that we produce.”

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Linemark land second Queen’s Award

The Linemark Group has won a Queen’s Award for International Trade after recording outstanding export growth — the second time the Rossendale-based business has earned the coveted Enterprise award.

Linemark and its group companies, HD Signs and N-Virol are based in Rossendale, Lancashire and manufacture world-leading line marking products, which are sold through a network of distributors to customers around the world.

Director Tony Holt said: “It’s a huge honour for everyone concerned with Linemark, HD Signs and N-Virol and great reward for all their hard work.

The Queen’s Award for Enterprise is the most prestigious honour a business can receive and to pick up a second is incredible. I am sure it will boost our reputation even further, because there’s no finer mark of excellence.”

This year it’s extra special because it is being announced to coincide with the Queen’s 90th birthday.”

Director Jan Korab added: “Our line products and signage have been used for more than 20 years at some of the most prestigious stadia in the world. We are a global business with a world-renowned customer base. We are also innovators, which sets us apart from our competitors. As well as line-marking products, we also offer full stadium branding and we always find solutions for any difficult surface that needs an advert printing on it.”

Linemark was established in 1995 and supplies line-marking paint products and machines to major international stadiums. HD Signs, a specialist in signage and graphics, offers everything from commercial and stadium signage through to all forms of surface graphics. N-Virol produces a range of building restoration and preservation products, and a full range of basement waterproofing, basement tanking and damp proofing materials for the construction and DIY industry.

The company’s export strategy is based on investment in market research, identifying and educating distributors and market specific product development.

Overseas sales have grown by over 80% over the last three years with an increase in UK employees and overall sales.

Currently the Linemark Group exports to 34 countries and has a single distributor for each of its markets in USA, Australia, South Africa, Denmark and France.

The proportion of sales exported has increased to 29% of total sales. It won the Queen’s Award for International Trade for outstanding growth in overseas sales over the last three years.

The company also won the Queen’s Enterprise Award for Innovation in 2011.

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HD Signs and Display has helped keep some of the world’s top cyclists on track at the 2016 UCI World Track Championships

We were called upon to paint the track lines and sponsorship logos at the competition held at the Lee Valley Velodrome in Stratford, London.

It took our specialist signage and graphics team around 420 hours to complete the work ahead of the event which ran from March 2nd to 6th, through a series of night sessions.

The highly anticipated event, which featured 390 riders from 45 nations, was the biggest track cycling event in the capital since the London 2012 Olympic Games and served as a pre-cursor to Rio 2016.

Amongst the high profile racers were Mark Cavendish, Sir Bradley Wiggins and Laura Trott.

As the track was set at a steep angle, our team had to anchor a platform to the track to be able to apply the branding. They also used specialised paints and finishes to make sure the branded part of the track had the same adhesion as the rest so competitors were not affected.

The track lines are used to indicate to the riders where they should be situated at various times during races, and where they can overtake.

The work follows on from a contract to install track logos at Lee Valley Velo Park for the historic London Six cycling event held in October last year.

David Hickey our head of business development said: “The UCI World Track Championships is a prestigious event featuring some of the world’s top cyclists, and we are delighted to have played our part in making the event happen.

“We thoroughly enjoyed being part of the London Six event last year and were honoured to be able to work at Lee Valley Velodrome once again.”

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DEBORAH SERVICES GETS NEW LOOK THANKS TO HD SIGNS & DISPLAY

Our specialist team has helped to give an international Hire & Sales Solutions company a new look for 2016.

We are delighted to have carried out the first stage of work to rebrand leading infrastructure and utility support service company Deborah Services - as Actavo.

Deborah Services Limited / Actavo has been in operation for over 46 years and employs approximately 1,600 people in over 60 strategically located branch and site locations in the UK, and a global workforce of over 4,500.

At HD Signs & Display, part of the Linemark UK Group, we offer everything from commercial and stadium signage through to specialist surface graphics.

Our specialist team has worked across all the Actavo Hire & Sales sites, removing all the external signage and replacing it with the new corporate identity and branding,  as well as replacing the vehicle signage for their whole fleet.

Actavo groups together a number of brands and logos under one banner – these include Deborah Services, Sierra Roankabin, Roan Building Solutions, EventServ, PDC and Siteserv Access & Formwork.

“Actavo is one of the UK’s leaders in the strategic operations sector and this is an important contract for us both in prestige, value and scale,” says our Business Development Manager David Hickey. 

“Working across so many sites in a tight timeframe meant this was a challenging project, but we had a very talented and professional team working on the brief.”

Last year we produced one of the world’s largest pieces of sand art to mark Crabbie’s sponsorship of the 2015 Grand National. The logo, which measured more than 1600 square meters was created at Lytham.

David added: “2015 turned into one of the most successful for the business. We won a series of new deals and strengthened existing relationships and we hope this will continue in 2016.”

Headquartered in Rawtenstall, we use the latest manufacturing and printing technology and have our own in-house design and manufacturing capabilities.

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Half time help from HD Signs & Display brings the fun to Fulham FC

We’ve established quite a reputation for helping out sports clubs and their sponsors in their hour of need.

So we were delighted to be called on by Fulham FC to produce a last minute centre circle banner for a half time promotional challenge, which was used during their home fixture against Hull City FC.

The banner, made for their betting partner Coral, was turned around and delivered in the morning in time for the afternoon Sky Bet Championship fixture.

