Business - Applications

Hollywood Monster rolled out the red carpet for Taylor Swift when she switched on the Christmas lights at London's Westfield White City retail venue.  The Birmingham-based graphic experts provided the stage graphics for the country singer-songwriter when she flicked on the festive switch.

The American pop star also treated the crowd to a special live performance from her fourth studio album ‘Red’.  The stage dressings – produced by the team at Hollywood Monster’s Tyseley headquarters – provided an impressive backdrop for the 22-year-old pop star’s energetic performance of her hit single, ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’.

Tim Andrews, managing director of Hollywood Monster, comments, “We feel very proud to have worked alongside Westfield on the switch on of the Christmas lights which is always a major event, but even bigger when you’ve got an international star performing.  This was the latest in a series of recent high-profile projects, including the creation and installation of Europe’s largest ever banners in Westfield Stratford City and the London Olympic Park."

Hollywood Monster produced the backdrop for Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian's ‘Kardashian Kollection’ launch for Dorothy Perkins at Westfield White City.  The company's stage dressings provided the background for the reality star sisters when they launched their new clothing range at the popular London shopping centre. The highly anticipated arrival and meet and greet was watched by thousands of Kardashian fans.

As one of the UK’s leading signs and graphics providers for the retail sector, Hollywood Monster has also recently supplied stage graphics for pop princess Taylor Swift she switched on the Christmas lights at Westfield White City.

Simon McKenzie, director at Hollywood Monster, comments, “We are delighted to have worked alongside Westfield on multiple major events with international stars, and at the moment you don’t get much bigger in the celebrity world than the Kardashians.  This was the latest in a series of recent high-profile projects, including the creation and installation of Europe’s largest ever banners at Westfield Stratford City and dozens of banners and graphics for the London 2012 games.”

Hampshire Flag Company has played a pivotal role in helping to bring the people of Brixton together by producing a brand new flag.  Local Brixton residents were asked to design a flag by filmmakers Will Aspinall and Neil Arun, also known as Breakaway Brixton, and around 100 ideas were submitted.  Will and Neil asked the leading flag manufacturer to turn the winning design into a real life flag and then filmed it being produced.

The footage features in a 24 minute documentary Unflappable, along with names of some of the Hampshire Flag team members in the credits.

“Hampshire Flag’s generous support and willingness to let us film the flag being made is greatly appreciated. It was fantastic to visit the firm and to meet the team – everyone was very generous with their time,” said Will.  “The finished flag looks fantastic – vibrant, bold and colourful – and we are delighted with how Hampshire Flag produced the flag.”

Unflappable premiered at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton and the flag now flies over Brixton’s Windrush Square.  Graham Wilkinson, Hampshire Flag’s Managing Director said, “We produce flags for an array of fascinating events and causes, and this was no exception. It was great to have Will and Neil visit us, and it’s exciting that one of our flags has made it on to the silver screen and is now flying in Brixton.”

[photo shows Will Aspinall and Neil Arun with the Brixton flag]

Following on from its successful bid to gain an official Guinness World Record for the world’s longest composite photograph, Clare Newton’s Jump4London display is now on show at Spitalfields Market in London. The presentation includes a portion of the 1km long photograph, which was first displayed in public at the Excel Centre earlier this year.

Hackney-based artist Clare Newton says, “I firmly believe that art, if properly harnessed, can be used to help enhance education, inclusiveness and in this case, the pure enjoyment of participating in the creation of the world’s longest photograph. For Jump4London, I organised 87 participating events, with schools, universities, paralympian teams, celebrities and special needs children.”

Jump4London was finally assembled with 81,000 separate photographs of 1200 people jumping, which Clare painstakingly blended to create one enormous panoramic photograph measuring just under 1 kilometre in length.

After receiving the award from Guinness World Records, with help from Clare’s sponsors, including Agfa Graphics, the photograph has been on display at Spitalfields market. Spitalfields were keen to exhibit just extracts of this gigantic photograph in their old market, but they were so impressed with this initial display, Spitalfields then paid the sponsorship for Clare to fill the roof space with the photo.

As a result of the Spitalfields exhibit, Whitechapel Galleries included Jump4London in its prestigious Bus Tour of galleries and museums which takes place on the first Thursday every month.

Tim Light, Marketing Manager for Agfa Graphics, says, “We have been delighted to support Clare in this project. What she has achieved has been truly remarkable, and I am especially pleased that the photo is now being displayed where it should be, in an iconic London space. Credit also has to go to the likes of Creative Place, Amari Digital and GPT for making Clare’s dreams a reality.”

