For its flagship stores' windows in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle, and Portland, Adidas wanted custom designs that would “drive awareness of the Adidas brand, promote its innovative, creative, breakthrough style, and foster brand-loyalty among the target 16-22-year-old demographic.”
The client provided creative agency Attik with imagery of Adidas-contracted athletes including Laila Ali, David Beckham, Tracy McGrady, and Allyson Felix. The Attik team then used a design approach that fused vector, 3D, and 2D elements with the images to create massive storefront pieces that showcased the athletes, the brand, and taglines dismissing the idea of “impossible,” says Simon Needham, Attik's group creative director. The final design featured the images of the athletes emerging from a white background, with the logo and taglines in black.
Production
The job included graphics ranging in size from 80 x 72 to 275 x 96 in.”?amounting to 1500 sq ft of materials and a print time of 10 hours.
Ivey Imaging printed the main athlete images onto Ultraflex Mesh Supreme with a PVC coating using its Vutek UltraVu II 3360 8-color solvent printer. Ivey chose the Vutek because it of its color reproduction, resolutions up to 360 dpi, and because it can handle up to 10-ft wide, says Stephanie Curran, print production manager at Attik. For the overlaying text, however, the job was moved over to the Durst Lambda 130 “? due to its continuous-tone capabilities– and this element was output onto Kodak Duraclear.
After printing, both graphics were hung from the ceiling, text in front of the image to create a dynamic, layered design. Ivey Imaging sandwiched the mesh banner material (top and bottom) and the Duraclear media between pieces of metal stock that was 1/8 in. thick x 2-in. wide. The assembled display was hung on cables, moved into place, and then leveled. The treatments hung in the stores during the month of October.
Comment
“The time frame was very tight on this project from start to finish, says Derek Inkens of Ivey Imaging. “We had one week to produce and install. Installation was very challenging due to limited access to the display windows [installers were only able to work two nights between 7 pm and 7 am] and trying to get a 20-ft banner through a 2 x 4 ft door”?without wrinkling.”
Client
Adidas flagship stores
The Players
Creative agency: ATTIK (www.attik.com)
Print provider: Ivey Imaging, Portland facility (www.ivey.com)
Tools & Supplies
Durst Lambda 130, Vutek UltraVu II 3360 8-color printer, Ultraflex Mesh Supreme, Kodak Duraclear photographic media, GretagMacbeth Profile Maker Pro.