Bussing to Brew Town

Since 1873, the Coors Brewery has been cranking out its favorite beverage: ice-cold beer. To showcase its history and passion for brewing, MillerCoors (the joint venture with Miller began in 2007) hosts daily tours of its Golden, Colorado-based brewery – the world’s largest single-site brewery, says the company.

Transferring its 25,000 annual visitors from the parking facilities to the brewing site – a trip that includes a short tour through Golden – involves four 17-passenger busses run five days a week in the winter and seven days a week in the summer. To brand the vehicles as MillerCoors, the company commissioned Colorado’s New Vista Image (a division of Lowen Corporation) to wrap each of the four busses with beer-themed graphics.

MillerCoors provided the wrap designs to New Vista, which then modified the designs for size once the busses had been measured.

“The designs were pretty flexible in terms of image placement,” says Ann Brown, president of New Vista Image. “The one exception was the Killian’s bus – its design was meant to simulate the outside of a pub, with its doors and windows coinciding with the doors and windows on the bus. The art had to be tweaked against our actual measurements.”

Using its HP Designjet L28500 Latex printer with Caldera RIP, New Vista output all four wraps onto 3M ControlTac IJ180Cv3-10 and 3M Scotchcal IJ 8671 perforated window film. Laminates included 3M Scotchcal 8519 Luster laminate and 3M Scotchcal 8914 laminate for the window film.

Installation took one day for each bus, using four to six New Vista installers at the MillerCoors maintenance area. “The contoured area above the front windshield provided some challenge to the installers,” says Brown. “Also, the amount of perforated film and number of windows on each bus made the installation more time consuming. Too, the installers were required by the client to wear bump caps, safety glasses, and work boots.”

Interestingly, the brewery’s visitors tend to each choose their favorite of the four busses, says Brown. “There are visitors who will wait for one bus to pass in order to ride their individual favorite. Visitors also pose in front of each bus and love the visual backdrop they provide for photographs.”
 

NEW VISTA IMAGE
www.newvistaimage.com