Light Air's Images Take to the Slopes

As the winter season got underway at mountain resorts across Europe late last year, sports-equipment manufacturer Rossignol was readying for its Rossignol Demo Tour – a 10-country, multi-resort alpine roadshow that allows skiers and snowboarders to test for free the company's latest equipment.

Rossignol sought a print partner that could deliver on two key prerequisites: first, to produce stunning promotional graphics that would maximize its visual impact and ensure head-turning interest throughout each roadshow resort; secondly, to do so by utilizing print technology that would support Rossignol's environmental philosophy.

The company turned to the team at Light Air (light-air.com) in Lyons, France, to make its ambitions a reality. Rossignol kicked off the event in Italy at the end of November, and Light Air utilized its 104-inch HP Scitex LX600 printer with latex inks to produce an array of graphics for the tour, whose focal point was a specially branded “demo village,” comprising: 
   • A series of massive inflatables, including tents measuring 388 square feet and 215 square feet, as well as 10-foot-high “totems,” and several large arches marking the foot of ski runs. All of these were adorned with attention-grabbing company and event logos featuring in-built durability to withstand the outdoor use and inevitable adverse weather conditions demanded of the six-month ski season.
   • A series of 20-foot-tall vertical flags.
   • And a fleet of more than 30 support vehicles covered with self-adhesive vinyl graphics that also sport the tour's official branding.

“In total, we will probably printed around 2852 square feet of banner material and used about 215 square feet of adhesive,” says Jean-Baptiste Aguettant, Light Air's commercial director. “However, as with most of the projects that come through our door…we only ended up having a week in which to complete the job.”

Wide-format technology is a relatively new addition to Light Air’s roster. As late as 2007, the shop was more focused on neon and traditional sign work, sub-contracting out its wide-format jobs to other print providers. Today, the shop features an 8600-square-foot production facility and an in-house digital arsenal that includes the Scitex LX600 as well as an HP Scitex XL1500 and an HP Designjet 9000 – printing capabilities that not only provide a broad range of applications to its customers, but also enables Light Air to act as a sub-contractor to other print providers lacking wide-format capabilities of their own, says Aguettant.