Tram Wear

When international fashion label Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) sought to fire up sales for its summer swimwear collection, it turned to Geneva-based print-provider Mathys SA. The job: Wrap five Swiss trams measuring 131 ft each “? a total of 56 printed panels that would comprise eight different images in all. The graphics required photographic-quality images to accurately match not only the brightly colored beachwear, but also the various models' skin tones.

Using its 6-color Vutek UltraVu II 3360, Mathys printed 8600 sq ft of Avery self-adhesive removable media, using Inkware inks from Vutek, in just 24 hours. For color management, critical for this short viewing distance project, Mathys used an Eye-One Photo with Colorburst.

After printing, an Avery cold laminate was applied to the graphics. Installation of the graphics onto the eight carriages for each of the five trams took eight people two days to complete. The wrapped trams traveled around the Swiss cities of Geneva, Bern, Lugano, Coire, and Lausanne for a month.

The challenge of this project was the deadline”?it had to be finished in one week. The UltraVu's speed “enabled us to meet the client's deadline, and its high print resolution ensured the visibility of the details needed to maximize the impact of each image,” says Richard Mathys, director of the visual department at Mathys SA.

Mathys is now using the H&M job as a case study to attract additional business.

In addition to the Vutek, Mathys SA also owns a Seiko ColorPainter and a Hewlett-Packard Designjet 5500 wide-format printer.

Mathys SA
www.mathys-sa.ch