Anders Häggman

MAS.863 Portfolio

WEEK 1 // Vinyl Cutting

I have some experience designing vinyl stickers so I have a rough sense of the process and what is possible. However, I had never cut the stickers myself, so this was an interesting learning experience. I was, however, not anticipating how much frustration the machine would cause.

  • Level of previous experience:              
  • Time taken:               
  • Tools used:
    Roland GX-24 Vinyl Cutter  //  On-line Fab Modules   //   Roland Cut Studio   //   Adobe Illustrator
  • Got help from:
    Athina Papadopoulou
  • Main learnings:
      De-bugging and troubleshooting vinyl cutter.
[Image_Missing]
The final design; sticker on my laptop. The light from the logo illuminates the 'AH' logo.
[Image_Missing]
Without the light on.
[Image_Missing]
I designed my logo in Illustrator, and saved it both as an .ai file as well as a .png (thinking I would use the on-line fab modules). Due to the size of the Apple logo, my own logo had to be quite small to fit onto the illuminated part. To get it perfectly centered on the lid of my computer, I would have had to make my logo even smaller, so I decided instead to use the illuminated part to the maximum, and sacrifice perfect centricity. It's only off by about 2-3mm, so without a ruler, it's pretty much impossible to tell. In retrospect, I would have given myself a little bit more buffer on either side of the logo. As it was designed now, you really had to place it correctly, for the aluminum not to show. Also, since the stickers aren't see-through, when placing it, it was hard to see how far you were from the edges. Now that I think about it I am a little bit amazed at how well I was able to place it in the end.
[Image_Missing]
As mentioned earlier, it was my plan to use the fab module to cut the vinyl stickers. Unfortunately, however, the fab module was not working, and gave an 'undefined' error message, that neither I nor the TA's could resolve. I therefore moved over to using the Roland Cut-Studio software. Sadly, Roland Cut Studio was unable, or unwilling, to import my Illustrator files. It was hypothesized that the Illustrator version I was using (CS5) was too new for the Cut Studio that was installed on the IDC machine. I was therefore forced to import the .png file into Cut Studio, re-size it, create a vector graphic out of it (with the 'outline' command), and then cut it.
[Image_Missing]
After spending over an hour trying to get the fab module or Roland Cut Studio to work (with the assistance of one of the TA's), I was finally able to get the machine to cut. Unfortunately, I was not out of the woods yet. Adjusting the (vinyl) piece size and cutting force was quite straight forward, and worked more-or-less as one would expect, the real troubles started after that. One of the main issues I had with the Roland (after getting it to cut in the first place), was with the destruction of the vinyl stock. In this picture you can see lines running from the bottom left to the top right. These are not cuts, but just artifacts from the rollers.
[Image_Missing]
I believe this damage was not caused by the machine, but was rather already present in the stock before cutting. Shows the importance of storing your stock properly, so it doesn't get damaged.
[Image_Missing]
More damage to the vinyl.
[Image_Missing]
One possible culprit for the streak damage shown in an earlier photo. It was never conclusively determined if it was this top roller, the bottom roller, or something else that was causing the damage. I was told 'there is nothing that can be done about it now', so I learned to live with it by going back into Roland Cut Studio, estimating the location of the streak, and placing all of my stickers on either side of the line.
[Image_Missing]
As I was cutting stickers onto a single piece of vinyl, I did not align it properly with the machine, and as it was pulled into the machine, the edge of the material collided with the edge of the machine, rotating the vinyl. I canceled the print, re-oriented the material, and tried again. However, the vinyl cutter did not want to start up anymore. After some more outside help, I learned that the top rollers can only be located in areas with a white line. Otherwise the machine will not recognize them. You can see in the picture above, that the roller on the right is located out of bounds. Therefore, the machine did not want to start, until I moved the roller back towards the right, underneath the white line.
[Image_Missing]
One of the successfully cut stickers.
[Image_Missing]
I know you are supposed to use the backing, but my stickers were not very intricate, so I just peeled them off, and stuck them straight onto where I wanted them, without the backing. Didn't seem to be a problem.
[Image_Missing]
One issue that I had, though, was that one vinyl sticker was not enough to block out the light from the logo. I was not anticipating the vinyl to be this see-through. (This was a dark blue sticker.) Therefore, I had to place two stickers on top of each other, something I dreaded I would not be able to do. On the first try, however, I was able to place one exactly on top of the other. There is just a hint of three-dimensionality, since if you look at the sticker from an angle, you can barely make out the dark blue on the edges.
[Image_Missing]
In the end, the biggest problem turned out to be the thinness of the vinyl material. Even with two stickers on top of each other (as in this photograph), you can still make out the Apple logo indentation, if you look at it from the correct angle. Luckily, it is not that noticeable in regular use, and it does not seem that one would immediately notice it in regular use (I had to point it out to my lab-mates). One could have first cut an Apple log shaped sticker, placed that underneath, and then placed the round sticker above. However, it does not bug me nearly enough for me to do that at this point. I feel I got lucky once with the alignment of the stickers, and I worry that would I have to do it again, I would not get it aligned as nicely.
[Image_Missing]
The final vinyl sticker on my laptop.