Trash Talk

When the Washington State Department of Ecology launched an anti-litter campaign this past summer, the agency didn’t just put the message out there then sit back and quietly hope for results. Instead, it went straight to the “scene of the crime”-the streets-to influence people to clean up their act. In addition to billboards and a street team that passed out more than 4000 litter bags, the campaign also featured some more unique forms of advertisement: a truck with scrolling billboards, fuel-tanker fleet graphics, and Segway Personal Transporters wrapped in vinyl.

Designed by the Department of Ecology, the graphics were first sent to the advertising agency spearheading the campaign, GoMobile Advertising, which specializes in outdoor and mobile graphics. To output the graphics, GoMobile tapped a print company with which they have a previously established relationship, Seattle-based, BIGink. After receiving the print-ready files, the print company sent digital proofs to GoMobile, showing how the finished application would look for each mode of transportation.

Once the proofs had been approved, BIGink began producing the final images. Using its Gandinnovations Jeti 3324 AquaJet with solvent-based inks, the shop output graphics measuring 10 x 6 and 6 x 6 feet onto Verseidag seemee backlit 13-oz vinyl to be displayed in the three windows of the GoMobile scrolling billboard advertising truck, for an approximate total of 350 square feet. Because these graphics would be backlit at night, testing had to be done to determine the proper ink density for these graphics in order to achieve the desired effect, explains John Scholl, president of BIGink.

Using the same printer, the shop also output approximately 200 square feet of graphics onto 3M Controltac 180C to be applied to the back of eight fuel tankers and 50 square feet of graphics on the same media to apply to five Segway PTs. Print time for all the graphics was less than three hours.

With a Consew industrial sewing machine, BIGink then sewed together the graphics printed for each of the windows in the scrolling billboard advertising truck using interlocking zipper material. The shop also laminated the vinyl to be installed on the Segway PT and the fuel tanker backs. Finishing took approximately two hours. BIGink installed the Segway PT graphics and the tanker back graphics, which took one installer an hour per truck. Scholl reports that the curved tanker backs added an additional challenge during the install and relief cuts in the media had to be made to eliminate creases. GoMobile Advertising installed the billboards in the advertising truck.

In business for five years, BIGink has 30 employees and operates out of a 23,000-square-foot facility. The company specializes in large-format outdoor graphics, vehicle graphics, image decor, and museum and exhibit displays. Part of the BIGink philosophy is to work on each job as a part of the customer’s team to ensure that the client’s needs are met so that no matter what the job calls for-even graphics about garbage-the results are sparkling.

BIGINK
www.bigink.biz