For Clare’s next project she has drawn together her dream team of international composers, poets, musicians, dancers and choreographer Amandine Limtouch to immerse you into the ‘spiritual worlds of the imagination’. It is unique one-off event, which will take place on January 27th 2013, called Emperors for Tea. The event blends a poetical theme, art-couture, contemporary ballet and sumptuous sounds combined with a luxurious tea at London’s Savoy Hotel.

Chester-based Farndon House's wide-ranging production capabilities and focus on product quality rather than pure price have seen it go from strength to strength – even in tough economic times.  The promotional products company is visibly benefiting from a refreshing approach to product diversification with a strong customer base and hard won trade work contracts bolstering its turnover.

“I’m confident in saying that Farndon House offers as comprehensive a range of garment products as you’ll find anywhere else in the North West,” states Mark Ford, the company’s managing director. “The diversity of what we offer sets us apart from our competitors and helps iron out the trading peaks and troughs.”

With screenprint, embroidery, direct to garment and digital print capabilities in house, and the majority of jobs arriving in to Ford’s production team requiring some sort of artworking, the workflow begins with assessing the best route for the production to take.

“We look at each job individually,” he says. “Working out the best way to produce it ultimately benefits the customer as we have such a broad range of techniques available to us.”

The company’s Mimaki CJV30 printer/cutter sits at the heart of its digital print operation and enables it to not only produce the core full colour print and cut garment decoration but is a solution that has taken them into new areas too. Banners, stickers, printed bags and posters are all value adding goods that Ford’s team has added to Farndon House’s product portfolio. “If a retailer comes to us for one requirement, we can offer other merchandise too,” he confirms. “They get to deal with one supplier, making life easier for them and ensuring a consistency of design throughout.”

Ford has grown the business through a combination of strong customer retention, local exhibitions, B2B networking but most importantly, recommendations from his existing clients. “Some of our biggest contracts have come about through word of mouth,” he states, pointing to the power of a positive reputation. “It’s no secret that the way we work with our customers has brought us new business, “he continues. “Providing our customers with a ‘one stop shop’, respecting their trading relationships and regularly looking to introduce them to new products has benefitted both parties in the long run.”

Working with big name clients such as Umbro, Aldi and Sega, the company produces a broad gamut of tools to formulate integrated promotional marketing campaigns. Aldi for example, makes use of PVC banners, posters and t-shirts for its “car park sales” and new store openings. Farndon House works directly with the store group’s Northern office tailoring campaigns to specific stores, delivering a personalised and strongly branded solution.

Taking a different approach, sportswear brand Umbro makes use of Farndon House’s on-demand service, shipping boxes of hundreds of ready made garments at a time, which are then imprinted by the company with specific promotional messages and branding.

Farndon House invested in its latest wide format inkjet printer through Mimaki reseller, Signmaster Systems, and runs it in a well equipped studio alongside direct to garment inkjet technology, additional print and cut kit as well as smaller format desktop solutions for its dye sub work. Using Mimaki SS21 ink on the CJV30 the company not only benefits from the rebate linked recycling scheme run by Mimaki distributor, Hybrid Services Ltd, but achieves the quality of output its become synonymous with.

For more information, please visit www.farndonhouse.com

[photo shows Mark Ford]

Oasis Graphic Co has worked alongside Design Difference to create a branded environment for Mitsubishi Electric's stand at this year's CIBSE Building Services Exhibition.  The exhibition attracts building services professionals from across the globe and provides a platform for suppliers to showcase existing products and launch new technological innovations.

Mitsubishi's double decker stand was designed by Design Difference to be clad throughout with print and profile cut vinyl applied to walls, glass, painted surfaces and three large lightboxes. The installation time ran to two days and two phases, the first of which was spent applying graphics to the lightboxes and the PVC banners and printed vinyl logos to the un-assembled top deck of the stand at Design Difference's workshop in Tring.

The second phase was on-site at Olympia, and was a rolling affair.  The thirteen hour installation involved over 40 print and profile cut drops, and the Oasis team had to dovetail its work between the stand builders and the stand fitters. As the walls and structures went up, the Oasis team would start applying the large format graphics, and when they had finished that section they would be followed by the crew installing the fixtures, screens and other units.

Sam Philps, director at Design Difference was pleased with the finished stand. "This was a very challenging build - a double deck stand in two days - which had a tight schedule and therefore required careful planning.  Oasis Graphic Co were an indispensable part of the team, offering sound advice regarding the graphics production and providing an experienced fitting team on-site to enable this project to come together smoothly.  Having worked together over many years I would have no hesitation in recommending their services."