Where there’s a will, there’s a way!
One of our most interesting projects came from an advertising agency that couldn’t figure out how to make a 3-D mobile for their client’s trade show booth. They had the design but no idea how to construct it. Well, we didn’t either! But as a problem solver and self-proclaimed handyman, we took on the task. “Oh, one other thing,” the client said. “I need it by the end of the week, shipped across the country for the show. Do you still think you can do it?” “You betchya” we said with confidence. (That’s Minnesotan for yes, don’tcha know.)
So we went to work. The specs were 20” diameter x 8” tall graphic panel mounted on a pole, which would be attached to another part of the booth. My first thought was to wrap a lampshade, which we tried, but quickly realized that wasn’t going to work. We needed something more donut-shaped.
We also needed something more durable yet flexible. Fabric? Paper? No, both were too flimsy. It has to survive packaging, shipping and assembly. We printed the artwork on vinyl with our HP DesignJet L26500 and applied it to a length of Styrene. Then We adhered the ends together with banner tape. Voila!
Now, how do we put that on a pole? That was a head scratcher. Finally it dawned on us – back to the lamp shade! We ripped up the “beta version” and used the hardware that looks like a wheel spoke, from which we created a holder for the pole in the middle.
We weren’t convinced the banner tape would hold so we bought a rivet gun. That worked well and looked very professional. We used more of the styrene/vinyl combo for the dangling graphics and hung them with fishing line. And we even wrote instructions on how to set everything up (including other parts of the booth we didn’t work on).
The agency and their client were thrilled that we had solved the problem, including how to pack and ship it out of state in time for the show.