Building Wrap (Acrobat PDF, 103K)

Transforming Wasted Space into an
Advertising Goldmine

In the latest wave of high-impact advertising, building-sized banners are sweeping across skyscrapers and storefronts in mostly metropolitan areas, capitalizing on what was otherwise wasted space. These grand-format graphic applications bring in a sizable revenue source, but the jobs are a major undertaking with unique challenges because of their size. To see how print shops can handle the obstacles associated with grand-format graphics, let’s look at how an SGIA member in Louisville, Kentucky printed and put together a massive building wrap featuring ABC News’ Diane Sawyer.

The print shop was commissioned by the Greater Louisville Pride Foundation to create the building wrap as part of a series of building murals dedicated to Louisville’s “Hometown Heroes.” The series also included boxer Muhammad Ali, KFC founder Harland Sanders and jockey Pat Day.

The print shop, which specializes in grand-format graphics, received Sawyer’s artwork from her publicist. Once the image was approved, the shop’s staff positioned it into the layout that went along with each of the murals in the series. The shop had an outside designer create the final image, with final color adjustments and file corrections done in-house.

In order to make an image as large as the mural would be in its final size (an average mural is at least 12.19-m or 40-foot high), the print shop required extremely high-resolution photos. Everything was transferred in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, where the image got final touches such as adding the title that would run horizontally on the graphic to identify Sawyer.

With the image ready for output, the print shop printed the piece in five 4-m (13-foot) sections. Sawyer’s image was printed on vinyl poly-mesh using a solvent-based ink on a digital inkjet printer. The printing took a total of 11 hours.

While the grand-format print required the same considerations as a regular-sized graphic, the print shop staff says they did spend more time figuring out the best way to produce the large graphic.

After the printing, the shop staff lined up the sections before welding them together for proofing and making sure the image fit properly. With the sections lined up in the correct order, the staff welded them together with a radio frequency (RF) seamer, using vinyl mesh between the panels. This process was continued until all of the sections were seamed together.

The staff then re-measured the piece to make sure it fit the proper overall size. The Sawyer mural would measure a final size of 19.8-m (65-foot) tall and 16.7-m (55-foot) wide. Then, all the sides of the welded piece were seamed with 61-cm (2-foot) reinforcement webbing by the RF seamer. Additionally, grommets were applied to all of the sides in corresponding increments that matched the installer’s requirements.

While some print shops may provide installation in order to serve as a one-source solution for clients, this particular print shop worked with an experienced contractor to put up the Sawyer mural, which was applied to the historic Starks building in downtown Louisville.

To complete the installation, cranes with 30.5-m (100-foot) capabilities were needed to attach the wrap directly onto the building using Tapcon screws. The installers started with the top corners of the banner and moved across the top and then down the sides of the piece. The print shop stressed that with a banner of this size, the installers had to make sure everything was securely fastened before progressing to the bottom. This particular building banner took six hours to install.

Altogether the mural project cost more than $11,000 to create, print and install. Because of their size, building wraps have been more popular in the sports marketing field, where they are prominently featured at stadiums and sports arenas. But retailers are tapping into the market, with more stores using building wraps and banners as “storefront” signage.

The Diane Sawyer building wrap was put together by SGIA member USA Image Inc. To learn more about the job, visit the company’s Web site at www.usaimage.com or call 800.342.1690.