Big Ben’s Banners Adopt the Scientific Method

Big Ben Jumbo Graphics (Tempe, AZ), a division of Ben Franklin Press, has produced grand-format banners for Phoenix’s Arizona Science Center, a state-of-the-art facility that has offered a planetarium, an IMAX Theater and numerous touring exhibits since 1997.

Dewey Johnson, Big Ben’s marketing and sales VP, said, “When we started working for them, the architect had established very strict rules about where large-format graphics could be hung. The only allowable spaces were blocked from many viewpoints by angles and shadows. In 1998, the museum’s marketing department investigated Big Ben’s process, and decided to assist by hiring a professional rigging company that allowed them to drill permanent anchors that allowed large banners to be installed on all sides around the building.”

The hardware enables the installation of four banners around the building, which vary in size from 13 x 21 ft. to a 26 x 42-ft. installation that hugs the massive curvature near the center’s front. Several poles erected near the entrance accommodate additional, 10-ft.-tall banners. Most projects are designed by the client or a third-party agency and submitted as TIFs, PDFs or EPS files.

The shop typically produces the banners on 70%-weave, 9-oz. banner material, and prints them on the shop’s HP Scitex XL Jets or a Mimaki JV3-160SP solvent-ink printer for smaller jobs, which are proofed with Onyx’s PosterShop®. He said, “For the larger, anchor exhibits and events, we change the graphics roughly every six months. For the smaller, traveling displays, we change them out three or four times per year.” Some of its major exhibitions have included Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, Gunther von Hagens’ BodyWorlds & The Brain [an exhibit of preserved human bodies] and Real Pirates.

Ron Huber, the facility’s senior graphic designer, provides the original graphic files as vector art. Big Ben refines the original graphics using Adobe’s Creative Suite. Each piece is fabricated with 9-oz., vinyl mesh, which Johnson said is a light-weight material that provides the structural heft needed for months-long installations.

Johnson noted that each print is stitched with heavy, 2-in.-thick hems and grommets at close intervals. For stability, Big Ben typically uses heavily stamped, #4 brass grommets. Standard boom lifts are typically used to maneuver around trees and other impediments. Because most banners are changed out within two years, Arizona’s harsh climate doesn’t often pose a problem.

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“The Science Center is located on 7th St., right in the middle of downtown Phoenix, so it enjoys tremendous vehicle and pedestrian traffic,” Johnson said. “The Science Center’s marketing team appreciates that our banners boost ticket sales by providing prominent reminders about upcoming shows.”