About Us.

Ad-Art is unlike most in that it does such a variety of work on a variety of materials, among them vinyls, polycarbonates, plastics, canvas and textiles.

We do a little bit of everything. Customers can come into one place to get their printing needs.

The business has been around since 1953, moving to the existing location in 1983. The address is 17486 U.S. Highway 65.

We do thousands of decals for product logos, warning statements, special offers and other needs. But our specialty is

And for many jobs, such as with medical machines, Ad-Art applies the ink on faceplates. His company, he noted, uses an catalyzed ink when printing ink on metal so it won’t scratch off.

Ad-Art also does large-format textile patterns. The company has a big machine that prints on huge sheets of paper.

Ad-Art makes political signs for candidates across the state. Ellertson said he orders pallets of 4-foot by 8-foot corrugated plastic and cuts the segments to the ordered sizes. He also buys the wire stands.

Ad-Art makes foam core displays for stores. For instance, foam core can be used to make life-sized cutouts of people.

Among the machines at Ad-Art is a Brausse die cutter, which is where many of the printing jobs end up before being shipped to the customer. Decals, for instance, arrive over e-mail as a design that is prepared and then printed to film and shot with a bright, ultraviolet light to a plate. The plate is inserted in one of the company’s three screen-printing machines. Finally, the item is brought to the die cutter for cutting.

There are machines that shear metal, and there is a Rockford metal punch press.

Ad-Art has a darkroom for image work. Ellertson said he finds images last longer when formed in a darkroom than through modern computer-to-plate machines.

Getting the order to the customer is his favorite part of work.

“I like to see faces when they get a finished product,” Ellertson said. “That has always been fun for me.