Business - Applications

BAF Graphics has successfully completed the visual communication project for the BBC’s new offices at MediaCityUK, Salford Quays, which started in March last year. The project was directed by BAF’s Chris Holland, who also headed up a resident installation team in Salford Quays from March to June ’11.

Working together with fit-out specialist Overbury and designer ID:SR, BAF has developed and installed all interior graphics required for the brand new premises. Ranging over the BBC’s three buildings (Bridge House, Dock House and Quay House), the interior graphics incorporate both wall and glass panelling areas.

A range of ‘best-in-class’ high quality substrates were chosen for the job following a stringent selection process. These include Digimura Smooth - a commercial grade wallcovering, cut vinyls and optically clear films for wall and glass panelling.

During the course of the project, the installation team surveyed over 800 wall surfaces, many of which incorporated metal riser doors which had to be carefully disguised behind the wallcoverings, while still enabling their continued access. The result is a series of large expanses of uninterrupted designs which don’t impair the buildings functionality. All wallcoverings were hung by the BAF installation team using a wet decorators adhesive, with an overlap and trim join to create a perfectly seamless finish.

BAF worked in conjunction with ID:SR’s design concepts and the BBC to produce artworks for every elevation to guarantee a high degree of accuracy in production and installation and deliver a good representation of the BBC’s content . These high standards were maintained throughout the project in order to ensure each floor was completed to tight deadlines as they were handed back to the BBC for occupation.

One key element of the project was an extensive graphic treatment of windows and glass surfaces within offices, meeting and facilities rooms. A combination of digitally printed optically clear film and a wide range of intricate cut vinyl designs were adopted to continue many of the chosen design themes.

These themes, designed by ID:SR and implemented by BAF, include ‘Cityscenes’, used on walls on each floor of Quay House, while the ‘Manchester and Salford Maps’ decorates the walls of Bridge House. One intriguing application is the ‘History Wall’, a design made up of a background of abstract black and white images of BBC celebrities from shows over the years, with a foreground of coloured images of today’s celebrities. In addition there is a ‘Words Wall’, a design made up of words and expressions from iconic BBC shows in different fonts, scales, and colours, and various other design themes including a ‘Film and Textile Wall’.

“We were extremely pleased to work with one of the most important broadcasting and media companies in the world. The interior decoration of the new BBC premises is one of the largest digitally printed interior projects undertaken in the UK,” comments Antony Baglioni, Business Development Director at BAF Graphics. “Matching outstanding quality graphics with time critical requirements was a big but stimulating challenge. We are proud to have delivered a fully integrated project encompassing the decoration of different surfaces, all brought together as a result of excellent design in combination with our printing, installation and project management expertise.”

Sam Cotton - from the Agi & Sam label - enjoyed a day out at his print supplier (and Mimaki reseller) - Macclesfield-based R A Smart.  Meeting up with a rising star of the UK fashion industry and its print supplier was bound to be inspiring so Hybrid Services tagged along to hear more about what's in store for this exciting, young, menswear brand in the digital textile printing arena.

Becoming very well known in the right circles for their print inspired menswear collections, Sam Cotton and Agape Mdumulla founded Agi & Sam in January 2010 with the fundamental thought of integrating bespoke print with a sense of humour into their work. Their association with designers such as Karl Lagerfeld, Alexander McQueen and Armand Basi – amongst others – has stood them in good stead and it's easy to forget that Cotton only graduated from the University of Lincoln's illustration course in 2008. Meeting Mdumulla - himself a Manchester College of Art graduate from the same year - whilst working together at Alexander McQueen, they're now moving their brand upwards at an impressive pace, and pioneering some standout work along the way.

Paris 2012

The purpose of Cotton's visit to Macclesfield is to discuss fabric sourcing with senior partner at R A Smart, Magnus Mighall. His company is a well know print provider for fashion, furnishings and sportswear and consistently has a number of household name designs running through its substantial digital or high end silk screen print facility.  It's Paris Fashion Week and the resulting spring / summer 2012 collection that's closest to both their minds today, and although digital print has brought deadlines much closer to delivery dates, there's still a body of work to get through.

"Finding the right fabric remains a challenge," says Mighall, "although there are fewer obstacles now, as we can digitally print to almost any material with either dye sublimation, reactive, acid or pigment inks."

Cotton agrees to this, remarking on the frustrations he faces, "The hardest thing has been sourcing interesting fabrics." The one he's keenest on tying down is a sweatshirt jersey with a looped, fleecy back to it. "It's the most popular product in our range," he says, "and to find one that's printable will be a real winner."

