A Graphic Power Play

Throughout most of the U.S., hockey is considered a peripheral sport. Ardent fans reside along the Eastern seaboard and in the upper Midwest, but support for warm-climate teams in Phoenix, Tampa Bay and Dallas can be fickle at best.

However, hockey permeates Canadian culture. My one trip north in 2001 occurred during the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Stanley Cup finals. Procuring a drink at the hotel bar during Game 7 required navigating through a more densely packed and frenzied crowd than any I’ve experienced at a Super Bowl gathering. So, although May probably triggers Americans to initiate summer plans, in Canada, it means the NHL playoffs have hit high gear. The Philadelphia Flyers, Detroit Red Wings and other top teams vie for Lord Stanley’s Cup and the ceremonial drink of champagne from the championship trophy’s bowl.

Pro Hockey Life (PHL) is a Canadian equipment and apparel chain founded in 1973. In 2007, its parent company, Sports Gilbert Rousseau (SGR), decided to expand PHL’s presence as a hockey-gear megastore across Canada. Marc Chapleau, SGR’s commercial and planning designer, recommended Groupe Bo Concepts (GBC) Anjou, QC, Canada, an environmental-graphics fabricator, for the project.

Since the plan’s inception, GBC has completely rebranded five existing stores, and produced signage and graphics for 15 new locations. Each of the 20 store’s environmental-graphics package required 175 signs, which ranged from 5-in.-diameter, NHL decals to 12 x 80-ft. banners stretched over aluminum frames.

“The goal of the project was to create an innovative, commercial design, while working with such major partners as Bauer, Nike, Reebok, CCM and Warrior, to maximize the consumers’ shopping experience,” said Pierre Lachapelle, GBC’s sales and marketing director.

Each graphic evolved from more than 100 image files, supplied by the respective vendors, which GBC cropped to fit each store’s configuration for each brand’s display spaces. The team used Adobe Illustrator and customized PSD (Austin, TX) information-management software to craft the campaign’s content.

Advertisement

For curb appeal, GBC created more than 2,000 sq. ft. of murals for the store’s exterior. The shop printed graphics on Ultraflex 13-oz., matte-finish, frontlit banner material with HP’s 2700 UV-cure-ink, roll-to-roll printer. Lachapelle says the shop does no full-solvent-ink printing because of the inks’ high VOC content. To support the exterior murals, GBC implemented its proprietary Meli-BO framing system (named after the former GBC employee who developed its template) that, according to the company, allows even tension across the banner’s surface and seamless graphic changeouts.

Creating customer buzz inside the store required a multifaceted plan as aggressive as a power-play surge toward the goal. A 22-ft.-diameter ring, suspended high above the store shelves, serves as a store focal point. GBC decorated the rings with logos (cut from 3M Controltac film) of all 30 NHL teams. In the stores’ Nike sections, the shop decorated suspended, 8-ft.-high, rotating cylinders with 3M Controltac with Comply v3 air-release vinyl (PHL’s corporate logo was applied underneath). For added atmosphere in Reebok’s area, GBC created an 8 x 8-ft., mesh banner printed with Ultraflex material on the shop’s HP printer.

“We produced the graphics with the understanding that they would be retrofitted in three years,” he said.

For many of the stores’ interior, POP graphics, GBC implemented its proprietary Magne-BO graphic system, which comprises a permanent, magnetic backer covered with magnet-receptive, printable media. The printed film rolls over the backer (both the backer and media are laid flat for at least one hour at room temperature prior to installation) and can be replaced quickly with new graphics. Altogether, the shop used the magnetic-graphic system to create more than 3,000 sq. ft. of murals.

For the textured, concrete walls, GBC used 3M’s IJ-8624 textured-surface film. The shop used Clear Focus Imaging’s ClearVue 40%-perforated film with the Magne-BO system to decorate windows and glass panels.

“The biggest challenge of the job was coordinating the logistics of graphics for all five sponsors to make sure all were handled efficiently,” Lachapelle said. “With so many different types of signage and graphics in one location, we consider this job a showcase of our capabilities.”

Advertisement

To supplement the branding provided by the vinyl-graphic system, GBC also fabricated such pieces as Nike’s signature swoosh as a 7-ft.-long, 5-in.-thick piece from high-gloss, white acrylic, and letters for PHL’s skate shop with lettering router-cut from PVC sheet and laminated with mirror-finish, pressure-sensitive film. GBC also incorporated LED-lit, POP lightboxes that highlight PHL’s broad product repertoire.

GBC required five- or six-week turnarounds to deliver each store’s graphics, and DesignGold Contracting Inc. (Toronto) installed each store’s graphics in approximately one week.