The Banner Blog

Check out the latest photo of our booth at the In-Store Marketing Expo, which took place Nov 13-14 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. It was a great time, we met a lot of great people, and we got the word out about ways to go green with your marketing message. Thanks to all involved!!

On Saturday November 8 our president, Nora Norby, will be speaking to the members and visitors of the Marine Fabricators Association Great Lakes Regional Workshop about green implications for custom canvas shops from 8:00 am to 8:45 am in Huron Ohio. The presentation will provide listeners with ideas on how to make canvas shops “green” through conservation and recycling.

The Great Lakes Regional Workshop is for marine professionals who want to discover new fabrication techniques, learn better ways to communicate with customers, visit a marine canvas shop, take part in hands-on demonstrations and see the latest offerings from industry suppliers. Details can be found at www.marinecanvas.com. For more information you can call Banner Creations at 612.871.1015 or the MFA managing director at 651.225.6952.

Banner Creations will be exhibiting again this year at the In-Store Marketing Expo, taking place Nov 13-14 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

If you will be in the Las Vegas area, please call 612.871.1015 and request a FREE admission ticket. We have a limited number available. Come visit with us at booth #1052 to see for yourself the Ecophab line of products and other printed fabrics!

Leader in sustainable business practices to present at top international symposium

(ROSEVILLE, MN – July 18, 2008) Nora Norby, president and owner of Banner Creations, Inc., in Minneapolis, and an expert on sustainable business practices, will give a presentation on the subject at the Going Beyond Green—Saving Tomorrow Today symposium, October 23, 2008, 9:45 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., at the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) Expo in Charlotte, N.C.

The symposium will examine new sustainable, eco-friendly technologies and business solutions. In her presentation, The Queen of Green, Norby will discuss her business strategies and enlighten the audience about her ongoing mission toward sustainability and how they can embrace sustainable practices.

Norby has been in the banner business for over 20 years and for that entire time has had a strong passion for purchasing eco-friendly substrates, donating overruns and scrap fabrics, and more recently, initiating the advancement of producing upcycle materials. Norby is on the board of directors for the Fabric Graphics Association, a division of IFAI, and has been an active member since its inception. She has a Master Fabric Craftsman certification from IFAI, and is a leading proponent of printing with water-based inks on eco-friendly and eco-intelligent fabrics.

IFAI Expo 2008, Oct. 21-23 at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, N.C., is the largest specialty fabrics trade show in the Americas, drawing 8,000 registered participants from over 60 countries and has received the International Buyer Program designation from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Banner Creations product “The Green Bag” are to be given away by IFAI. There are 1000 up for grabs at the convention.

For more details about IFAI Expo 2008, visit www.ifaiexpo.com. Industrial Fabrics Association International is a business trade association promoting the products and innovations of the specialty fabrics industry, and is comprised of 2,000 member companies in over 50 countries. Visit www.ifai.com.

For additional speaker information contact Jill Rutledge, Director of Events, at +1 651 225 6981, or jmrutledge@ifai.com.

In early May of this year Minneapolis Minnesota was home to the 2008 Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) annual conference and exhibition, attended by the Rainforest Alliance. Now in their 20th year SCAA is the go-to organization for coffee related information and awareness.

The Rainforest Alliance exhibit promoted awareness of fair-trade practices and provided exposure to resources for sustainability. Their certification program is just one example. “Rainforest Alliance Certified farms have met a range of environmental, social and economic criteria that result in better growing conditions for coffee,” said Sabrina Vigilante, senior marketing manager at the Rainforest Alliance,” and contribute to a more efficient and sustainably run farm.”

Banner Creations supplied the banners and hardware for the exhibit.

May 16, 2008 – July 27, 2008
Goldstein Museum Gallery, St. Paul Campus

Curators: Bruce N. Wright, AIA, the Editor of Fabric Architecture, Design Minor Fellow, Karen LaBat, Professor of Clothing Design and Director of the Human Dimensioning© Lab

Download a PDF of the full press release.
Visit the exhibition page at
http://goldstein.cdes.umn.edu/exhibitions/

Banner Creations has a project in the Techno Textiles exhibit, which runs from May 16 through July 27. We made the fabric wall panels for Art of Chiropractic and did all the fabric signage for the show. In addition, the museum used photos of our project for the show’s advertising. We invite you to visit the exhibit at the Goldstein Museum of Design and see first-hand how Banner Creations is a leader in textile and banner innovation.

Reprinted from http://goldstein.cdes.umn.edu/exhibitions/
Techno Textiles: Inner Space to Outer Space examines many of these innovative materials and how they are being used by leading designers from around the globe. Some of the concepts will feature protective clothing, intelligent buildings that dynamically respond to the environment, luminous wall interiors and interactive digital displays that are part of the furniture upholstery, as well as fabric balloons used to ensure interplanetary probe vehicles land safely on the surface of Mars.

