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Food in all its variations has turned into a pop culture phenomenon. From the celebrity status of some chefs to the popularity of reality cooking shows, food has moved way beyond the simple necessity it has been for thousands of years and into the realm of entertainment.
Miami's South Beach was recently the scene of a food-as-entertainment showcase. The Food Network (and by the way, ten years ago, who could've predicted such a thing as a network devoted to food?) headlined the South Beach Wine & Food Festival in late February.
The three-day event takes over South Beach with sprawling hospitality tents and various events, hosting more than 30,000 visitors over the course of the festival. Described by one media outlet as the "globe's cultural epicenter" on that particular weekend (NASCAR was apparently on hiatus), the event required tasteful, Pantone-specific, color-sensitive graphics.
SETTING THE TABLE
Who better to produce the majority of the signs, banners, seat covers, wall murals, and bar graphics than Miami's own DECO Productions? DECO Productions' specialty is special event work and handles just about every service imaginable for anyone who's putting on a special event, from design to entertainment.
The company's graphics department, run by Ozzie Herrera, is a study in efficiency and accuracy. And it had to be for the Wine & Food Festival project. Herrera had to coordinate with a myriad of designers, corporate sponsors, and ad agencies on the graphics for their displays and tents. This environment is particularly demanding, as each client insists on specific and exactly-matching colors, particular for corporate logos.
Fortunately, Herrera is a color management whiz, and had all aspects of color coordination down to a science. Plus, he found his profiles for printer, media, and ink hit on all cylinders, and all colors.
Herrera ran the entire project on the company's HP 5500, using LexJet UV Ink Replacement Cartridges for HP 5000/5500, on a variety of substrates including 3P Universal Light Banner Fabric, 3P Country Cotton FR fabric, 3P Express Heavy Banner, LexJet Water-Resistant Polypropylene, LexJet Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene, and 3P Polygloss FR fabric.
"The fabric's great, because we can fold our murals, instead of having huge amounts of storage space, and re-sell them. We're a special event company, so we do a lot of murals and scenic work, so we need to be able to set up and break down quickly, and the fabric material allows us to do it, and it's great storage-wise," says Herrera. "The only pain is loading fabric onto the machine. It's a little tricky than most materials, because it's flimsier, so it takes some more effort. I haven't found a good trick for this; we usually just have to give it a few tries."
The color-management process was kept to a minimum with the spot-on ink-media-printer combination. Herrera says one of the most time-consuming aspects of the job was the back and forth with ad agencies, corporate marketing, and others to double-check colors and images.
"The sponsors were very particular about their colors, especially Food Network. I ran the profiles from LexJet, and didn't have to custom profile the materials. The LexJet ink was also perfect," says Herrera. "The success of the project basically boiled down to timing, and making sure the files were approved by the sponsors, and properly prepared for printing."
MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS, ONE PRINTER
Just about any imaginable application was produced for the event, from wall murals to backlits to chair-back covers. Nothing was laminated, since the event was only four days long, and Herrera reports that first reports indicate few, if any, problems with the hundreds of graphics he printed. Herrera says that, in hindsight, he would have allotted more than two weeks for the project, particularly given that it was run only on one printer.
"Since most of my murals are huge, I have to think ahead about how our sewing department will put the pieces together. This requires a little more on my part to leave them enough room to put the pieces together. That's where I rely on my RIP; the way it's tiled, the overlap lines, and making sure they have guides to sew on the line so they don't have to think about it too much, because they're usually slammed," says Herrera. "We also do a lot of prototypes. For the chairs, for instance, the client ultimately chose Country Cotton because it showed better, matched the color better, had a better feel, and had more weight to it."
Even a partial list of printed graphics on this project reveals quite a smorgasbord: More than 500 chair back covers on Country Cotton FR; 21 double-sided banners on Express Heavy Banner; four bar graphics with five 3x8-foot signs per bar and 20 signs on LexJet Water-Resistant Polypropylene, a 10x10-foot backdrop on Water-Resistant Propylene, 10 3x5-foot signs, a 10x20-foot façade on Express Heavy Banner, an 8x20-foot backdrop on Country Cotton FR, a 10x20-foot backdrop on Universal Light, five 3x6-foot backdrops on Universal Light, and more. Plus, DECO Productions designed and created any number of decorative items to add atmosphere to the various events within the festival.
Regan Dickinson is LexJet's marketing communications specialist, and has been involved in the wide-format imaging market for more than ten years. For additional information, visit www.lexjet.com, or e-mail Regan at regan.dickinson@lexjet.com
author: By Regan Dickinson