During half time the centre circle banner was used for a supporters’ challenge, where fans had the chance to win £100, £500 or £1,000 of free bets by kicking a ball on to the target.

Two lucky Fulham supporters, Charlie Johnston and Alan Battams, both scooped the top prize of £1,000 free bets each after landing balls in the bullseye.

The pair showed impressive passing accuracy and were met with enthusiastic cheers from the crowd, and admiring glances from the Hull City subs who were warming up.

The banner will now be used by Coral’s instadia events team and transported to football grounds across the country for more half time promotions.

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HD Signs & Display help kick off at Sheffield United FC

At HD Signs & Display we are huge sports fans and relish the opportunity to carry out work at different stadiums and sporting arenas.

Recently we were thrilled to be approached by Sheffield United FC and their club sponsors IFX and Adidas to produce a centre circle pitch banner.

Because of the vast size of the banner we had to use our specialised 5m wide printer, and print it in four sections.

It was then cut out by hand and the sections were welded together, with the circumference eyeleted so it could be pegged down, if it needed to be.

To make the task even more complex, Football Association regulations dictate that the centre circle is 18.3 m in diameter, which meant that when printed and finished, each banner was more than 250 square meters in size.

David Hickey our Head of Business Development, said: “It is always an honour to be asked to produce a highly specialised order such as this, and we were delighted that they came to HD Signs & Display to fulfill their needs.

“Producing a centre circle banner is quite technical. With the size of the banner, we had to print directly onto a large hole pvc mesh, in order to minimise the weight. But even so, these banners weigh approximately 75kg when finished. 

“We were really pleased with the finished result as were Sheffield United, IFX and Adidas.”

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Bringing the king of the dinosaurs to Cheshire!

Our team helped to add a splash of colour to the Spark Advertising & Design office when it underwent a top-to-toe refurbishment.

Spark, who are our creative and advertising partners, asked us to produce a range of work as they gave their reception, board room and studio a makeover.

The work, designed by Spark, included acrylic and vinyl reception wall signs and a digitally printed reception mat in Spark’s colours, yellow and black.

We also produced decorative vinyl lettering with an inspiring quotation from French sculptor Auguste Rodin.

And digitally printed display foam boards for the boardroom, common areas and studios. The images include an optical illusion picture of a wall knocked through to reveal a beach front; a stairways door opening up to a woodland at night; a fake skylight window with a T-Rex head peering out and giant graphic of a bi-plane with a Spark-related quote from Robin Williams.

Jon Harris, Director of Cheshire based Spark said: “We decided that the office needed refurbishing and and came up with some quirky graphics to have around the building.

“We approached HD Signs & Display to carry out the work as they have commissioned us to carry out various marketing projects and we know the quality of work that they produce.

“We are thrilled with how the work looks, as expected it is really high quality, delivered on time and on budget.”

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Changing branding? Pick your colours carefully!

Colours can evoke different thoughts and feelings, and as such are an effective persuasive tool.  So when it comes to branding you need to make sure you pick your colour scheme carefully . Using some of our clients’ best colour choices, we made a quick guide to help you pick the right colours to reflect your brand image.

1. Yellow 

Our creative and advertising partners Spark Advertising & Design chose wisely with yellow. It is perceived as being the happiest colour in colour spectrum - it also creates thoughts of optimism, warmth, energy, clarity and intellect.

2. Red

Red is a popular colour for sports teams like Middlesbrough FC - it evokes feelings of passion, energy, power, strength and love.

3. Blue

Blue is thought of as the most trustworthy colour, it is also associated with tranquility, security, peace, loyalty and integrity.

4. Green

Supermarket chain ASDA want to be known for being value for money - which is most likely why they picked the colour green for their branding, as it has long been associated with money. It also is thought of as being environmental, fresh, peaceful and healing.

5. Orange

We can understand why Novak Bridal Lounge picked a pale shade of orange when it represents confidence, friendliness and success! 

6. Silver

For a sophisticated look then silver is a great choice. It is also a popular choice with hi-tech brands and is though of as being graceful and sleek.

7. Black

For a elegant and classy look, you can’t go wrong with black. It is also used as a formal colour for brands that want to want to be taken seriously.

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Top 5 Epic Sign Fails

Here is our pick of the top five epic sign fails. These signs had us laughing, slapping our heads in exasperation and genuinely thinking, ‘yes they should have gone to HD Signs & Display.’

 1.      nalds’sMcDo

 Come on, near enough everyone in the world knows McDonalds! Is this a new rival brand, a joke or just people who didn’t pass primary school spelling?

 2.      Is it me or does that say LOL ?

There is no belief that somebody didn’t look at this sign after making and see that that supposed “drowning victim” looks an awfully lot like the abbreviation, Laugh Out Loud!

 3.      Oh the irony.

 As You can see on this unfortunate sign the letters E and S have gone out, leaving a very ironic sign for an emergence and trauma unit. At least it might help some patients realise they are in the right place.

 4.      Hot dog Sushi? Finally!

 As much as I want this to be true, hot dog sushi would be delicious. But maybe a hot dog isn’t exactly the right image to sell sushi to passers by.

5.      Where’s the water?

 The question raised here, if this sign wasn’t here would we see lots of people going for a dip among the grassy fields? Has science progressed so much that we can now swim on grass? No, the person who placed this sign here clearly thinks water is green and therefore has grabbed the last spot on our top five sign fails list.