APPLICATIONS    
Sreen printers continually search for ways to keep their existing customers intrigued and attract new clients. Some achieve this goal through the services they offer, others through distintive products. Texas-based Novamedia Group found its competitive edge in a technology that uses a unique screen printing process to create 3D image with.it all began several years when Thor-Daniel Hjaltason, an Icelandic entrepreneur, was approached by Coca-Cola Co. to produce POP advertising materials and signs to promote the Coca-Cola brand. The Company wanted a sign that had a 3-D apperance with letters that looked routed, but the sign had to be produced at a low cost. Artlite was born. Thor D Hjaltason filed for US patents and introduced his discoveries to Coca-Cola and later on to Pepsi and other bottlerers in Iceland. Raymond Guest, Novamedia's production manager, describes an Artlite sign as a double-sided, screen-printed peace that is aligned perfectly from front to back.
When the sign is illuminated, either with fluorescent lamps or in fact any other light source, the product displays a 3-D, halo, or neon
appearance.After the Coca-Cola project and further developments, Hjaltason decided to launch Artlite Internationally. He and his partner, Bjarnason, also from iceland, moved their operation to London and later to the USA. In january of 2004, Hjaltason formed Novamedia group in Fort Worth,TX with new partner Frost Prioleau. Six months later, Novamedia purchased Screen craft, a graphics-printing company, to further develop the Artlite process.
Today, Novamedia offers a range of services, including design, prototyping , digital printing , screen printing light-box manufacturing, fulfillment, and more. The 50-employee company is out fitted with an M&R Conquest automatic six-color system and few single color presses and
The shop also is equipped with an assortment of finishing equipment, including CNC routers and diecutters.
Producing an Artlite sign can require as many as 30 passes of UV-curable spot colors or four-color-process inks.
Many of the passes are used to lay down the same color. Guest explain that the inks are used to make certain areas of a sign panel appear translucent or semi translucent---they essentially control the way light move through the pannel to create a desired effect. A finished panel may feature varying degrees of trancelucency, from transparent to completely Opaque.
"Its a very creative process that goes hand -in-hand with screen printing technology," says Nancy Tucker, Novamedia vice presedent of sales and marketing. "It makes us different Our production staff must also have a creative mind to understand what they are achieving."