They'll produce this next collection on the same digital printer that brought the plaudits and awards at London Fashion Week earlier in 2011. Their Spring / Summer 2011 collection entitled “Tabasco, Tequila and Tomato Juice” was inspired by many facets of Central American society and delivered menswear, shoes and millinery that sported vibrant colour blocks and traditional cuts embellished with powerful printed patterns. The Mimaki Tx400-1800D textile inkjet printer that R A Smart used is capable of printing both direct and via transfer paper to the polyesters that make up the majority of Agi & Sam's range. Long rid of an ancient reputation of being an unfashionable and unpleasant to wear material, polyester is by far the most versatile and creative base fabric available, morphing into substantially different handles, looks and weights with remarkable ease.

Great potential

Examining the new fabrics for the upcoming collection, alongside some natty looking sportswear styled cloths, Cotton picks out a peached twill, ideal for a suit jacket’s outer fabric and barely distinguishable from its natural inspiration. With all the benefits (to manufacturer and consumer) of ease of printing, wear and care, it has great potential to fit into their new range and it's one that Cotton's clearly excited about.

"Dye sublimation is such an integral part of fashion printing and for next season we're looking to mix natural cloths with man made fabrics in a contemporary and clean collection."

One thing he's surprised about though is the lack of capacity for digital print provision onto polyester in the UK. "The majority of polyester is being printed for soft signage, sportswear or the flag industry," agrees Mighall, "and whilst there are a number of well known bureau services for printing natural fabrics, I'm not surprised that Agi & Sam initially struggled to find a print partner for its polyester work."

Hard graft

Agi & Sam produced its first commercial work not much more than a year ago, describing it at the time as "a fully committed menswear collection". The company has embarked on the usual hard graft to gain the necessary uplift in a famously tough industry, and Cotton admits that they are effectively building an expensive portfolio. They're now at the stage where well known labels request freelance projects – so together, he and Mdumulla are consulting for the big names and gaining the exposure that will elevate their brand.

"With fashion, you have to make a scene," says Cotton. "Everything we do is tarnished with humour. We're making print based catwalk collections and getting noticed for it, but show by show, we're pulling it back to a more normal perspective – we just had to create a fuss to get noticed at the outset."

Sowing the seeds

The sample fabrics that R A Smart will produce for Agi & Sam to create their next runway pieces will be short work for the Mimaki – barely a few hours printing – but it's sowing the seeds for the volume work that comes off the back of a successful collection launch. The beauty of digital lies in the ease of delivery of the short runs required for just such a project, and not that many years ago, it would have been a very different story for designers like Mdumulla and Cotton to get their work off the ground.

Cotton is completely accepting of this and sees digital textile printing – and his knowledge of it – as core to what their label offers. "A lot of people don't really know much about the choice of processes, or how versatile digital printing is. What we're keen on harnessing is where we can take it."

The success of the Mimaki printed first collection was recognised by leading publications like Vogue, ID and Dazed and the awareness this created has seen something of a spike in demand at R A Smart, with a number of designers looking at similar projects shortly after Agi & Sam's showing at London.

So saying, Cotton's not one for counting his chickens. "We had this plan. We hit all our targets. We delivered what we'd hoped for," he recalls, "But you know what? We could have done all this and had everyone hate it!"

There goes the fickleness of fashion, but with a drive towards delivering their captivating designs on new ecologically savvy cloths, recycled polyesters and other challenging fabrics, Agi & Sam are happy working on the new, while others have yet to embark on the present.

[photos show output created by Agi & Sam and the machine on which it was printed]

Signs Express (Sheffield)'s owners Steve and Carol Morris have supported their local community by providing free promotional vehicle graphics to the local radio station Hallam FM which is promoting the Cash for Kids Christmas appeal.

Carol Morris said, “We have been delighted to support the Cash for Kids charity this year. We are working with Hallam FM to make its annual Cash for Kids Christmas Appeal more successful than ever with high impact vehicle graphics to really get the message across.”

‘Cash for Kids’ is the umbrella brand for Bauer Radio’s network of independently registered, local charities which operate across 20 local areas within the UK. They raised in excess of £7.3 million in 2010.

