Printing Penguins

The Client Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh

The Players Printscape Imaging and Graphics (myprintscape.com)

Tools & Supplies Océ CS9060 and CS9064 printers, 3M Controltac Graphic Film IJ180 and 3648 overlam, Océ eco-solvent inks, Seal 64 laminator

The Job Home to the NHL Pittsburgh Penguins, the Consol Energy Center needed a serious interior spruce-up to showcase the team’s players and their many athletic achievements. At the same time the arena sought a major visual enhancement, Pittsburgh-based print shop Printscape was going through its own personal transformation: The formerly titled Washington Reprographics was changing not only its company name but also its capabilities. Originally serving only the architectural, engineering, and construction industries, the business was now reaching out to universities, retailers, pharmaceutical, and public-service companies. With its new service focus, Printscape was ready to take on the Consol Arena challenge. “Because this was such a high-exposure venue, we saw this job as a great selling tool to add to our portfolio. The job was sophisticated enough that people would realize we could handle this type of printing and installation,” says John Dziak, Printscape’s CEO.

Production The designs were created by Pittsburgh design firm James Gallery using Adobe InDesign, then forwarded to Printscape via the shop website’s upload tool. Small hard-copy proofs on the chosen media, along with a layout diagram, were approved by the firm and readied for print. For the goalie action image, above, Printscape output the 128-square-foot graphic using its Océ CS9060 printer with Océ eco-solvent inks onto 3M Controltac IJ180 Graphic Film. Because of the large amount of white in the graphics, the shop chose to use white media and not white ink capabilities. The graphic was then laminated using a Neschen Seal 64 laminator with 3M Scotchcal overlam.

In addition, the shop created graphics for 14 other sections throughout the arena using the CS9060, also utilizing its Océ CS9064 printer so that it could complete more graphics in a shorter timeframe. Graphics included intricate cutouts of hockey player action shots, which Printscape adamantly chose to hand-cut. “The detailed cutting of those graphics requires a little more TLC to get it right, so we chose to hand cut instead of using our machine cutters,” says Dziak. Finishing required four to six hours per section.

Each section of the arena took three installers one to two business days each to complete. Because the design called for many of the graphics to be hung high and in some cases on complicated architecture, installers had to use special rigging and extra safety precautions, says Dziak. Printscape completed the arena’s graphic additions over the course of five months, but still remains “on demand” for the project.