THE NEW YORK Thunderbowl bowling alley and entertainment complex in Kettering, England, was ready to make a splash with a new look for their venue. In order for their design dreams to set sail, New York Thunderbowl called upon Graphicomm Digital to captain the project. The Plymouth, England-based company is known for overhauling the design of amusement parks in their region. Graphicomm Digital’s in-house graphic designer came up with a subaquatic “Pirates of the Caribbean” theme to make the complex’s patrons feel as though they’re immersed in an underwater entertainment sanctuary.
With such a large space to work with – the side walls are nearly 56-feet wide each and the back wall is almost 70-feet wide – Graphicomm Digital decided to use the expansive breadth
of the ocean as its muse. An underwater scene complete with coral and tropical fish was born, with Captain Jack Sparrow looming in the background.
“We use vinyl every day, so we were more comfortable using vinyl again for the New York Thunderbowl project than, say, a wallpaper material,” says John Hardaker, commercial director, Graphicomm Digital. It took the team four days to produce the graphics using their Roland VersaCamm VS-540 inkjet printer/cutter onto Drytac’s Polar Premium polymeric self-adhesive PVC film with a matte finish and laminate. The project, from design to installation, took about 16 days to complete.