We return to exterior applications, specifically out of home advertising, with the third place winner of this year’s Application of the Year awards. Based out of Indianapolis, IN, Sport Graphics started in 1986 under Frank and Linda Hancock. The goal is to serve as a resource for the city’s professional and amateur sporting events.
Soon after mastering the IN market, the company began to realize that their formula for success could translate to other clients across North America. Today the company offers project management, project planning, creative, production, installation, and logistics. And despite its name, it also works outside of the sports industry, catering to a wide variety of clients.
Record Breaking Graphics
Sport Graphics won third place in the 2021 Application of the Year contest for its work creating a 3,159×2,112-inch graphic for the JW Marriott hotel in downtown Indianapolis. The image was of a NCAA Men’s Final Four 2021 Bracket, and it is the largest NCAA bracket in the world at 47,000 square feet.
The company printed roughly 15 rolls of General Formulations GF 270 WindowMark Matte White 70/30 Perforated Window Film—each roll was 60 inches wide and 100 feet long.
GF 270 is a 6-mil perforated high-performance vinyl film with a white print side and a black see-through side coated with a clear low-tack repositionable removable solvent acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive designed for exterior/outside mounted one way view-through window graphics. The dual layflat liner construction—perforated/solid liner—offers good dimensional stability in a variety of ambient conditions. The adhesive is designed to cleanly remove from glass with little to no adhesive residue.
To handle the square footage necessary for this project the graphic was run on the company’s EFI VUTEk HS100 Pro printer with EFI VUTEk HS Ultra Pro Series ink. The EFI VUTEk HS100 Pro high-volume digital UV inkjet press combines the productivity of screen printing with image quality approaching offset. The 3.2-meter hybrid digital UV press handles up to 100 boards per hour.
Printing a graphic this large and in multiple panels was no easy task, but perhaps the bigger challenge was installing the massive bracket. Installation took eight installers, who completed it over the course of seven days.
Safety was taken into account and the Sport Graphics team is experienced in jobs of this magnitude—as it also created the bracket for 2016 NCAA Men’s Final Four and installed it on the JW Marriott. This graphic was 44,000 square feet and took 12 days to install.
Noteworthy Job
The 2021 application was noteworthy beyond just its world record earning dimensions. This was the first year all of the NCAA playoff games were played in one city, Indianapolis. As such, it was a true honor for the Sport Graphics team to work on the project. Both of these reasons are why it is a great entry and subsequent winner in this year’s Application of the Year awards.
Aug2021, Digital Output