This work rounds off a good year for Signs Express (Sheffield).  The company was recently recognised for its work at the Sign Excellence Awards as a finalist in the best multiple sign project for its work at Sheffield’s Millennium Galleries.  Judged by the British Sign & Graphics Association and industry magazine Sign Directions, the awards showcased the very best of projects completed across the Signs Express group of over 75 production centres.

PPS Limited, the Preston-based large format graphics specialist, has been instrumental in the production and installation of a wide range of new graphics at the recent £1.7million refurbishment at The Museum of Lancashire.

Based at Preston’s Quarter Sessions House, The Museum of Lancashire was closed to the public for 18 months whilst it underwent the major refurbishment.  Since its reopening late last month (26th November 2011), a number of new interactive galleries including ‘Lancashire Goes to War’, ‘Lancashire at Play’, ‘Time Line’ and Archaeological displays have been created.

Working through Conlon Construction, the main contractor, and liaising directly with Lancashire County Museum Services, PPS proposed new materials and processes for several of the exhibits and displays.  These included digital textured wallpapers, 15 mm thick Multiply printable birch wood, and output created on canvas, acrylics and Foamex.

All output generated was created on PPS’s Agfa Anapurna flatbed which provided the photographic quality required on the wide range of materials to be printed. While having a mixture of solvent print, solvent print and cut, HP5500 dye ink, HP Z6100 Vivera ink and the latest HP Z6200 8 colour pigment ink printers in house for other types of work, it was the Agfa flatbed with its ability to print onto just about every roll and rigid material that was the deciding factor in utilising that for the Museum job.

According to Noel Palmer, managing director of PPS, “We had previously worked very successfully with Lancashire Museum Services on other projects and they advised us in advance about the refurbishment project at The Museum of Lancashire.  They wanted to use new materials for the display - rather than the usual run of the mill – and during meetings, we discussed creating output on a number of different types of media.”

Gary Smith and Ivan Frontani were amongst the Exhibition Officers at Lancashire Museum Services who created all the original artwork and PPS worked alongside the local government team to suggest the choice of media for the numerous display pieces.

The scale of the project was impressive.  PPS printed and installed over 100sqm of wallpaper for the curved ‘Lancashire Time Line’ wall, the Archaeological dig area and the alcoves in the ‘Play, People and Work’ galleries.  This wallpapering was applied across flat walls and also in a number of alcoves which meant PPS worked with both textured and smooth media to best fit the various applications.

Over 75sqm of 15mm Multiply was printed on directly to serve as panels in the ‘War’, ‘Work’ and ‘Law and Order’ galleries.  Noel says, “The rep from Amari – Multiply’s distributor – had come into our offices with an A5 sample immediately after a meeting we’d had with the graphics designers  where the use of wood had been discussed.  Approximately 10 minutes after Amari’s visit, we found ourselves printing onto the sample provided.  Lancashire Museum Services thought the quality and durability of output was great and we ended up printing over 25 sheets of 8’x4’ in a mixture of different panel sizes.”

PPS printed over 60m of Foamex which was installed around the top of the WW1 trench to form a panoramic war scene which aimed at conveying the horrors of that period.  Noel explains, “In the WW1 room, a fantastic life-size trench had been reproduced and fitted with guns, dug outs and full size replica soldiers.  Lancashire Museum Services wanted a totally panoramic view of the war landscape replicating the type of view the soldiers would have been confronted with when going over the top and we were able to help them achieve this.”

Other sections at the Museum were also furnished with output created by PPS which included printed acrylics, canvas maps and an interactive magnetic display.

Production and installation took place last month, nearing the completion of the building work at the Museum.  “Finalised panels were fed into the Museum pretty much on a daily basis as and when the various artworks were approved.  Installation of the wallpapers had to revolve around cabinet building, display arrangements and the final last minute rushes associated with these types of refurbishment projects,” says Noel.

The Museum used its own technical staff for installation of the most of the displays.  However PPS was called in to install the wallpapers and Foamex boards around the WW1 trench display.  “When we initially viewed this area, it was just blank walls.  However, by the time it came to installation, all the areas we were to work in had been fitted out with cabinets and other equipment, thereby making the job of installation rather more tricky,” comments Noel.

He concludes, “Being located close to the Museum was a huge advantage for PPS as it enabled us to react quickly to ever-changing situations.  All members of the PPS production team, led by manager Bill Painter, took great pride in the project and we were boosted by the knowledge that all our hard work would be on view to the public for many years to come.  In a sense, as well as being the Museum of Lancashire, the project almost stands as a showroom for PPS as it has so many of our different creations on show!”

