Making the Weiser Choice: Weiser Graphics Upgrades its TrueVIS Production

Sara Butzin, owner of Weiser Graphics in Waupaca, Wisconsin, chose her career path early. While in college, she took a summer job at a sign and vehicle graphics shop, and decided she liked the industry. A few years later she launched Weiser Graphics, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Today Sara runs a full-service shop with help from part-time staff and an occasional hand from her husband. Between her work designing, printing, and installing signs and graphics, we caught up with Sara to see what factors mattered most in her company’s growth, what she’s seeing in the market lately, and what lies ahead for this motivated entrepreneur.

How did your company get started?

Sara Butzin: I took a job at a local sign and vehicle graphics shop between my junior and senior years of college. After graduating, I continued to work there for five years. Eventually, we decided to go our separate ways, but I still wanted to design, produce, and install signs and vehicle graphics. In 2005, I launched Weiser Graphics.

What are your shop’s specialties?

We specialize in vehicle wraps, vehicle magnets, and fleet lettering. We also produce indoor and outdoor signs, and banners. We print decals in a wide range of sizes, from small ones for water bottles or mugs to big ones for cars or semi-trailers. We also produce wall and window graphics.

“The new ink options, including the orange and green inks, really brighten up and expand the color gamut.”

At what point did you decide to expand your offerings to include vehicle graphics?

When I started my business, my only production tool was a 15-inch Gerber plotter and a 15-inch foil printer. I decided to start offering vehicle wraps in 2017, and I knew we would need a larger printer to efficiently produce wrap graphics. We attended the ISA sign show in Las Vegas, Nevada, to see all the best print technologies in one place. We looked at quite a few printers and compared their output. Roland DG’s printers stood out for their great quality, vibrant color, and ease of use.

We chose a Roland DG TrueVIS VG-540 54-inch eco-solvent printer/cutter and we’ve never looked back.

How has having wide-format capability changed your business?

Vehicle graphics continue to be a popular product for us. In fact, we have expanded the back of our shop to allow us to perform indoor graphics installations on larger vehicles.
The versatility of wide-format printing has also added new efficiencies and opportunities for other products. For example, we make quite a few colorful decals for a local air compressor manufacturer. Before we got our TrueVIS printer/cutter, I had to outsource the decal production to make the work cost effective. Now I print and cut them in-house, which saves everyone time and money.

Why did you recently upgrade your production to the TrueVIS VG3-540?

The new features on the VG3-540 are very beneficial for my business. The new ink options, including the orange and green inks, really brighten up and expand the color gamut. The VG3’s speed is a nice improvement as well, especially as my shop has gotten busier. The touchscreen capabilities are great, and I no longer need to remove the media clamps to use the sheet cutter. Plus, it’s a Roland DG printer/cutter, so I can be confident that my production equipment is reliable and robust.

Please describe how your shop is laid out.

We’re still operating in the same location where we started out. Our building is an old car wash – which is perfect for this business. We have an office where I do the artwork, reception work, and small sign production using my original 15-inch machines.

We have a bay where we install graphics on regular vehicles, a bay that has our Roland DG TrueVIS VG3-540 eco-solvent printer/cutter and a Seal laminator, and the new addition off the back that accommodates bigger vehicles, including semi-cabs and utility trailers.

What kinds of companies make up your client list?

Our clients are mostly small- and medium-size businesses located in Waupaca County, though we have clients from Waushara and Portage Counties as well.
We install graphics for most of the local municipal vehicles including the Waupaca County Sheriff’s Department squads, Waupaca Area Fire Department trucks, and vehicles from the City of Waupaca. We also produce a lot of graphics and signs for the School District of Waupaca, interior signage for Waupaca Foundry, and fleet graphics for several trucking companies.

How do your clients find your shop?

Clients can find us on the web at www.WeiserGraphics.com. We are in a small town and a lot of customers hear about us via word of mouth. I also advertise on the local radio station, which I think helps keep our shop top-of-mind.

What do you think sets Weiser Graphics apart from your competition?

My dad had his own body shop, so I know how much time and effort it takes to make a small business successful. I am also very particular about how projects look when they leave this shop. I treat every project like I’m creating graphics for “my” vehicle or a sign for “my” company, and I think, “would I love this if it were mine?” The answer ALWAYS needs to be “yes” for that project to leave my shop.

We have not only made some great signs and graphics, but we’ve also made a lot of customer friends. I think these relationships are critical to Weiser Graphics’ continued success. With a strong and growing client base, I’m optimistic about our future.

Looking ahead, what do you see as a priority for your shop in terms of products? 

We’ve seen increasing demand for vehicle graphics, so I want to expand our efforts there. It’s worthwhile work for us and really helps our clients’ businesses get noticed. It’s also fun! And with our VG3, we have an even more powerful production tool to help us produce vibrant and durable graphics.