Building’s Brand-New ‘Bow Tie’

The Job Established as General Motors Daewoo since 2001 when Korean-based car maker Daewoo sold most of its assets to GM, the company made the decision to strip “Daewoo” from its name in 2011, rebranding itself as GM Korea Company. All new models sold in its home market would now be branded as Chevrolets. The rebrand was no small undertaking: Nearly all Daewoo badges had to be replaced with the well-known Chevrolet “bow tie” and dealerships needed to change out all Daweoo signage with GM Korea and Chevrolet branding.

To maximize its Chevrolet tie-in, GM Korea chose to utilize the Glass Tower – a 32-story skyscraper in Seoul, South Korea’s bustling Daechi-dong neighborhood –for a massive advertisement. The company hired Shinseung (www.shinseung.net), a Seoul-based print provider, to turn the glass building into a giant Chevrolet promotion.

Production GM Korea provided Shinseung with the graphic of the classic Chevrolet “bow tie” logo. Although the design was approved on screen, bringing the graphic to print posed a new set of challenges. “GM Korea wanted a high-impact graphic, but also needed it to be both easily removable and not disrupt the company’s employees inside,” says Kim Jong-Woong, Shinseung’s project manager.

The shop opted for a one-sided solution – one-way film that would allow the graphics to be seen from the front but be “invisible” from the back. Shinseung produced the wrap using Avery Dennison’s MPI 3709, a 40-percent perforated window film, a product available in Asia (MPI 2728, a 35-percent perforated film, is the most comparable product sold in the US, according to Avery). The shop output the 82 x 164-foot bow-tie logo using an HP Designjet 9000s eco-solvent printer.

Installers prepped the Glass Tower window’s with glass cleaner and, over the course of two days, rappelled down the building’s front side to apply the graphic, using Avery Pro felt-layered sponges.

GM Korea went even further in its brand-awareness efforts, bringing the Chevrolet logo to life with a three-dimensional replication. To celebrate its new branding as well as the centennial of Chevrolet, more than 1100 of its customers gathered with their vehicles to create a 688 x 221-foot mosaic of the Chevy logo, setting a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest car logo.

The Client General Motors Korea

The Players Shinseung (shinseung.net)

Tools and Supplies HP Designjet 9000, Avery Dennison MPI 3709 perforated window film, Avery Pro felt sponges