Bad to the Bone

When people think of Delaware, they probably think of their credit cards (many credit-card companies maintain operations there) or chemical-conglomerate DuPont, which is headquartered in Wilmington, the state’s largest city. Or, you think of the Wayne’s World scene where Wayne and Garth test their studio’s blue screen while riffing about scenes onscreen from several states. When Delaware appears onscreen, they can only muster, “Uh, hi, I’m in Delaware.”

“The First State” deserves more respect. Vice President Joe Biden hails from Delaware, as does blues-guitar legend George “The Delaware Destroyer” Thorogood. And, to further the state’s cause, a Wilmington building on Market St. that’s occupied by Delaware State Univ. – an historically African-American institution – now proudly sports a more than 2,000-sq.-ft. wrap that displays musical legends.

Precision Color Graphics (Wilmington) fabricated the graphics for Buccini Polin Group, a Wilmington-based, real-estate developer. Simon Cranny, Precision Color Graphics’ owner, said the shop has been open for three years. Although the shop began as a banner fabricator, he said the shop soon graduated to large- and grand-format wraps and murals because clients demanded larger, vinyl-graphic installations.

For the Market St. building, Mobius New Media (Wilmington) provided the artwork, which depicts such musical luminaries as Bob Marley, Cab Calloway and Thorogood. Cranny and his team perfected the graphic using Adobe® Photoshop® software. He outsourced the removal of the building’s prior signage, as well as removal of any hardware or debris that would cause a mottled surface. The then-vacant building sported only a single window on its otherwise drab façade; the graphic provided a marked improvement.

The 120 x 21-ft., tensioned banner (Cranny didn’t have contact information for the printer at presstime, although he said it was printed with solvent inks without a laminate) comprises 9.7-oz., 35%-perforated Seattle Textiles mesh banner material. He said the material’s open construction aided the grand-format piece’s wind-load capability, and the customer preferred the mesh texture’s appearance.

Precision Color Graphics installed the graphic using Signcomp’s (Grand Rapids, MI) tensioning system, which includes a series of extruded bar lengths cut to customer specs. Installers secure soft media with engineer-grade clips that snap onto the fabric’s perimeter and lock the material into extruded-aluminum channels.

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Cranny said, “We made lots of preparations for sizing the graphics so there was plenty of bleed, and no type would be near the edges. Also, you have to create a frame that allows room for tools to tighten the frame. We probably overprepared because this was my first time installing a tensioned-fabric graphic, but I slept well the night before, knowing we were ready.”

Cranny’s crew only had one day to install the graphics – thankfully, they received ideal conditions. The four installers – two on ladders at the bottom, and two near the SignComp structure’s top on a bucket lift – wrapped the graphic around the frame and held it tightly as they installed hundreds of clips a few inches apart, one at a time.

Cranny said. “When we started, the entire weight of the fabric is secured on a single clip, so we worked as quickly as we could to secure the face.”

Along the way, Precision Color Graphics had to navigate hazards. For instance, one careless passerby flicked a cigarette that almost singed the material. Cranny said, “We had one guy watching and handling the fabric on the ground, and he had to move quickly to make sure the piece’s structural integrity wasn’t affected. None of our installers were allowed to smoke during the installation for fear of flame damage. It’s quite a challenge handling a piece that big.”