Geaux, Tigers!

Louisiana State University’s (LSU) Tiger Stadium, also known as “Death Valley” because of its intense atmosphere and the extreme decibel levels LSU fans achieve, has hosted countless moments that have added to college football’s lore. Arguably, however, none exceed last season’s national-championship squad, which became the first two-loss team to claim the crown when it defeated Ohio State University 38-24 in January 2008.

LSU has won two previous national titles, in 1958 and 2003, but this Tiger team showed remarkable resilience despite injuries to such team leaders as defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, receiver Early Doucet and quarterback Matt Flynn.

To commemorate the occasion, LSU’s athletic department ordered a new digital graphic to cover the exterior face of Tiger Stadium’s end-zone scoreboards. Jason Feirman, an employee in the school’s sports-information department, designed the graphics using Adobe® Illustrator® CS3 software.

Feirman transferred the graphic to Lamar Graphics’ Baton Rouge facility as an EPS vector file sized at one-fourth of the signs’ ultimate, 122 x 40-ft. output. According to Garth Roberts, Lamar’s vice president and general manager, Lamar rasterized it using Onyx’s software and saved the image as a four-channel, CMYK TIFF document before it contracted printing to Duluth, GA-based Formetco. Fabricators produced the graphic in eight tiles with reinforced installation pockets around the entire perimeter.

“Naturally, accommodating 40 x 16-ft. tiles required some creative shop maneuvering,” Roberts said. “We paid close attention to each seam to ensure they would endure the signs’ 400-lb. weight and environmental stresses. It was also critical to ensure each angle of this unusually shaped sign fell within all specs for a tight installation.”

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Formetco selected Ultraflex’s Mesh 100 material because its sheer construction allowed more “blow-through” and generated less surface stress than other media. Lamar output the project on its HP XLJet 1500 four-color, solvent-based system. To produce dense spot colors, the shop set the printer on its maximum resolution, 360 dpi. To accomplish this, the printer toiled for 16 hours.

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