As I have noted in many prior PIE Blogs, I install “standees” and other signage in movie theaters as part of my multi-faceted custom printing life. One such standee promotes The Rise of the Guardians, an upcoming animated film. Although this 14-foot wide and 8-foot high cardboard display portrays six of the movie’s main characters on zig-zagging boxes stacked on a wide base, what makes this particular installation intriguing is its structure. The entire standee comprises a set of six “lightboxes.”
How Lightboxes Work
A lightbox is a device incorporating semi-transparent film or paper placed over a light source. Fluorescent, incandescent, or LED bulbs attached to an electronic light-timing device, and positioned within the structure of the standee, illuminate the transparent graphic panels from behind to give drama to the photographic images of this large format printing display.
This is a little bit like a slide or transparency placed on a lightbox, or even more like the backlit advertisements you can find in subway stations and the airport.
What makes lightboxes dramatic is the level of contrast (the difference between the highlights and shadows) in an image. A slide or transparency, or a lightbox at the airport, or even a lightbox in a standee, has a greater color range due to the back lighting than a similar large format printing graphic panel would if it did not have a source of light behind the image. The light source immediately draws the eye to the graphic panel on the standee. Moreover, by placing the lights strategically behind the graphic panel, the designer can accentuate certain elements in the image and downplay others.
How the Rise of the Guardians Lightbox Works
With the aforementioned in mind, here’s how the huge Rise of the Guardians lightbox was designed. Six graphic panels showcasing six movie characters each consisted of printed semi-transparent plastic film sheets stretched over boxes constructed from unprinted cardboard. Immediately behind each semi-transparent panel was a cardboard sheet with cut-outs for one to three fluorescent bulbs strapped to the cardboard with cable ties. Each lightbox also included multiple strands of LED holiday lights controlled by a timing device. Pushing the button on the controller would change the pattern of the flashing lights.
From a graphic design approach, the lights served a purpose. The fluorescent bulbs illuminated and accentuated the movie characters (usually their faces, since the printed graphic film through which the light shone was more transparent in the lighter colors). LED flashing lights were set behind images such as birds or sparks coming from a magic wand. The flashing lights simulated movement.
Technical Implications of Lightboxes
With the design implications in mind, I also thought about the technical aspects of this large format printing piece. For instance, some of the 100 to 200 miniature lights lay in direct contact with the cardboard standee. In this case I was not concerned. After all, the amount of heat given off by LED lights does not come close to that produced by incandescent bulbs. (My concern was for a potential fire hazard.) Regarding the fluorescent bulbs, I also had no concern. They give off minimal heat, and they were held in a fixed position within recessed cardboard light-holders using plastic cable ties.
Other Lightboxes
I have installed many other lightboxes in movie theaters. None has been as dramatic as this 14-foot construct (which took 14 hours to assemble), but most have been built around a fluorescent light source. However, one lightbox for a Katy Perry film included a semi-transparent mirror. On the back side of the mirror (within the cardboard structure of the standee) four or five incandescent bulbs were alternately turned up to full intensity and then turned off—repeatedly–using an automatic light dimmer. My concern in this case was due to the nature of the lights and their installation. The bulbs were incandescent and therefore gave off more heat than fluorescent bulbs and LED bulbs in other lightboxes. Furthermore, their sockets were just pushed into holes in the cardboard and then lights were screwed into place. So I was concerned that there might be the potential for contact between a hot bulb and the cardboard of the large format printing standee leading to the potential for fire. I have not heard of this actually happening, so perhaps I was just overcautious.
Summary
I find the use of fluorescent, LED, and incandescent lights within such a structure to be most interesting.
I also find it intriguing to see how marketers can custom print images on semi-transparent plastic films, and then light them from behind with various kinds of bulbs timed in precise patterns, to accentuate elements of the backlit graphic panel and create movement within a dramatic large format printing job.
Such a project forces the designer to balance aesthetic needs with such diverse sciences as physics and electronics to create a compelling yet functional custom printing piece.
This entry was posted
on Friday, July 13th, 2012 at 6:31 pm and is filed under Large-Format Printing, Offset Printing, Paperboard Packaging, Printing, Standees.
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