Dear Ms. Kaitlyn Hof-Mahoney:
You could get your labels printed as weatherproof vinyl stickers. The vendor here offers them as either opaque or with a clear background. The clear ones are more expensive, but they would match the wall.
If you do this, come up with your own design, ideally in a vector program, such as Adobe Illustrator (the type will be sharpest in vector). Be sure to convert all text to outlines, so the printer doesn't have to have the exact font you're using. You can even make the background purple, to help blend in with the wall. It will be unlikely to get a perfect match on the first attempt, so you might try a purple that complements the wall color, without obviously trying to match it.
Next, gang up as many labels as will fit in the biggest size sticker. This will be cheaper than making a custom design for each label, printed separately. If you need more different ones, upload them as a separate design, also ganged up to fit. Once printed, you need only cut them apart and apply them.
You can put trim marks at the edges to guide your cutting. If they are placed off the finished sticker, they will never show. You just have to be careful not to cut all the way across until the final cuts that free the stickers from the sheet.
A further refinement to avoid peeling problems is cutting the corners of the labels at forty-five degrees. Just cutting triangles 1/32" on a side will be enough. Only do this if you can set up some sort of jig to keep the cuts consistent though.
Here is the vendor I found, but many vendors will make custom vinyl stickers. You just need one that will do very short runs (one per design).
https://www.makestickers.com/products/custom-stickers/rectangle-stickers
If you need any further assistance, or even if you need someone to take over any aspect of this project, let me know!
Cordially,
Paul Pallansch
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Paul N. Pallansch
Dot-Connector,
Up-Close Realism
Silver Spring MD
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-18-2018 02:06 PM
From: Kaitlyn Hof-Mahoney
Subject: Exhibit Labels on Wall
Hello,
I'm working on fixing some small identification labels for an exhibit that we currently have up. These labels have been a problem since the exhibit planning stages, and I thought we had solved the problem. Unfortunately, now that the exhibit has been up for a few months, they have started peeling off of the walls. I had hoped to have clear adhesive labels with white text in order to be as unobtrusive as possible on a dark purple wall, but this didn't work out because most printers don't have white ink. Our current solution is white background adhesive labels with the text printed in color. Unfortunately, these are now falling off and I need to find an alternate option.
Does anyone have recommendations for ways to add these labels that will be more durable? The interpretive text and photographs are mounted on foamcore, but I'm trying to keep the smaller labels more subtle. I'm hoping for a solution that I can use again for future exhibits and avoid this problem moving forward.
Thank you!
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Kaitlyn Hof-Mahoney
Curator of Collections
Matheson History Museum
Gainesville, FL
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