Artworks Solutions partnered with Claremont Group Interiors for a big Dublin-based project
The Bigger Picture
If you are looking for evidence of the creativity and innovation of sign-makers, then look no further than the wide-format print market. From colourful billboards and striking posters, to impressive banners and huge building wraps, examples of work from this segment are not in short supply.
With so much going on in this area, it is probably fair to say we could easily fill each edition of SignLink with examples of wide-format print applications. However, we have managed to whittle this down to a few pages, celebrating some of the best work from forward-thinking and hard-working companies in this market.
Making a splash
First up, Glasgow-based graphics, signage, design, and installation company Novograf was able to produce a series of eye-catching projects using Soyang Bild Ceramic. Specialising in commercial fitouts and surface solutions, Novograf is a long-term customer of Soyang Europe and has used a range of products from the supplier over the past three years.
Novograf used Soyang Bild Ceramic vinyl to demonstrate its capabilities at the Surface Design Show
Most recently, Novograf completed two projects using Soyang Bild vinyl, a clear, multi-purpose material designed for use in applications such as point-of-sale, floor mats, countertop mats, and more. One of the projects involved Novograf producing graphics, custom surfaces, and flooring applications to transform the look of Pets at Home shops across the UK.
Ross Campbell, digital business development manager at Novograf, comments: “We have a long-standing relationship with Pets at Home, working with them across all of their UK stores to produce everything from graphics and custom surface solutions to the flooring you see throughout the stores.”
The second project saw Novograf showcase its capabilities at the Surface Design Show in a bid to reach the architect and designer market. Using Soyang Bild Ceramic vinyl, Novograf produced a custom wood and tile floor with a printed graphic replicating mosaic tiles and fish. This gave the impression of a pool running through the floor.
“The way we were able to print onto the floor to give depth of design and detail was a showstopper for attendees. The graphics were well received by every person who saw them,” Campbell says.
The way we were able to print onto the floor to give depth of design and detail was a showstopper for attendees”
Keeping with the graphics theme, Horsham-based BEL Signs collaborated with designer Carly Hacker of 1348 Design and West Sussex-based Kingslea Primary School to produce a colourful timeline.
[L to R] Kingslea Primary School headmaster Alexis Conway and Carly Hacker of 1348 Design with pupils
The idea of the project was to capture hundreds of years of history including important events on an international, national, and local level. These included designs featuring the Stone Age, Iron Age, Romans via the Greeks, Vikings, Normans, Tudors, and Stuarts, up to the Windsors.
BEL Signs stepped in to print and install the final design, which features 24 large circles and 114 smaller ones along the timeline. The job took two members of the BEL Signs team and two days to install in the school hall.
“We were really excited to be approached to work on such a novel job for a school, it felt important to us to be able to create something that could grow as more events were added,” Hacker of 1348 Design says.
“The school supplied us with a grid of times with various key dates they were keen to have included – this began with the Aboriginals in 63,000BC and ended with the Olympics hosted in London 2012 – no small feat. But we were confident that the space they’d chosen could cope with it.”
New opportunities
Elsewhere and another company with an excellent reputation in the wide-format printing sector is MacroArt, which has made the news sections many times in SignLink for its eye-catching applications.
“We’re proud to say MacroArt has forged an enviable reputation in the industry and has an industry-leading in-house production hub that serves a fast growing and impressive portfolio of trade and brand clients, supported by talented and committed production teams, project management and installation professionals,” says Michael Green, managing director of MacroArt.
“It is pleasing to see our growth in an increasingly extensive array of sectors, including exhibitions, visitor attractions and live events, bespoke heritage projects, sporting events and venues, plus an expanding retail, property, and interiors portfolio.
“Over the last year, MacroArt has become involved in a much wider range of sectors, in addition to its historically strong positioning in the world of live events. This growth into other fields has yielded so many opportunities to explore the use of our wide-format technology in many exciting new projects.”
Picking out some of MacroArt’s recent work, Green has little hesitation in pointing to the company’s work with Twycross Zoo’s new The Gruffalo Discovery Land. This project, Green says, gave MacroArt the opportunity to use a wide range of techniques and products on one project, both internally and externally, to deliver a great new visitor attraction.
O Factoid: MacroArt has been printing wide-format and large-format applications for more than 30 years O
Green also speaks about MacroArt’s work to create bespoke VIP ‘activation areas’ for a client at three iconic outdoor festivals across the country in under three weeks. This included producing clever, branded materials for use at the famous Creamfields festival.
Innovative ideas
Looking elsewhere in the market and Caerphilly-based Sauce is a full-service signage provider offering branding, interior and exterior signage, as well as vehicle livery, to clients. Director Gary Bagstaff says the company is always keen to find new and innovative ways of bringing customers’ projects to life.
