Business - Applications

Face Britain, an 'inspired' art project developed by the Prince’s Trust Foundation for Children & The Arts, has been officially awarded the Guinness World Records™ title for ‘Most artists working on the same art installation’.

Over 200,000 children and young people across the country who took part in the art project are now officially acknowledged as Guinness World Record holders. The record was achieved by creating self-portraits and uploading them onto the Face Britain online gallery. The children’s self-portraits were then combined to form an image of HM The Queen that was projected onto Buckingham Palace for 3 nights in April, to coincide with Her Majesty’s Birthday.

St Ives Group was proud to support the project, having donated its unrivalled technical expertise, print production and a variety of print and display materials including posters, leaflets, display panels and other printed materials including the auction catalogue for the Christie’s Live auction which took place on 9th May 2012 of portraits and artwork by some of Britain’s leading artists.

Face Britain is now officially recognised as the UK’s largest ever art project, with the number of artists being certified by Guinness World Records as 201,948 contributors. At the end of the year, they will also become part of history in the making. The entire collection of portraits will be handed over to The British Library to be stored for the nation, thereby providing a lasting legacy and a vibrant snapshot of the 2012 generation.  The previous world record was set in Tel-Aviv in 2009 with 28,267 participants producing an artwork resembling the flag of Israel out of fingerprints.

“The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts is most grateful to the St Ives Group for actively supporting Face Britain that aimed to put the nation’s children and its future at the forefront of the Jubilee and Olympic celebrations” Jeremy Newton, Chief Executive of the charity said. “St Ives played a significant role in the project’s development by donating their unrivalled technical expertise, hands-on support with the mass mail-out facility to every school in the UK and the print production of a wide and complex range of resource and display materials.”

To view the record breaking portrait collection, please visit the online gallery on the Face Britain website www.facebritain.org.uk

For further information on St Ives Group, please visit www.st-ives.co.uk

Oasis Graphic Co has discovered the international appeal of the opaque matte black print, which has been made possible by the VUTEk GS3250 flatbed UV printer. Oasis was commissioned to produce over 26 m2 of graphics on several substrates for its client, including direct print to clear polycarbonate for light boxes and direct print to ferro paper which when coupled with magnetic panels have created a quick and easily updateable graphic solution. All the graphics were UV printed to guarantee colour integrity for four years.

The client, a blue chip handset manufacturer, uses black extensively in its promotional material and corporate branding, so the quality of the the matte black in particular is crucial. The combination of matte black in a light box installation results in intensely vivid colours shining out in sharp contrast to the completely opaque black print. This has been used to great effect by the client in their graphical imagery, and was the perfect choice to refresh the branding for this leg of an international product launch.

Flying out to Milan for a mere 48 hours, the Oasis team, along with design agency Pope Wainwright, arrived on the evening of June 5th, completed the installation starting first thing on June 6th, and remained on site for another day to deal with any last minute issues. With the success of this installation, Oasis is now scheduled to produce similar localised graphics for further launches in Paris and Madrid to name but a few.

Signs Express Hull was commissioned to produce, supply and install a huge 40 metre welcome sign for Associated British Ports. To be displayed on the approach to King George Dock in Hull, the sign had to be clearly visible to all incoming and outgoing ferries.

The real challenge was to produce such a large sign in one complete section. The Signs Express team was able to solve this problem by using the ‘Spirit-Flex system’, with full colour digitally printed PVC skin, and UV protected liquid laminate applied to the face of the finished sign to ensure its longevity.  The sign is now the first thing many visitors see when they first arrive in the UK.

Glenn Silburn, contracts coordinator for Associated British Ports, says, "From design to fitting, Signs Express was excellent in meeting our requirements.  A friendly and very professional service."

Agfa, The Creative Place and Amari Digital Supplies have supported the successful Jump4London world record attempt to produce the world's longest photograph.  Artist, Designer and Inventor of the Year, Clare Newton, based in East London, had a dream of creating the world's longest photograph in time for the London Olympics. And she did it!  She photographed thousands of children and adults from all walks of life across London and combined the images to make a giant panoramic photograph - standing at just under one kilometre in length - with everyone appearing to jump simultaneously.

On 1st June 2012, the ExCel exhibition centre in London hosted the first display of the Jump4London project.  The project took Clare around two years to put together, with more than 5,000 jumpers and over 100,000 photographs. Clare weaved the photographs together to create a seamless image that spread across the near 1km print. The final print is a legacy for London to share that can weave its way through all kinds of places such as shopping malls, open spaces and parklands that are easily accessible.

As Clare says, “By jumping, people become the art: the simple movement allows any individual to take part”. A high-speed camera captures not only the participant’s spontaneous movements, but also the dynamic and exciting mix of nationalities, abilities, colour and moods, all set in environmental or creative backdrops. The panorama tells a story about the participants and what their lives are about - but the panorama is not just about a photograph. Threaded through this work of art, are hidden secrets, clues and mysteries all to be discovered through careful examination by the onlooker.”

