By Ed Avis
If you ever have a graphics installer who complains about being too busy, tell him the story of Noah Tesmer, lead installer and artist at Epic Color (a division of A/E Graphics) in Brookfield, Wisconsin. In May, Tesmer spent five days straight traveling around Wisconsin wrapping ice machines at convenience stores.
Noah Tesmer
Epic Color got the job on a subcontract from a national graphics company. Tesmer’s path (see the map) wound through 16 communities in central and northern Wisconsin. He traveled more than 700 miles while 28 wrapping ice machines at 20 truenorth convenience stores within Shell gas stations.
“The wraps were essentially truenorth branding, with their logo and then a graphic of a bunch of ice cubes and a gradation of a light blue to a dark blue that kind of covered these whole machines,” Tesmer says.
The wrapping itself was not particularly difficult for Tesmer, who is a 3M Preferred Installer and has been doing the work for Epic Color since graduating from Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 2022.
Tesmer's Journey
“Some of the ice merchandisers were a lot larger, some of them were smaller; some had one door and some had two doors; some had a slanted face to them,” Tesmer remembers. “And then there were also variances in how old they were. Some had little bolts and stuff that are typical on a little older machine, and then some were more smooth.”
The vinyl graphics, which were printed by the national graphics company and shipped to Epic Color, had enough overage that Tesmer had a little play if needed. But there was only one shipped for each machine, so he had to apply it even if problems arose.
Some of the machines had existing graphics. If those were in good shape, Tesmer placed the new graphics over the old. If they were peeling or chipped, he removed the old ones. In any case, he cleaned the surfaces with high-end glass cleaner or a 70% isopropyl alcohol with 30% water mixture.
A key challenge was the weather. May in Wisconsin is unpredictable – some days it rained and Tesmer had to wait in the van until the skies cleared, other days the wind blow hard enough to turn the vinyl panels into sails.
“Trying to hold up a 70-inch panel with one arm span is difficult when there’s wind,” Tesmer laughs.
Tesmer occasionally had an audience while he was working.
“It's fun seeing all the people who come around and are either really infatuated with what you’re doing or really confused in what you’re doing,” he says. “There was one location in the middle of nowhere where at least four people came up to me and said, ‘Oh, I used to wrap stuff, too’ and, ‘Oh, I’m a digital designer so I do work like this.’ I'm like, ‘Oh wow, this is pretty small artsy town.’”
Working out the logistics of this trip was, perhaps, a bigger challenge than the actual work. Fortunately, Tesmer had a wingman back home helping him out. A/E Graphics co-owner Tom Taubenheim ensured he had a place to stay each night, and even sent him a care package – snacks, drinks and a blanket – at one stop.
“I would call Tom and kind of update him throughout the day and then once I thought it was ready to look for a hotel, I would call him and have him look for one for me,” Tesmer says.
He finished the last wrap on the Friday of that week, late-afternoon.
“I was ecstatic. I called Tom right away and let him know that we are officially done with this project,” says Tesmer, who was about two hours from home at that time and decided to make the drive so he could sleep in his own bed that night.
Taubenheim was happy with Tesmer’s work.
“As you can imagine, it was a very taxing situation,” Taubenheim says. “That's a lot of stops to do in a very short period of time. Not only applying everything but just mentally strategizing and keeping it all together.”