Following its refurbishment, The Museum of Lancashire is offering free entry up until the end of November 2012 and is open every day except Mondays.  For more information on the Museum, please visit http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/acs/sites/museums/

For more information on PPS Limited, please visit http://www.palmerpublicity.co.uk/

[photos show selection of PPS' work at The Museum of Lancashire]

Service Graphics, the large format print and display division of the St Ives Group, was recently selected to work with high street fashion brand Reiss, on its ‘Autumn Reflections’ window displays. As part of the company’s autumn graphic display rollout across the UK, USA and Russia, Service Graphics was asked to produce and install interior graphics and lightboxes across its 49 UK stores and to create stunning window displays in its top ten London stores including Barrett Street and Market Place. This marks the first time that Reiss has worked with a single company on a project of this scale, producing and installing graphics at all its UK stores.

Service Graphics produced 153 lightboxes using vision screen smooth backlit film printed on the Durst Rho 500R, 98 bespoke coloured mirrored window vinyls and 218 Lambda photographic prints, some of which were sent to the USA and Russian stores. For the London window displays, stunning double-sided free standing screens were created, the largest of which were 6 metres high.  These screens included a combination of large format print and mirrored vinyl to create the ‘reflections’ theme which was carried throughout the window display.  The graphics for the window displays were produced using Durst Rho printed photographic canvas which was stretched over a timber framework.  The edges of the screens were finished in mirrored acrylic with inlaid chrome hinges. A number of stores also had monitors integrated into the display to showcase the latest Reiss catwalk runs.

“Reiss is one of the most successful and recognisible fashion brands on the high street and we were delighted to be chosen to take on a project of the scale of ‘Reflections’" said Alex Wilson, Marketing Manager at Service Graphics. The project posed a number of challenges including a short turnaround time. The Window displays for all ten London stores were designed, produced and installed within a 3-4 week time period. Additionally, in some stores the ceilings were 7m high and made the installation of the giant frames quite tricky. Despite these challenges, all installations were completed within the deadlines and to the high specification required by Reiss.

Jon Black, Head of Visuals at Reiss said, “Following the completion of previous individual projects for us, we selected Service Graphics to produce all the large format print and display for the ‘Reflections’ campaign. This is the first time that a single company has produced work for a project of this scale and we were delighted with the consistency of quality and the cost savings we were able to make across the print and installations.”

Service Graphics is currently working on additional projects for Reiss, including further window vinyls, posters and January sale vinyls.

For more information on Service Graphics, please visit www.st-ives.co.uk

The Hampshire Flag Company has played a key role in helping the Salvation Army to raise over £2000 for its Red Shield Appeal by donating a selection of Union flags.

More than 300 people gathered at Portsmouth’s New Theatre Royal for the Salvation Army’s ‘Last Night of the Proms’ event which was held to raise money for its annual fundraising campaign.

The Red Shield Appeal helps people across the United Kingdom through its extensive network of community centres, family support units and ‘Life House’ residential programmes.

The Waterlooville-based flag manufacturer, donated 250 20cm x 30cm fabric handwaving Union flags which were given to the audience and 25 5’ x 3’ Union flags which were displayed throughout the theatre.

The Portsmouth Citadel Band and Choir were joined by special guest, Faryl Smith, a finalist in 2008's Britain’s Got Talent competition.

Natalie Hanchett, Good Neighbours Manager for the Salvation Army in Portsmouth said, “We are delighted that Hampshire Flag so willingly donated not only the handwaving flags, which were a big hit with the audience and added a great sense of occasion, but also the Union flags which we used to decorate the venue.

“A ‘Last Night of The Proms’ event evokes patriotism and nostalgia, and the handwaving flags made such a difference to the atmosphere and audience’s enjoyment of the evening. Hampshire Flag was extremely generous and we are over the moon which how much money was raised,” added Natalie.

Hampshire Flag’s Managing Director Graham Wilkinson said, “It’s great to be supporting an event close to home and it is fantastic that £2000 was raised on the night.  The Salvation Army does such fantastic work not only locally, but nationally and globally, and I’m glad that we could play a small part in helping to make a difference,” added Graham.

Hampshire Flag’s team of 24 produces hand-sewn national and international flags, printed flags and digitally printed banners. It also offers a bespoke flag design service, PVC banners, marine flags, bunting, table flags, exhibition graphics and event systems in addition to the supply and installation an extensive range of flagpoles.