Beautifying the Park

The Client City of New York’s Downtown Alliance

The Players Color X (color-x.com)

Tools & Supplies EFI Vutek 3360 EC, Ultraflex mesh, zip ties, grommets

The Job From the shores of Long Island to the mighty Niagara Falls, New York's 178 state parks offer its citizens brief escapes from the landscape of skyscrapers and concrete. But, when construction takes over, the environment can begin to lack its natural luster. To combat the temporary ugliness of construction that was occurring at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's LentSpace in Tribeca, the city of New York contracted NYC-based retail, exhibit, and corporate-graphics provider Color X to output visually pleasing graphics.

“This recent public-art installation is one of many locations downtown New York in a recent program to beautify the area,” says Color X owner Gary Teich. “The art installations are a great way to feature local artists and bring art into the construction areas. The idea was to close visibility of the ongoing construction and at the same time beautify the neighborhood by having an artist’s work displayed,”

Production The artwork was set up as an InDesign file and Color X then enlarged the graphics, sizing them to accommodate all of the gaps in the fence so that the gates would be functional and the image would be continuous. “The artist was extremely critical of color and image quality,” says Teich. Twenty-inch-wide mini proofs of the areas that the artist requested were printed for color correction and a full-size proof was also shown to ensure print quality, all on the media used for final output.

For media, Color X chose Ultraflex vinyl mesh, to allow wind to pass through without damaging the graphics. Using its EFI Vutek 3360 EC printer, the shop output the images onto both sides of the media, producing two graphics, one measuring 90-inch x 130-feet, the other at 90-inch x 165-feet. Finishing involved the addition of gommets and reinforcing the edges with webbing. Production took only two days.

Three installers installed the graphics in about five hours. “The condition of the fence wasn’t very good, which complicated installation.” To accommodate the fence construction, extra zip ties were added for increased support. During the past year, the artistic graphics have been beautifying the park while masking the construction eyesore.