What you see is what you give
Color differentiates objects from one another and can establish a mood and tempo just like music. Although intangible and not having a specific weight, temperature or size, color can make an object appear heavy or light, warm or cool, large or small. Color only exists when there is a viewer, light source and an object; by removing any one of these factors – color no longer exists.
Turns out, all colors are not on the surface of an object but in your brain! Your brain translates the frequency of the reflected light waves off of an object and instead of telling you a number, it tells you a color.

Hue you callin’ yella’?
The human eye is in effect a spectrometer, but without all the switches. And since we do not have a printer attached to our heads to provide us with the quantitative analysis of the reflected light waves, we must describe color qualitatively – by the use of words alone. In doing so, we will typically start a color description by stating its hue. Hue describes the specific color family like red or blue and is the broadest of the qualitative measurements we use, but least subjective.

Finding value
As we further narrow our description of a color, we use terms like dark or light which describe the overall value of a color. When we see a color, we can render a degree of lightness or darkness based on our experience and memory of that hue on the color wheel. The value of a color provides a much needed qualification, but can be subjective.

Saturation
The third level of qualitative narrowing may be the trickiest. Though you may not have heard the term saturation before, you have probably used it when describing colors. When we say things like “bluish gray” or the infamous “taupe”, we are actually describing a color’s saturation. Simply stated, saturation is the purity of a color and is changed by the addition of any other hue or black and white. Furthermore, the terms tint, tone and shade are used to describe “how” a saturation level was altered.

A retailer had several different generations of storefronts with differences in paint application and materials. They wanted to bring all up to the current look and standard but focused on doing so beginning with the oldest 15 stores which were set in locations throughout the country.

Scope
The scope of work needed to execute this rollout included:

1. Meet with client to discuss the project at one of the locations where work was set to be done
2. Do a field survey at that location to determine the time necessary to complete the update
3. Survey the remaining stores based upon detailed photographs and blueprints provided by the client
4. Paint all components of the storefront to bring them to the current specifications set forth by the client
5. Replace some components of the storefront at exterior stores with materials better suited to handle the weather elements
6. Provide before and after photos to the clients home office

Challenges
The constraints of this project included:

1. All work needed to be completed overnight
2. The stores needed to open in presentable condition each morning the update took place
3. Some storefronts were located in outdoor malls, which introduced weather related issues and limitations
4. Each store needed to be completed in 4 days or less
5. A faux finish needed to be applied to all storefronts and needed to be consistent from one location to another
6. Crews had to be thoroughly trained in the faux finish techniques in a short time span
7. Some of the paint and materials were unable to be found locally and needed to be ordered and shipped directly to the location

Solution
We understood that our client treated their storefronts as the highest priority. Not only did the storefront need to be completed with the highest level of quality, it also needed be left in presentable condition each morning until the update was completed. We also understood that a thorough paint and installation document was needed to supplement the training in order to complete this project properly. Our plan to execute this project included:

1. Development of a mock storefront in our training facility to allow us to teach the paint application methods to the techs as well as allow them to practice and fine-tune their technique
2. Thorough documentation of the training session (photos, video, notes, feedback from the techs) to allow for a specific installation document to be created
3. Development of a application schedule and document with photos and a checklist to ensure the project was executed properly
4. Each day’s schedule addressed areas and aspects of the storefront that would allow for complete repainting or replacement, therefore no items would be left half-done until the following night
5. Scheduling the exterior stores located in the northern section of the country to help prevent weather related issues. Weather forecasts were monitored as well to ensure we were aware of potential complications and could adjust the schedule accordingly
6. Ordering and shipment of the materials that could not be found locally to each location for arrival 2 days prior to the start date
7. Contacting each mall or building manager as well as Store Managers at each location to inform them of the work set to be done
8. Daily calls and photos from the techs to ensure they were on schedule and meeting client expectations
9. Follow-up calls the morning of completion to both the Store Managers and techs to verify that the project was completed up to standard and that the store was left in the proper condition
10. Certain stores where selected for site visits by the management team throughout the country to ensure the quality and consistency that the client demanded was met

Summary
Getting a consistent faux finish product is difficult at one location let alone 15. With proper training and management of the process we were able to ensure the client was pleased with the outcome at each store. In addition, with thorough planning and communication throughout the process we were able to meet all deadlines. As a result we were awarded the next group of 15 storefront updates.

Resicom continues its expansion with its boldest move yet, relocation of a company officer to Southern California. Michael Fairclough, our Executive VP of Solutions, has moved to Carlsbad, CA to build our local presence and to widen our client base. He has already hired a team of six with further team growth coming. In addition to relocating Michael, Resicom also provided him with a couple of team members from other parts of the company to ensure that our performance was strong day 1 in this new market. He will continue in his input with home office.

This furthers Resicom’s commitment and investment into providing national retailers with an option of working with a company that completely understands their role as providing brand protection through facility maintenance and repair.

Resicom is not a database driven business. It is a knowledge based company that continues to refine its processes to ensure they deliver consistently high quality projects. Our team approach helps ensure that our solutions are well rounded and bring insight and experience to our clients.

Resicom continues its national expansion quest and brings its disciplined approach to retail maintenance to Northern California. We understand our clients’ need for consistency. As we expand our self performing reach, we are able to ensure their needs are met. With our self performance providing the first hand, in-depth experience, we are better positioned to help develop process efficiencies and ensure that all technicians meet the standards, even in areas where we contract other companies.

Many retailers are based in CA. Our presence there will help us respond even quicker to their needs.

Resicom now has key team members in Dallas, Tampa, Columbus, and Chicago with additional areas on the horizon.

Please check back soon for more information.