Wow Appeal!

When Caroline Sharp at Pyramid Display Materials’ Birmingham branch heard that one of its clients, Allprint Display, had applied MACtac vinyl materials to the wings of four Extra 300 LP aircraft belonging to a newly-formed aerobatic display team, she decided to find out more.

When 2 Excel Aviation moved into a unit near to that of Allprint Display at Sywell Aerodrome in Northamptonshire, it made sense for it to discuss the customised decorative requirements for the planes used by its BLADES aerobatic display team with Allprint, which supplies a wide range of sign and digital printing products. Made up of former RAF and Red Arrows’ pilots, the team’s mission is to dazzle audiences at different types of venues, including corporate events, official functions and commemorative occasions, with aerobatic displays and flyovers, with the planes suitably liveried to correspond with each event.

For a display at David Beckham’s much publicised World Cup Party, the occasion was appropriately (or perhaps inappropriately) marked by use of an image of the George Cross, which was created using MACtac’s MACal 9800 PRO Series of self-adhesive vinyl and applied to the underside of the wings of the aircraft, which were clearly visible at ground level during the dramatic display. To mark HM The Queen’s Birthday, MACal 9800 PRO Series was again used to create (perhaps more appropriately) an image of the Union Jack.

Allprint is often faced with challenging branding requirements for the more unusual projects. In association with its materials supplier Pyramid Display Materials, it can offer a vast range of special materials which it uses on state-of- the art CAD/CAM converting and printing systems to meet the invariably tight deadlines on these special promotions.

DIBOND aluminium composite panels were the material of choice for Standard8, the Lewes-based design agency, when Magnum Photos asked it to design the backdrop for a high-profile exhibition featuring the work of Horoji Kubota, the renowned Japanese photographer, who specialises in spectacular colour photography.

The exhibition was eye-catchingly situated on More London Riverside and ran throughout the autumn. The structures were created from DIBOND, which was routed and folded to form rigid box sections onto which the photos were mounted. High gloss black finished DIBOND was used to clad all the visible areas of the exhibition and the structures were capped at the ends with painted glass panels.

The photographs were very large panoramic prints, which required oversized DIBOND panels.

The installation used approximately 24, four-metre length sheets and to ensure durability, the prints were laminated with a weatherproof membrane.

In an industry overwhelmed by new computerised technology, it is refreshing to hear of a project that combines the innate skills of the craftsman with modern techniques in order to create something genuinely innovative. That was precisely the intention of Mark Norman of Leicester-based graphics company MAS, when he undertook an unusual project on behalf of Autotronics, a local supplier of in-car entertainment systems.

First and foremost, Mark Norman is a committed and highly skilled exponent of the art of airbrushing and would clearly have preferred to use his skills in this area for the entire job.