Nearly four decades. Ten competitors outlasted. Picasso reproductions, Hollywood props, Star Trek storyboards, and a first-place international wrap — all from one print shop in Santa Barbara.
We've reproduced Picasso. Built props for Pirates of the Caribbean. Storyboarded Star Trek. Printed 100+ magazine covers. We wrapped a car with Fred Couples and won first place internationally.
Grayphics was officially founded in the spring of 1988 as a desktop-publishing business. As home computers flooded the market and "D(esk)T(op)P(ublishing)" became a term everyone would use, we distanced ourselves from the term — but kept one souvenir of those early days: our phone number, (805) 899-2387, which also spells 899-2DTP for "DeskTop Publish."
It was the early adoption of high-end, computer-driven color imaging — and total immersion in publishing software — that gave Grayphics its edge. Through the 1990s and 2000s, we competed head-to-head with as many as ten other imaging houses in the Santa Barbara region. We've outlived every one of them.
Our biggest competition not so long ago? Your friend's neighbor's cousin's son's best friend — we jest, but we truly hear it all the time. Computers made it easy to lump something together with a template and a standard typeface, and typically it looked exactly like that. Now, with AI advancing fast, people arrive with a different set of problems: resolution too low to print, color that won't hold together, and small sloppiness throughout. Trained human eyes and years of experience catch all of it before it's too late — and that's why we still thrive: when it has to look right, people come to us.
Motivated to please, happy to accommodate, ready to help your business thrive. Thinking of design and print? Think Grayphics.
Grayphics opens as a desktop-publishing studio. Early investment in high-end color imaging gives us a competitive edge the region hasn't seen. That original line — 899-2DTP — still rings today.
Props for Pirates of the Caribbean, I Love Trouble, Mafia!, and Steal Big, Steal Little. Promotional pieces for Tarzan, Shrek, and Toy Story 2. Television storyboarding for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Voyager. Fine-art reproductions of masters including Picasso.
We outlast all ten of our regional competitors. ADDY awards follow — including Best-in-Show, First Place Multimedia, and recognition in color theory. More than 100 Islands magazine covers roll off the press, alongside Little Mermaid and Mickey Mouse covers and campaigns for ESPN and AOL.
ECCO golf picks a Santa Barbara printer to wrap a car with Fred Couples. The first-place international vehicle-wrap win still turns heads on the road — and puts our large-format work on the map worldwide.
Car, truck, boat, wall, card, banner, sticker, cap, shirt, mug, window — if it holds ink, it comes through our doors. Three locations, one standard: make it look right.
The kind of résumé you don't expect from a neighborhood print shop.
Whatever you're making, you'll have an award-winning studio behind it. Let's talk.