An example of this was through its work with several hospitals across South Wales. One project of note was for the Children’s Assessment Unit in the Grange University Hospital, Cwmbran, where the project required over 300 linear metres of graphics for waiting areas, walkways, assessment bays and theatre rooms.
“This meant a lot to us because the hospital staff were constantly giving us feedback they were getting from children and their parents saying the branding really helped them to feel at ease and to make the ward feel less sterile,” Bagstaff says.
In terms of the other work Sauce produces, Bagstaff says there have been a number of unusual trends in recent months, including a spike in demand for canvas prints, but such is the variety of work on offer in the market that the company is never short of ideas for adding a new spine to more traditional work.
Sauce recently printed graphics for a number of hospitals across South Wales
“We can make canvases in-house but feel they look a little dated so have been suggesting wrapped panels with hidden split batten fixings to the rear,” Bagstaff comments, adding: “Wrapping the edges and using a matte laminate really gives them a quality look and feel. They are also really cost-effective and can be easily installed.”
Meanwhile, Artworks Solutions, a supplier and partner to the design and construction industry, worked alongside Claremont Group Interiors to help Flutter Entertainment – the parent company of Paddy Power – to overhaul its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.
Artworks digitally printed graphics for over 40 walls across all seven storeys of Flutter’s flagship office, which measures 164,000sq ft in total. The company used Kavalan Gecko 320 GB and UFabrik Backlit Textile ECO FR – both exclusive to CMYUK – to complete the job in an environmentally friendly manner.
“In the past we’ve found inconsistencies and instability in eco products, they just didn’t seem to have had enough market testing,” explains Seath Herbert, managing director of Artworks, adding: “We’ve never had any production issues with the materials we specified for this project, and the installers like working with these too.
“It was the right time to put these products in front of this client. These products tick all the boxes for sustainability, performance integrity, and price point. The client was very keen to proceed.”
UFabrik Backlit Textile ECO FR was used for a tunnel-effect corridor that connects the ground floor reception with the central atrium. This walkway was designed to create maximum impact, with dramatic and moody walls studded either side by lightboxes. Sensor-controlled and activated by movement, these LED illuminated printed images revealed themselves as staff and visitors walked past.
This inventive backlit textile is produced from 100% recycled PET plastic bottle waste. Manufactured to the highest standards, it is top coated for use with UV and Latex inks and ensures brilliant colour reproduction. The textile is also crease- and wrinkle-free on tension and doesn’t bruise or mark when folded. Fire rated to DIN 4102-1-B1 & EN13501 standards, it is also REACH, Global Recycled Standard certified, and compliant with the California Proposition 65. It’s fast becoming the material of choice for backlit and frontlit display applications.
“The lightbox images will be regularly updated so it was important for us to use a sustainable material that could be easily recycled,” Seath says, adding: “But that alone wasn’t enough, it also needed to print high quality and feature brilliant colour reproduction at close viewing distances. UFabrik Backlit Eco does it all.”
Picture perfect
Wide-format has very much been viewed as an area of expansion in recent years, but there are plenty of examples of how working in this market can be combined with efforts across other segments. Step forward Fujifilm and its work with new magazine SoulKind.
Large images of inspirational people were printed on Fujifilm kit to promote the launch of new magazine SoulKind
Using one of its Acuity Prime machines, Fujifilm was able to produce large portraits of images of inspirational people, as supplied by photographer Chris Boulton, who launched the new, independent publication in collaboration with brand consultant Jamie Rudd.
The subjects included former professional rugby player Ed Jackson, who climbed Snowdon after pushing himself to recover from severe neck and spinal injuries that left him unable to walk in 2017; Scott Jenkins, who has competed in a host of Ultra Runs; and Jacqui Furneaux, who travelled around Asia on her Enfield 500 motorbike after her marriage broke down.
The images were hung above attendees at a launch party for the magazine, while the actual publication was printed using Fujifilm Superia processless plates. In addition, postcards printed on the Jet Press 750S were produced for the event for guests to take home.
“It was an excellent evening with a great cause,” Fujifilm’s European marketing manager Kevin Jenner says, adding: “The high-impact, large-format portraits printed with the Acuity Prime, as well as the promotional material produced with the Jet Press 750S, helped SoulKind to deliver its powerful message, leaving the audience feeling uplifted and inspired.”
This represents just a small selection of the hundreds of incredible wide-format print jobs that we see each month here at SignLink, with so much more going on across the sector. With this in mind, it is safe to say growth and innovation are both here to stay in the wide-format sphere.
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