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Wall Wrapping, a bit different to the norm.
I have been working in Saint Andrews and Edinburgh for the past few weeks or so, and this is a small portion of some of the work I have been working on.
Basically, It is three different-sized bays which will eventually be food kiosks within a high-end university campus currently being built.
At a glance, there is nothing special about it, but the job on the whole was far from easy to manufacture or install.
There are around 60 metres of print and laminate in the job.
The artwork was an abstract oil painting converted to vector format.The Task:
You know those bits of art that are a jumble of different elements that don’t make sense, but when you view them at one position and angle, it all comes together to show what it is?
I am sure you will have seen lots of things like this online… however, when this comes together, it is an “abstract painting” not a face, not a logo or anything recognisable, so unless you know the painting, it is not something you will ever look at and say “oh yeh, now I get it!”Artwork:
The artwork was a nightmare in itself.
It would not be difficult if there were one or two changes of direction on a wall, but try changing direction in multiple different ways, including the ceilings, coming back on yourself, into one bay, then the next, then the next. everything must “perfectly align” in each bay or the overall concept will not work when you get to the last bay!
So taking the 2D artwork and chopping it up into walls, panels, tiles with overlaps and more. then trying to create this jigsaw of panels that will only be able to be seen at certain angles and must align perfectly, is probably one of the most difficult things to get my head around. It is like a 3D jigsaw on a huge scale!Installation:
The installation was a massive task in itself.
The walls were plastered and painted, and as much as the surface was fine to apply to, I went with a polymeric vinyl with a high-bond adhesive and matt laminate. The downside of this, the vinyl pretty much stuck on contact. If you had to lift it to realign, you run the risk of pulling away paint or even plaster, due to the high bond.When you do not have a straight line or an actual logo, image or whatever to work to, it is very hard to even begin the job. I spent over 2+ hours just working out how to line the whole thing up before I even stuck a panel into place. All it would take is the first panel to be squint or a few inches too far to one side, and the whole thing would run off over the distance of panels, joins, directions and more, and we would get so far, and nothing would line up, so it would all have to be scrubbed and started again. , Thankfully, everything worked out as planned and although a slow installation, we nailed it in the end.
This took one member of staff and myself, 18 hours to install over two days, not including breaks.
You will see we have also wrapped the kitchen cabinets. I don’t have pictures of the last part of that installed because we were waiting on them fitting those when I took the photos.
In about 2 weeks time, there will be microwaves, food-cooking things, vending machines and stuff being installed in the bays. so we have to return and continue the same wrap across the vending machines, microwave etc and still keep everything aligning up in the same way as the walls around it.
It is an interesting project to take on, but you are under constant pressure thinking will the next panel line up, or worse still, will the last panels line up?
Yellow Dot
The panel I have marked with the “Yellow Dot”, is the only photo that shows “roughly” how the roof and pillars align with the back wall, cabinets etc. and the inner side walls if viewed closer up. Still, it looks miles out, but it isn’t.
I tried taking pictures at the correct angles but to do it correctly I would really need a tripod to get the exact angle, height etc. Plus, to get the alignment and the whole thing in one photo I had to walk back further. but then losing the alignment, or putting the fish-eye lens on, but that bends the perspective. so unfortunately you will have to take my word for it.
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8 Replies
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nice job, looks like a nightmare to me! What’s the painting?
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where do you start? 🤯
nice one rob. 😎
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Thanks Mark. 😀
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I would not know where to start, but i really like that. i am not sure what it is, but looks rather funky! so gets my vote. 😃🤣
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Thanks Leslie. 😀
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Don’t you just love mind bending jobs that make your brain hurt!!!🤣
Well done Rob for your extreme patience & all the preplanning. It would be so easy to mess up something like that.
You’ll deserve a holiday when it’s finished for sure!😎
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I’m just going to say Well done! I’m not ven gonna try and get my head around it!
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@PaulStenning
Thanks Paul, the installation was a giant jigsaw for sure mate.
All I know about the work is that it was an abstract oil painting, converted to vector for this purpose and painted by a Scottish artist. I think if it was some sort of recognisable picture, even a face or an animal then it would have been easier and visually more appealing. but that’s just my opinion. 😉The planning was definitely key in doing this one, Myles.
As I said, 2+ hours just placing vinyl here and there and sussing out the spot to apply first, then work from that.
Even setting up the artwork that was just a bunch of vector shapes. We still spent 2 hours just discussing a game plan, and then 4 or 5 hours just setting up the panel tiles.
Unlike a job where it is easy to just apply margins for bleed and overlaps etc, we did nothing in the RIP software, that just wouldn’t have worked for us. Everything was pretty much life-sized and clipped allowing for overlaps and so on.Thanks Hugh. 😀
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