From ferroconcrete to plywood and plastics, new materials have always inspired designers to innovations in design. The past several years have seen a more far-reaching revolution in materials science and development than at any time in the past. Although many of these innovations involve the highest level of material science and manufacturing finesse, a recent surge in interest has favored so-called “naturals” or organic and sustainable sources, such as fabrics made from recycled plastics, corn-based cellulose, organic polymers and other sustainable chemistry.

In her recent book, “Textiles Today,” Chloë Colchester notes that these innovations “involve materials and prototypes that are so new that we can hardly foresee how the familiar functions of textiles will be transformed in the future.”

This exhibition was organized by the Goldstein Museum of Design.

The exhibition and related programs are supported by: International Fabrics Foundation, Dazian Fabrics LLC, University of Minnesota Summer Cultural Programs, Hayes Enterprises, and the Friends of the Goldstein, the College of Design, and generous individual donors.

Recycling, conservation, sustainability…

Those are words and concepts very familiar to our president Nora Norby which have been put to use by her since the Carter administration. That’s the main idea in a recent spotlight article on Nora in the March 2008 edition of Specialty Fabrics Review magazine. In the interview with SFR she discusses the current state of green integration with BCI’s business operations, past efforts, and plans for the future.

SF Review asked…

Industry Prediction
“In 5 to 10 years I expect to see more people using green fabrics, and less people using solvent printing.”

Business Philosophy
“I like making a product that to me has value and makes people feel good–providing good products at fair prices while being good to our employees and to our customers.”

Secret to Success
“Perseverance. That’s probably the thing I do more than anything else. If you want to say I’m successful … it’s just hanging in and trying to not take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Greatest Challenge
“The ongoing challenge in regards to moving things in the direction of sustainability is the sourcing of materials and information. Beyond that, it’s finding and keeping good employees.”

Download the article to read more!

Our friends from the Will Steger Foundation sent us a photo of the Ellesmere Island team, posing with one of the banners we made for their expedition. The banner is made into an eco-friendly and lightweight material called Ecophab™ which is processed from recycled soda pop bottles.

If our banners can survive weather in the Arctic circle then we’re sure they’ll endure for your business needs!

Toby Thorleifsson (Norway – age 28), Ben Horton (US – age 25), Sam Branson (Great Britain – age 22), Will Steger (US), Eric McNair-Landry (Canada – age 22), Sigrid Ekran (Norway – age 28), Sarah McNair-Landry (Canada – age 21)

About the Expedition

Last March, six emerging leaders, ages 21-28, joined Will Steger on a 1,400 mile international dogsled expedition across Ellesmere Island. There they followed in the footsteps of legendary polar explorers and will visit ice shelves that have collapsed due to global warming and those that are on the brink of collapse. Crossing fjords, mountain ranges, and sea ice, the Expedition Team will record the impact global warming has had on the northern coast of the third largest and northernmost island in the Canadian Arctic.

Follow their progress at globalwarming101.com.

We wanted to share more photos of the Denver Urban Forest banners. Once deployed a colorful and design-rich banner makes a strong impression on your target market. You can also see larger photos of these and other customer banners in the photo gallery on our site. To view more info on the Denver Urban Forest Project please visit their website.

Banner Creations will take part in the 2008 ISA International Sign Expo as an educator in the digital imaging track. Attendees will learn about the science of fabric selection for digital imaging projects.

The ISA offers educational opportunities to today’s sign industry professionals. Join us for interactive forums, hands-on workshops and seminars covering digital imaging, legislative regulations, technical industry application, management and sales and marketing.

DIS-10
Date: 3/27/2008 Time: 2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Title: Choose Fabric – Expand Your Market
Presenter Name(s): Dan Sinto, John Boyle & Company; Nora Norby, Banner Creations
Track: Digital Imaging
Description: Fabrics, inks and equipment have converged to create explosive opportunities in today’s growing graphic market. Combining graphics with fabric is the new innovative solution to project designs. The hottest trends in the fabric and graphics industry point to huge business opportunities for business owners. This seminar will provide tools and resources necessary to be successful in today’s competitive fabric graphics marketplace.

Participants will:
* Identify characteristics and types of fabric necessary to select the best fabric
* Examine specific uses of fabric to maximize the understanding of the benefits of fabric
* Learn the fabric equation (fiber plus yarn plus finish equals fabric) to assist in the decision process of selecting the fabric.

Further details and registration information can be found at http://www.signexpo.org/Education.html

See you there!!