Clare approached Agfa for support during 2011 and since then has gained the support of a number of other partners to make this ambitious dream come true. A major partner is Watford-based Creative Place who - with the Agfa Anapurna M2050 printer supplied by Graphic Printing Technologies - spent more than 70 hours outputting the image onto vinyl banner material supplied by Amari Digital Supplies using more than 50litres of ink provided by Agfa.

The Anapurna M2050 is a high-speed UV curable inkjet system with flatbed and roll-to-roll feeding capabilities. It can print at production speeds of 24smph on substrates up to 2m wide and 45mm thick.  Tim Light, Marketing Manager for Agfa Graphics, comments, “This has been a really exciting and rewarding project for Agfa to get involved with. As well as demonstrating the quality of our printers, we have helped to create a fascinating and lasting legacy that is testament to the grit and determination of the people involved. We are delighted for Clare and her team that they have achieved the dream of the world’s longest photograph and also congratulate The Creative Place for putting their own business production on hold in order to deliver this magnificent print.”

Following its display at the Excel Centre, jump4london will be moving to the South Bank in July. For more information, please visit www.jump4london.co.uk

[above and below photos show Jump4London project]

Leicester-based print services provider, Greenshires, has proved to be a headline act for heavy metal icons, Iron Maiden, with vibrant drum wraps printed on the company's HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press.

Greenshires, one of the UK's largest producers of sophisticated marketing materials and solutions, has added the quirky application to the arsenal of print jobs it undertakes, which has become big hit with a leading maker of high-end drum sets, Premier Music International Limited.

This saw Greenshires selected to print special-edition Iron Maiden "Ed Til I'm Dead" drum wraps for Premier, which the company produced on the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press using POP34 mode for close-view applications. In total, 500 sets of 11 drum wraps, totalling approximately 1000m2 (10,800 ft2) of printing was produced in about five working days.

Premier was so happy with the results it has since been ordering other drum wraps from Greenshires on a regular basis.

"We were most impressed with the level of consistency in the finished result," comments Colin Tennant, marketing manager at Premier. "The turnaround time is exceptionally fast but the quality does not suffer for it. And, the fact Premier can order wraps based upon actual orders rather than forecasting is also a benefit in itself."

Another fan of Greenshires' drum wraps is Nicko McBrain, the Iron Maiden drummer. The wraps are exactly the same as used on Nicko's tour kit for the four Iron Maiden world tours.

According to Greenshires sales manager, Marc Wolfe, the company's earlier upgrade of the HP Scitex FB7500 to use HP FB225 Scitex Inks, proved instrumental to the company's ability to take on the new creative drum wrap application.

"When printing drum wraps, the challenge is ensuring the ink adheres without cracking on the PETG substrate," explains Wolfe. "With our previous machine, we could not get the ink to adhere; but with the HP Scitex FB7500 and the new inks, we had the confidence to try again. Through R&D we came up with the idea of 'reverse printing' on the back of the media. This prevents the drum wraps from getting scratched with extensive or rough use."

The six-colour UV-curable HP FB225 Scitex Ink set also provides excellent dot gain and an impressive colour gamut up to 600dpi resolution.

"We wouldn't have been in the market for the drum wraps job without the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press," adds Wolfe. "The ink adherence and advanced digital printing capabilities made it possible for us to innovate and solve the challenges."

In addition to PETG for drum wraps, the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press enables Greenshires to print digitally on a wide range of media up to 25mm (1in) thick, including  EB Flute corrugated cardboard for free standing display units (FSDUs); as well as PVC for pop-up banners, foamex for exhibition graphics, and fabric for seat covers at exhibitions.

"The HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press opens doors for us," continues Wolfe. "We can now print on almost any media while confidently offering better quality, quicker turnaround and more competitive prices, even with the most challenging of projects."

Beyond drum wraps, the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press, which offers throughput of 105 standard size 120 x 240cm (47 x 94in) sheets per hour, is set to play a leading role at Greenshires for some time. Marc sees digital printing as the future, and points out the advantages of being able to upgrade the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press as the company's digital printing needs grow.

"We chose this press because of its speed and quality," says Wolfe. "Our expectations were fully borne out and we're winning new business because of it. Our screen press is less utilised, but the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press is working non-stop."

In addition to upgrading the inks, Greenshires also added the HP Scitex FB7500/FB7600 Multi-sheet Loader Kit, enabling it to improve productivity by simultaneous loading of up to four sheets.

"We're delighted with the speed and productivity of the press," concludes Wolfe. "The operators find the press easy to use. The loading is absolutely super and the speed is superior."

More information is available at www.youtube.com/hpgraphicarts or follow HP on www.twitter.com/hpgraphicarts.

[Photo shows Greenshires' vibrant drum wraps for heavy metal icons, Iron Maiden, printed on the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press]