Sock it to me

When the management team at Port Columbus International Airport in Ohio wanted to implement an airport-wide rebranding ad campaign using a variety of different wide-format pieces, the company’s ad agency knew just who to call: Columbus’ own Solar Imaging (www.solarimaging.com). Solar Imaging specializes in retail, tradeshow, point-of-purchase, and customized finishing and installations.

For this particular ad campaign, Solar produced 40 Vista System displays (for shuttle buses), four adhesive-vinyl wall murals measuring 205 square feet each, two vestibule wall murals at 200 square feet each, and, of particular note here, six fabric “column socks” that zipped up one side.

“These column socks were definitely out of the ordinary for us,” says Gina Spring, sales representative for Solar. “We are so used to doing fabric banners with a standard pole pocket that the chance to do some problem solving for the column socks—as well as testing to make sure they fit—was a refreshing change to our daily routine.”

Each column sock had to be specially sewn with a heavy-duty separating zipper with exact accuracy. The socks had to be stretched just enough to ensure they would be taut around the columns. “The seamstress at our finishing partner, Banners Extreme in Columbus, showed her skills once again on the sewing part of this project. She had all six done in about a day and a half—no small feat for the amount of work she had to do,” Spring says.

Solar produced the column socks using its 80-inch Durst Rho 600 Presto flatbed printer. The company direct printed onto Fisher Textiles’ Symmetry Fabric using Durst’s UV-curable inks and Cheetah software RIP.

“We used this particular fabric because of the stretch factor and overall look and feel of the fabric, and we used this printer because we could print in one pass without having an extra seam in the column socks,” Spring says. The six column socks ranged in size from 103 inches tall x 72 inches in circumference to 110 inches tall x 78 inches in circumference. Solar performed the install in three days.