Business - Applications

Hollywood Monster, a graphic solutions company based in Tyseley, Birmingham, was just the ticket for a vehicle supplier looking to customise a university roadshow bus.  Commbus, who supply custom vehicles for roadshows, exhibitions and events, has worked with Hollywood Monster to produce a full double decker wrap for Anglia Ruskin University.

Anglia Ruskin University, which has campuses in Chelmsford and Cambridge, has embarked on a whistle stop tour of East Anglia to inform students and their parents about the changes to student finances.

The bus, which has been converted to host a mini lecture theatre on the top deck, will also be used to advise people on subjects such as budgeting and the university application processes.

Hollywood Monster was tasked with creating a template for the bus – ensuring the text was easily readable and joints were subtle – and applying the design.

Contra Vision, a leading brand of see-through window graphics, was applied to all the windows except the windscreen. The quality wrap will last for up to ten years as it has been made from cast vehicle wrapping film with over-laminate, which can withstand regular chemical cleaners.

The design project was all wrapped up in three days but the roadshow will be visiting more than 30 schools, colleges and town centres in Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Norfolk throughout September and October. Hollywood Monster will also remove the wrap once the bus has made its last stop.

Tim Andrews, managing director of Hollywood Monster, said: “It was great to work with Commbus to produce the striking green and black wrap for the roadshow bus. The traffic light design, which emphasises the green light, will encourage people to learn more about going to university. It’s important that students and their parents are clear on what their options are for further education and we are proud to be a part of Anglia Ruskin University’s campaign to spread the word.”

Clare Macleod, Events & Marketing Manager at Commbus, said: “This is a great bus wrap – one of the best we’ve had on our buses. It was great design by our client, Anglia Ruskin University, and fantastic production and application by Hollywood Monster. You certainly won’t miss this bus!”

 

The Learning Exchange is Liverpool Community College’s brand new building, which took its first influx of students this September. BAF Graphics played an integral role in bringing this attractive construction, made out of sandstone, copper & glass, to its full glory, working together with contractors BAM and designers Liquid Solution.

This modern, three storey building is an addition to the extensive campus offered by Liverpool College. Opening up a wealth of opportunities for learning and developing practical skills, a wide range of new courses will be on offer to students. Working closely with BAM and Liquid Solution, BAF employed its extensive know-how in material finishes to provide striking effects throughout, aimed at providing an inspirational place of study.

BAF’s graphic solutions include cut cast vinyl and printed vinyl colourbands mounted directly to the painted wall surfaces and doors, as well as print direct to the reverse of toughened glass, wayfinding signage printed and produced on cut-to-shape Dibond, and printed optically clear film applied to glazing. While encompassing necessary practicalities for a busy college, all solutions still allow the vibrancy and depth of colours chosen by the designers to shine through. The end result is a bright, colourful, fun place to study that will allow creativity to flow, while still reflecting the college's identity, and incorporating the college style throughout.

Entering the building for the first time, you will see print across every surface including walls, glass and doors, using flowing lines to direct you around the building to the area you need to reach.

Dan Chang, Project leader at BAF, comments, “We were involved from a very early stage working closely with all parties, developing the design concepts into functional and practical graphic solutions necessary for such a project. We undertook a full site survey at the outset and also spent three weeks installing the final designs on site. The close collaboration between all parties involved really helped to ensure that the project was a success.”

He continues, “At BAF we looked carefully at the end use of each part of the building and chose the most appropriate materials we could, ranging from the thinnest grade, highest tack vinyls available through to the most durable, hardwearing toughened glass products. We were constantly thinking about the end use and well-being of future students.”

Allan Taylor at The Learning Exchange adds, “We are absolutely delighted with the whole look and feel of this new part of our campus. We’re completely confident that all of our students will enjoy studying here and we have absolutely no hesitation in recommending these partners for any educational project.”

Roland DG is inviting its worldwide customers to participate in its first ever global competition to celebrate 30 years in the printing industry.

Designed to recognise the amazing things that Roland DG customers create every single day, the competition will reach some of the most exciting industries across the world from sign-making to fine art, jewellery to giftware, engraving to product design, textiles to 3D prototyping , dentistry to the photography market and everywhere in-between.

