Photo courtesy HP Canada
By Peter Saunders
On June 23, 2012, Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana made its world premiere at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto. Running for a limited time before touring internationally, the new exhibition is designed to take visitors into the world of dinosaurs during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. In addition to presenting scientific fossil evidence, including full-size skeletons of dinosaurs, the immersive approach uses floor-to-ceiling printed graphics to depict how the same dinosaurs would have actually appeared and behaved in their own environment.
These colourful, detailed and lifelike murals are made up of more than 100 panels covering some 929 m2 (10,000 sf) of wall space. The longest single mural is more than 30.5 m (100 ft) long. No matter where visitors stand, the idea is to transport them to the grandeur of the time of the dinosaurs.
“The success of Ultimate Dinosaurs depends on creating a captivating ‘lost world’ that will entertain and educate people of all ages,” says Dave Hollands, the ROM’s head of design.
All of the graphics were printed by Beyond Digital Imaging (BDI) in nearby Markham, Ont., one of North America’s largest suppliers of digitally printed output. The ROM specified the murals would need to be able to come off the walls easily after the end exhibition, without causing any damage, and expressed a preference for an environmentally sustainable printing technology.
“Choosing the right materials is essential for any job,” says Larry Chan, owner of BDI. “When considering the needs for this busy and high-impact exhibit, we knew ‘latex-based’ durable aqueous inks were the best choice for three main reasons: quality; durability; and environmental sustainability.”
BDI faced a limited timeline to print and install the graphics, but had to deal with huge image files, ranging up to 10 GB for a 5 x 40-m (16 x 130-ft) wall mural, with a strong emphasis on using a wide colour spectrum. The large-scale graphics were printed at 1,200 dots per inch (dpi). This is reportedly a unique degree of resolution for an exhibition of Ultimate Dinosaurs’ scale, but the designers felt it was integral to creating an authentic experience with sufficient impact on visitors.
“Working with BDI and their latex printing technology was an easy choice for us,” Hollands says, “as we knew they could deliver durable graphics that would faithfully showcase our enormous, scientifically accurate mural art.”
All of the involved parties were impressed by the results.
“We’d like to see latex printing specified in requests for proposals (RFPs),” says Chan. “It’s the future of interior commercial design.”
Hollands agrees with this sentiment.
“We’d definitely look to specify using latex printing in our future RFPs,” he says. “We’re always on the lookout for products that are odourless and environmentally friendly.”
With files from HP Canada. For more information, visit www.hp.ca/signage.
