Inaugurated in 1942, the San Diego Museum of Man dedicates its exhibitions and resources to anthropological study. To help promotes the museum’s Genographic project, which seeks to use genetic information to trace the history of human migration, museum officials hired San Diego-based Ape Wraps to develop a floor map that allows visitors to literally walk through their progenitors’ journey from the dawn of civilization to how they gradually populated the globe.
According to Ape Wraps’ president, Troy Downey, the Museum staff found him through an Internet search. National Geographic created the graphics, which feature a world map, legend and coded directional graphics that indicate the paths various tribes and masses took to create settlements worldwide.
Ape Wraps produced the 14 x 21-ft. graphic using Avery Dennison’s Graphic and Reflective-Product Division MPI 1005 Easy Apply RS air-egress media, which Avery’s DOL 1100 matte overlaminate protects. Downey said the installation was challenging because the floor comprised old, painted tile and required careful installation. Ape Wraps printed the map on the shop’s Mimaki JV-33 solvent-ink printer.