PUBLICATION CENTER

Media East of Virginia Beach, VA produced this 100-ft. graphics wall for the Hampton Coliseum meeting space in which the BayPort Credit Union held its annual meeting. In addition to brightening up and defining the space, the wall created an area in which attendees could congregate and learn more about the credit union’s products.

BayPort’s marketing department provided the initial concept and design for the project, specifying that the wall include cut-outs for six 42-in. LCD displays that ran presentations from DVD players. The wall was lit from a hanging truss system suspended from the ceiling of the Coliseum.

Jeff Sheffield of Media East said the company has produced several backdrops in the 20 to 30-ft. range before, but never one quite this big: “The challenge was to construct it in a way that would allow the display to be set up in a limited amount of time without having to spend a lot of time tweaking it.”

The graphics wall was designed so it can be used again next year. Media East had aluminum frames fabricated that bolt together quickly and can be stored without worrying about exposure to moisture and rusting. Smaller, updatable Plexiglas pieces were designed to stand out from the wall.

Media East supplied the digital files to Norva Plastics which cut them out on a digital router.

The wall consisted of 20 graphics panels, each one 5 ft. w and 10 ft. tall. “We took the low-res files and reworked them to the full size,” explains Sheffield. “The final file, done in Photoshop at 100 dpi, was about a 7 GB file. Needless to say, there were plenty of backup sessions to protect the file.”

The graphics were printed on a Canon iPF9000S on Canon Satin Photo 240 paper. The graphics were then mounted on 3/16-in. Gatorfoam and laminated with LexJet GraphicShield Matte laminating film to minimize glare and reflections. The panels were trimmed to achieve a seamless look across the entire wall, and VELCRO® was attached to the back of each panel so the mural could be easily assembled on the aluminum frames.

BayPort Credit Union was very satisfied with the results. Company spokesperson Rita Earnhardt, community involvement coordinator, said “The project turned out better than we could have ever imagined."