Oversized window graphics decorate The Gap outlet on Michigan Avenue in Chicago in August as part of a multi-store graphics campaign helping to launch the clothing maker’s 1969 Premium Jeans product line.

Graphics for The Gap’s flagship store on 42nd Street in New York. Crush Creative printed and installed a total of 14,911 square feet of graphics at the 12 stores for the launch. All installations were completed the same night.

Printing for the jobi was done using a newly acquired EFI VUTEk GS3200 UV-curingi inkjet printeri—one of three recently purchased by parent company Merisel. The printer’s ability to do double-sided prints helped cut down production time on the project.

The production areai at Crush Creative.

Crush Creative took delivery of the VUTEk GS3200 just four days before printing began for the 1969 Premium campaign.

Now that the shop cani print directly to rigid substrates including Dibond, Gatorboard, Lexan and Plexiglas, the firm can more easily create cut-out graphics using their MultiCut Konigsberg digital die cutter from EskoArtwork.

When The Gap unveiled its line of 1969 Premium Jeans in August 2009, the retail clothing giant pulled out all the stops. Supporting the launch of the new line of denim was a multi-faceted media blitz that entailed advertising in all forms of media including an iPhone application, an interactive Facebook gallery, and in-store concerts.

If the fashion-conscious in major markets missed any of that, they couldn’t ignore the gargantuan window graphics heralding the line at the company’s flagship stores in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Montreal and Toronto.

WINDOW DRESSINGS

“This was a multi-channelⁱ campaign to launch the brand for one month, starting in August,” explains Anthony Gardner, The Gap’s senior director of global marketing. The new clothing line is named to commemorate the company’s founding, 40 years ago.

“We’re an image-based iconic brand, and it was extremely important we had the highest quality prints for some billboard-sized window graphics.”         

Crush Creative, the Burbank, Calif.-based division of branding solutions provider Merisel of New York—and a specialist in large-formatⁱ visuals—produced and installed the window graphics in this two-phase campaign. The rollout also marked the debut performance of the company’s new EFI VUTEk GS3200 inkjet printer—one of three recently purchased by Merisel.

“This was a fairly large project, even for The Gap,” notes Kathy Lencki, Crush Creative’s vice president of operations.        

First, the company’s crews printed and installed a total of 14,911 square feet of graphics at the 12 flagship stores for the Aug. 13 launch. Seven different images introduced the 1969 Premium line of jeans, with attractive models decked out in several of the 12 new styles.

The number, size and combination of graphics depended on the individual outlet, and The Gap stores on 42nd Street in Manhattan and Chicago’s Michigan Avenue location each received the full treatment. Installed, the vertical window graphics ranged from 51" x 110" to 120"x 144", while horizontal prints measured 103" x 124" to 310.5" x 118.25".

Two weeks later, in the phase two refresh, several of the original images were replaced with new prints of the same models in other poses highlighting the new styles. This time, a total of 9,470 square feet of prints were installed, featuring 14 new images. Installed sizes ranged from 78" x 118.25" to 203" x 153.5".

RELATIVELY ROUTINE

Given the sheer number of prints and locations—and the fact all installations were completed the same night—a project of this magnitude might seem a logistical nightmare. However, for Crush Creative—a firm familiar with handling massive jobs with tight turnaround times—it was relatively routine. The company’s client roster includes such brand-name retailers as Nike, Victoria’s Secret, Macy’s, and Lord & Taylor. The Gap, a longtime client, typically rotates its window graphics every two months.

“We’ve been working with the Gap so long, we know their stores and the measurements of their windows as well as they do,” says Leslie Tolbert, account director at Crush Creative. She describes them as “an ideal client, easy to work with and always well organized. “What was different about this project was the scale of the new launch, and the fact that we produced it on a brand new device, the VUTEk GS3200.”

This job originated two months prior to the Aug. 13 deadline, with a preliminary outline of The Gap’s goals for the campaign, sample images, and the approximate size and placement of the window graphics. Tolbert calculated the scale and cost of the project, and once approved, the actual workflow got under way in early July.

“They supply us with the high-res image files, color corrected and ready for printing,” Tolbert notes. Preliminary proofing is handled on an Epson inkjet printer, calibrated to the digital printerⁱ to be used on the job. Clients sign off on a final proof, produced on the actual production printer.

LIVE TEST FOR NEW PRINTER

On this project, that final deadline was tight. Just four days before printing began for the 1969 Premium campaign, Crush Creative took delivery on its new printer. “This job went live on our brand new VUTEk GS3200,” notes Lencki. “It was set up and producing output right away.”

The eight-color UVⁱ-curing flatbed/roll-to-roll printer can produce photorealistic graphics at 1000 dpiⁱ, with maximum output rated at 2,400 square feet per hour. It’s designed to print directly onto roll-fed or sheet fed media up to 10’ wide, and can print on two 60”-wide rolls simultaneously.

It’s just the latest in the comprehensive printer lineup at Crush Creative—which also includes an EFI VUTEk 150 digital printer, Océ LightJet and Durst Lamda photo imagers for digital photo prints, a 3M Scotchprint 2000 electrostatic printerⁱ, and an HP Designjet 6100 eight-color inkjet for interior signage applications.

“We try to support our clients with the newest and best printing technology available,” Lencki explains. “What they want from us is quality, quality, quality.” The new GS3200 meets that demand in new ways, she says. “The GS3200 helped us speed up production and offer new print options. Its ability to print color-white-color, back-to-back, is a big benefit.”

That capability allowed The Gap’s high resolutionⁱ window graphics to serve double duty. Pedestrians saw the street version, while inside the store the images were flipped and printed against a white background for proper viewing there.

Each of the two-sided prints were produced on opaqueⁱ Catalina window cling media with VUTEk inks. All the prints were rendered and assembled from strips of the film, cropped to 50 inches wide by the required length. “We had to organize and ship everything for easy installation,” notes Lencki. “That may have been the toughest part of the job. Our installers couldn’t begin until 9 p.m., yet they had to have everything up by morning.”

A MONTHLONG RUN

The overnight installation was completed by the morning of the launch, and for the refresh graphics were applied two weeks later. By mid-September, 1969 Premier Jeans were now familiar to The Gap shoppers and the window billboards needed to come down to make way for the next campaign.

“We really used our windows, and extremely large-format prints, as an important part of the launch,” says Gardner, pleased with the results.

“The job worked out great,” Tolbert says. “Because we had an opportunity to produce these double-sided prints, the graphics had a lot more impact.”

It was also the proving ground for a printer that is now a fixture in Crush Creative’s equipment line-up. “Since August, we’ve used the GS3200 for a variety of clients and projects, printing directly to Dibond, Gatorboard, Lexan and Plexiglas,” says Lencki. “We didn’t have the ability to print on white before, so now there’s a bit more that we can offer our clients.”