“Roland DG customers are incredible. We owe our success to our loyal customers and are really excited about the opportunity to share their creative achievements with the world through the Roland DG Creative Awards,” said Gillian Montanaro, Head of Marketing, Roland DG (UK) Ltd. “Thirty years is a true milestone and during this time our customers have produced some of the most unbelievable work.”

The Roland Creative Awards opens today, Wednesday 21 September, and is open to all users of Roland equipment across the globe. All entries will be showcased live online at www.rolandcreativeawards.com where anyone, Roland user or not, can participate by voting for their favourite entry to determine the monthly People’s Choice winner.

For the major prizes, official judges will select winners based on Creativity, Innovation and Execution in each of the 14 regions, representing 123 countries worldwide. Prizes awarded include:

• Monthly People’s Choice Awards – One top entry, voted for by the public in each month (September/October, November and December) will be awarded a Canon SX230 SH digital camera.
• Honourable Mention Awards – Two Honourable Mention winners will each win an Apple iPad2 and Roland RH200S headphones.
• Regional Winner: One winner from the UK, Ireland or Gibraltar will receive a trip for two people to Japan to celebrate 30 years with Roland DG and compete for the global grand prize in April 2012.
• Worldwide Grand Prize – The competition’s top entrant worldwide will win his or her choice of a Roland machine -- a VersaCAMM VS series 42”printer/cutter, an EGX-360 gift engraver, a JWX-30 jewellery model maker or an MDX-40A milling machine.

To participate in the ROLAND CREATIVE AWARDS, Roland customers must submit entries online before 31 December 2011.  For more information visit www.rolandcreativeawards.com.

 

Birmingham’s biggest graphics solutions business played a starring role when celebrities including Pixie Lott and Nicole Scherzinger launched Europe’s largest shopping centre in London.  The 200,000 visitors at Westfield Stratford City on launch day were greeted by the UK’s largest ever banner display which wraps the stunning new Westfield Stratford City next to the Olympic stadium in the East End.
 
Hollywood Monster was awarded the huge Olympic site contract by Westfield, the latest in a string of high-profile projects it has completed for the retail giant. The £1.45 billion Westfield Stratford City - Europe's largest urban shopping mall with over 300 High Street names and 50 restaurants - was officially launched by pop star Nicole Scherzinger.

Measuring a vast 350 metres by 14 metres the banner display, which has images with a retail theme, was installed at the new Westfield Stratford site by Hollywood Monster’s fitting team.
 
Director Simon McKenzie said: “The banner display looks fantastic and adds to the wow factor at Westfield Stratford City. I was very proud to see all our hard work and expertise demonstrated for the world to see as the launch ceremony took place. It has been an amazing project to be involved with.
 
“We’re used to tackling huge projects, working as we do with various sports stadia and major construction clients, but this is the largest banner display we’ve ever undertaken. It is possibly the largest ever produced in the UK.”
 
In addition to the record-breaking banner, Hollywood Monster is producing 85 hoardings for the site; 40 vinyl glass wraps and 45 fabric hoardings. A creative team worked for 20 days to produce the banner at Hollywood Monster’s Tyseley HQ, and its rope access installation team of 20 positioned it at Westfield ahead of the centre’s grand opening on September 13th.  The banner display was printed on a HP Revolution five-metre wide press on 400g per sq/m mesh fabric.
 
Hollywood Monster has a proven track record of working with Westfield. Earlier this year the business was responsible for creating and producing the circus-ring themed set for the UK premiere of Robert Pattinson and Reece Witherspoon’s movie Water For Elephants, which took place at Westfield London. The set included a 27metre broadcast wall and coverings for the circular stage and podiums for the stars to greet their public from.
Hollywood Monster employs around 65 people and works with major companies including Next, Virgin Media, LilyWhites, Debenhams, Ann Summers, Coach, Whistles, HMV, Westfield, Carillion, Morgan Sindall, Lovell Homes, Redrow and Bovis Homes.  Sectors it is active in include commercial and residential property, construction, retail, corporate, exhibition, outdoor media, event, stadium, museum and theatrical.

Hollywood Monster has invested heavily in state-of-the-art printing technology enabling it to produce enormous banners and advertising hoardings at high-profile sites including sports stadiums, festivals, rock and pop concerts, shopping centres and property developments. For more information, please contact Tim Andrews on 07774 100013 or visit www.hollywoodmonster.co.uk.

