Wall of Fame

The Client: Marshall University

The Player: OAI, Inc. (oai-beyondordinary.com)

Tools & Supplies: HP 5300, HP 9000, Flexcon RTS, Flexcon PSA laminate, Seal Laminator, Zund router.
The Job Before the kickoff of its 2010 sports season, Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia., conducted a major visual transformation of the school’s athletic facilities. Aimed at creating renewed excitement for sports fans and the university alike, the $3 million renovations encompassed aesthetic improvements of the football stadium, basketball arena, and common areas outside both facilities. Tampa, Florida-based OAI, Inc. was commissioned to provide printing and installation services for many elements of the project, including a 12 x 131-foot wall mural (pictured here) featuring photographic images of some of the university’s most notable alumni players, and large replicas of their numbered jerseys inside the Cam Henderson Center.

With just one week to refine the design, output the various jobs, and install numerous graphic elements, the OAI team worked overtime to meet both the client’s expectations and the tight deadline.
Production Design work for the mural and jerseys was the brainchild of Anthony James Partners in Richmond, Virginia, who turned over Adobe Creative Suite 5 files to OAI for editing and output. OAI’s designers then used Photoshop and Illustrator to refine the graphics, applying a stylized pattern to the graphics before sending a PDF proof to the client for approval. Once OAI received the green light from the university, the mural was output in 4-foot panels onto Flexcon RTS using OAI’s HP 5300 UV roll-to-roll printer and Fujifilm inks. The basketball jersey graphics were printed on the shop’s HP 9000, also onto Flexcon RTS, then mounted to 6 mm PVC, and iCut on OAI’s Zund router. Finishing included the application of Flexcon’s PSA matte laminate using OAI’s Seal laminator and took just less than three days.

“Specialized hardware designed by OAI was used to install the graphics in the baseketball arena,” says Greg Schopmeyer, executive vice president at OAI.

As pressure grew to complete the installation of the graphics packages before the start of the season, OAI installers had the added challenge of working simultaneously with crews that were setting up separate components of the project in the arena.