OAI Visual Branding (Tampa) has produced graphics for numerous sporting events, such as Super Bowls XXXV and XXXVII, the NBA All-Star Game when it was played in Orlando’s Amway Arena, and various college-football bowl games played in the Sunshine State. Thanks to its ongoing, successful partnership with the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, the shop landed the job to create comprehensive on- and offsite graphics for the Womens’ Final Four, which took place April 5-7 at Tampa’s Amalie Arena.
To design the graphics, the NCAA partnered with Indianapolis-based Sports Graphics. In turn, Sports Graphics submitted its work to OAI as .PDF, .TIF and .EPS files. To prep the graphics for production, OAI used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop Creative Cloud software, and Onyx Graphics’ ProductionHouse RIP.
All told, OAI printed more than 60,000 sq. ft. of graphics, which included pole banners, wallscapes, retractable banners, floor graphics, column wraps and numerous other applications. In addition to branding the arena, the signage also adorned Tampa International Airport, several hotels and various fan-appreciation events.
“Because all of the signage installed at Amalie Arena was temporary, it was important to use low-tack-adhesive materials,” Marissa Howe, OAI’s marketing director, said.
OAI printed the materials on a combination of printers: its HP DesignJet 9000 solvent-ink, six-color printer at 720 dpi in eight-pass mode; an HP Scitex FB 700 solvent-ink, four-color printer at 330 dpi in a combination of four-, eight- and 16-pass modes; a VUTEk 5330 solvent-ink printer in medium-smoothing mode at 300 dpi in four-and eight-pass mode; and an HP 5500 UV-cure-ink printer at 320 dpi in four-pass mode. To protect the graphics, OAI coated them with 3M Commercial Graphics’ 180 pressure laminate, which it applied on a Seal 80 Pro laminator.