As part of a new marketing campaign, Toyota World in Newport recently commissioned a vehicle wrapped to resemble a cow.  The brand new Toyota Aygo was wrapped by Cardiff-based sign specialists, Morgan Signs, using a 10 year conformable super cast vinyl. The already white vehicle was covered in black vinyl spots, cut using their Mimaki CG-FX cutting plotter and given an animated face and tail. The interior was also designed to complement the wrap, with black and white leather seats and matching embroidery of the cow’s face on each of the head-rests.

Attracting attention

The Aygo, which has become affectionately known as “Moo”, has been put on display to attract attention and potential buyers. Amanda Binner-Vaughn, Dealer Principal at Toyota World who initiated the idea, plans to have the Moo on display for several months before putting it on the market.

Morgan Signs’ sales and marketing manager, Michael Kitchin says of the job, “We believe that the Moo will be an effective marketing tool which will receive enough attention to support the idea. Amanda plans to create a pig next, potentially followed by an entire farmyard!”

Morgan Signs’ high tech hardware

The Mimaki CG-FX makes up just part of Morgan Signs’ suite of sign making technology, with a matching 1.6m outdoor durable Mimaki JV33 inkjet printer available for their digital work along with a Mimaki CG-60SR desktop cutting plotter that produces smaller format self adhesive vinyl.

Complimenting Morgan Signs on the originality of this particular job, John de la Roche, national sales manager for Mimaki’s exclusive UK distributor, Hybrid Services Ltd remarked, “It’s great to see cut vinyl still being used so creatively. Whilst Morgan Signs has cutting edge digital capabilities available to them with their Mimaki JV33 printer, their choice of process for the Cow Wrap works superbly.”

Further information on Morgan Signs can be found by visiting www.morgan-signs.com

According to Neschen, rather than "Get yer hands off'!" it will be very much a case of "Who wants to get their hands on?" on its stand at this year's Viscom in Dusseldorf in October. 

The company believes that a large number of print service providers and the majority of their customers and prospects do not appreciate just how easy it is to print and apply Neschen's digital print media and self-adhesive films.  So, following its experience at earlier shows this year, it is attempting two things to allay any fears and misapprehensions. 

Firstly, the design of its stand - G61 in Hall 8a - will change several times each day of the show, literally before visitors' very eyes.  Staff manning the show will use materials from Neschen's Digital Interior Design range to alter the display panels - changing from depictions of urban townscapes to country landscapes and back again. 

Secondly, visitors to the stand can try applying the films themselves to see how easy the application is.  In this way, Neschen hopes to help them understand how straightforward it is to design and execute their own ideas, which they can then pass on to customers, specifiers and end-users alike. 

In addition to tried and tested media such as 'Erfurt wallpaper CA', two new and easy-to-handle, self-adhesive products will be used in particular:
the digital print film 'solvoprint easy dot 100 PE' and the brand new 'solvoprint event fleece CA adh' which is pre-coated with adhesive. 

As if the walls were not enough, the floor of the stand will be decorated with self-adhesive print media from the Floor Graphics Solutions range, which are both non-slip and also protected from wear with the protective lamination 'filmolux FGS'.   The adhesive formula allows almost residue-free removal of the floor advertising. 

'Our decorating activity on the stand aims to show how easy it is for anyone to apply our media,' explained Sarah Janes, md at Neschen UK, "which means that our products can be used for the quick and easy conversion of any surface to convey marketing and advertising messages." 

The dotted adhesive coating of solvoprint easy dot 100 PE ensures that this medium can be rapidly and easily applied without a squeegee, even by inexperienced hands, resulting in a surface free from blisters und creases.  The air channels also allow the adhesive process to be corrected on nearly all surfaces.  At the end of an event, it can be removed quickly and easily without leaving any residues. 

The comprehensive range of high-quality digital print media and finishing films has been complimented by a further new product: solvoprint easy dot 100 clear.  This transparent film is ideal for glass surfaces.  If printed as a mirror-inverted film, this medium can be used for shop window advertising and applied from the inside.  The self-adhesive film can also be used for stickers such as logos.  After printing, the stickers are simply detached from the film using a cutting plotter. 

To demonstrate its confidence in these new products, solvoprint easy dot 100 clear has been entered into the Best of 2011/LFP competition. 

For more information visit www.neschen.com