|
Total-Solution Signs Offer More than Just Direction
 Every year, Festival International de Louisiane — a community-based, non-profit arts program celebrating the French cultural heritage of Southern Louisiana — looks for high-tech, creative and even “funky” way-finding signs that incorporate the spirit of the music festival.
With many stages located on several blocks of downtown Lafayette, Louisiana, the organization needed way-finding solutions that could be placed in the middle of the street and enhance the festival experience for visitors. While the graphic designers involved with creating the signage had an idea of the concept, they were able to go beyond their ideas after visiting the facility of a nearby SGIA member and digital printing company.
The SGIA member company offered a facility tour to show off its latest digital technologies. The company, an involved volunteer for SGIA’s Canal Street Initiative, has found customers are able to envision new and innovative applications that best fit their needs when they learn what imaging and finishing options are possible. Graphic designer Anne Darrah says the tour and explanation of what the equipment could accomplish propelled her to go forward with large way-finding signs in the image of stilt-walking performers.
Years back, a trio of stilt walkers, part of the many street performers that come to Festival International, had been a favorite among the attendees. The stilt-walker graphics would need to be smooth-edged (as a safety precaution for attendees who would lean or bump against the signs), able to withstand high winds and light enough to be moved every night during the five-day festival.
 Darrah created an elaborate Illustrator file featuring the colorful stilt walkers and submitted them electronically to Pixus Digital Printing. The print shop produced a prototype mock-up on 1.27-cm (.5-inch) Gatorboard. Because of its size — roughly 1.21 m by 2.4 m (4 feet by 8 feet) — the SGIA company suggested and Darrah agreed on a 2.54-cm (1-inch) PVC Sintra substrate that would be substantial enough to stay up and weatherproof for the festival.
The 80-pound boards were printed on a Gandi UV 3150 flatbed printer and then taken to a CNC router to be custom die-cut to the intricate shape of the stilt walkers. The SGIA member says the inks and substrates used in the process eliminated the need for additional finishing.
Even at 2.4-m (8-feet) tall, Darrah wanted more impact, so she had a hole drilled to the top of the signs, and added a fiberglass pole with colorful ribbon streamers embellished with tiny bells. With the slightest breeze, the streamers and bells helped catch attention of visitors to help them find their way to the next sign, she says.
From the beginning, the graphic signs were meant to be freestanding and interlocking, with plans calling for a welder to build an aluminum base. Instead of using sandbags for additional support, it was decided the signs would be bolted into the street in the event of high winds, which often accompany thunderstorms typical for Southern Louisiana in April.
The 2008 Festival International, the largest free francophone festival in North America, drew approximately 350,000 fans, with many stopping in front of the way-finder stint walkers to snap photos and find their way to the latest performance, Darrah says. The three signs held perfectly the entire time and festival organizers are now planning to add more of them for the 2009 festival, she adds.
SGIA member company Pixus Digital Printing (Lafayette, Louisiana) provided the digital printing and routing services for the graphic way-finding signage. The company can be reached at www.pixus.com or 800.738.0706. Find more information on the festival at www.festivalinternational.com.
|
