July 16, 2020

Caerphilly based signs and graphics producer, Print Sauce, has completed an extensive and imaginative signing and ambient décor programme for three hospitals in its region…

Aneurin (Nye) Bevan shares, with a notable handful of others, the distinction of being an MP who’s remembered. In Bevan’s case it’s for pioneering work and a major contribution to social justice. He’s generally credited with the work resulting in the establishment in the UK of the underpinnings of the National Health Service. In 2004, over forty years after his death, Bevan was voted first in a list of a hundred Welsh heroes. His is a notable history and one that’s immortalised in many acknowledgements to his contribution to founding the welfare state. Healthcare in the UK owes much to Bevan.

The Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, was established in 2009 and today employs over 13,000 staff, the majority of whom are involved in direct patient care. It covers Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport, Torfaen and South Powys. The Health Board manages a large estate of hospitals in the region and reflects its great legacy today as an exemplar of best practice in modern health care.

Print Sauce, itself based in Caerphilly, was recently involved in supplying signing and décor to three of the hospitals in the Health Board’s care. Nevill Hall in Abergavenny, The Royal Gwent in Newport and St Cadoc’s in Caerleon all needed a little expert intervention to update signing and refresh décor. With its long-standing experience is supplying signing and print, Print Sauce was able to advise, to produce and install the measure needed.

Print Sauce is acknowledged by customers and competitors alike as a source of expertise in signing and graphics production. The company has a very extensive clientele and has delivered numerous projects to businesses and other establishments in its locality and far beyond. In addition to its noted expertise in sign design and production, the Print Sauce team is respected for its competencies in project management. That’s probably just as well, supplying signing to three hospital locations involves myriad detail and presents many opportunities to drop any of them with unwelcome consequences.

Print Sauce runs its affairs along service-led lines and genuinely sees things from its customers’ sides of the table. Unlike many, Print Sauce will reach very deeply into its box of sign design and invention to find solutions to customer need. ‘Solutions’ is an over-worked word these days but it perfectly applies in the case of Print Sauce. Gary Bagstaff and the Print Sauce design snd production team have delivered pioneering sign constructions to customers and have demonstrated depth and capability on many occasions. Customers come back for more. Customers recommend Print Sauce to others. Customers speak in enthusiastic and very positive terms about Print Sauce, it’s people and all that they deliver.

Delivery was an important dimension in facing down the considerable workload that comprised the Health Board projects. Working with facilities management teams to agree dates and other stakeholders to agree further depth and detail would exercise any company. In the event, Print Sauce got its arms around it all and delivered just what the customer wanted.

A long term Metamark customer, Print Sauce has come to value not just the products offered, but the technical support and backup available from Metamark. Similar ethics power Metamark from a service standpoint and, despite advancing its agenda in terms of access to information, it’s always possible to speak to a real Metamark person there in Woking or Lancaster. Metamark will always have the right answer to hand - ‘…we understand our business and we value yours,’ to quote Metamark’s sales director, Ian Simister.

The roster of signing delivered to the Health Board by Print Sauce is extensive in its scope and considerable in depth. Among the elements comprising the project are wall graphics. Printed Metamark MD5H-B with a mechanically matched Metamark Matt Finish Laminate were used by the Print Sauce production team and the results fully deliver the quality expected of this well proven material and laminate combination.

Application of the wall graphics is flawless and meticulous surface preparation its foundation. Print Sauce has considerable experience in designing and installing transformational wall graphics for décor, signing and ambient applications and this shows. Any tendency for substrate under colour to show through is managed by the opacifying inclusions in the MD5H-B’s specialist adhesive so nothing detract from the intended impact of the applied graphics’ designs.

A reception desk area received the MD5H-B and Matt Laminate treatment too. Where once a woodgrain finished desk dominated the area, the presence of the desk is softened by a newly applied white finish that brightens the area considerably. The laminated and unprinted MD5H-B is more than tough enough to shrug off the occasional knock or a bump that such structures have to endure and the added bonus is that any battle-rash would be very easy to clean.

Needless to say, the attractive refurbishment treatment accomplishes the desired end result at a tiny fraction of the cost that the Health Board would have to justify for a complete replacement of the installed desk and its surrounds, or costly on-site application of rigid laminates. An applied wall-graphic completes the reception ensemble.

The Print Sauce team’s work is in evidence outside the hospitals too. Monolithic sign structures featuring toughened glass faces are graced by reverse printed and backed clear Metamark MD5 so creating highly legible and detailed wayfinding signing that helps staff and visitors find their destinations easily and to move from place to place efficiently. The signing is dual-language and in addition to speaking to all who see it, it speaks to Print Sauce and its abilities in managing such complex detail too.

Printed MD5 features extensively in wayfinding directories used within the hospitals. Simple acrylic panels on stand-offs providing the information needed to direct and inform hospital staff and users, while adding a styling counterpoint to the surrounding architecture and decor. Such signs comprise complex information and again, no detail has been allowed to slip.

Floor graphics printed using Metamark FloorArt are used to define waiting areas and break up large expanses of space. The installation creates a delineation between pedestrian traffic-ways and seating areas adding a useful degree of functionality and making its own ambient contribution to design. The harmonious effect of the graphics serves the overall aesthetic better than any physical barrier might and helps retain sight-lines so contributing to the open-plan feel of the interior.

Metamark Etch Effect Films printed and contour cut are in evidence on the buildings’ glazing and achieve a degree of privacy while admitting natural light that’s know to contribute to human comfort in large buildings. Print Sauce has a proven expertise in print and the Metamark materials used are tolerant of generous ink levels. The combination works.

In delivering a complex and widely distributed project for the Health Board, Print Sauce has again demonstrated abilities that transcend what might be expected of a company that promotes itself as a signs and graphics producer. A project this size amounts to a towering list of details and an intimidating logistical challenge. Print Sauce has not just managed it all, it’s managed to let its creativity and skills shine through too.