I Feel the Need for Speed

When Meeks-Group Sign Division in Tulsa, Oklahoma, received a call from Casey Reed last year saying she was considering a Top Gun wrap for her son’s helmet, the print shop wasn’t quite sure just what to expect.

As the company discovered, Reed’s 10-month-old son, Maverick, had been diagnosed with positional plagiocephaly—a condition in which the back of a child’s head becomes flat from sleeping on its back. His doctor’s answer: a special helmet the child must wear 23 hours a day to reshape his head. But, asked Casey Reed, who says a helmet, even one this critical, has to be boring?

And that’s where Meeks-Group came into the picture. Upon hearing of Maverick’s plight, the company offered up its services free of charge. “It really thrilled my guys to be able to help Maverick out,” says Jerry Crockett, Meeks president.

Casey Reed provided the idea to echo the 1980s Top Gun film with Tom Cruise, whose character is also named “Maverick,” and Meeks designer Joe Merz took it from there, creating the final wrap design. Following the design and proofing stages, the final wrap was output on a Roland 54-inch SolJet printer with Eco-Sol inks onto 3M IJ180cv3 media with 8518 laminate.

Then, Maverick and his mother had to come into the shop for the install, since he was already wearing the helmet at the time.

“The installation took only about 20 to 30 minutes,” says Chris Raleigh, department head of the Meeks-Group Sign Division, “but it took three guys to do it because one guy had to hold it while the other two stretched it around both sides to make sure that both sides were even. The hardest part was keeping it still—it’s hard to wrap a moving target! And, of course, we had the whole shop watching us do it.”

Maverick was scheduled to have the helmet removed early this year.

THE MEEKS-GROUP
www.meeks-group.com