Signs of the Times - September 2012 - 64

Bash by the Bay
The Golden Gate Bridge offers a breathtaking view of San Francisco and neighboring Sausalito. After more than a decade of fighting opposition and approximately four years of construction, the bridge was completed in 1937, and has gained status as an American icon. (As a personal aside, if you venture to San Francisco, don’t be disappointed if you see the Golden Gate Bridge covered by fog. Days where the bridge towers aren’t shrouded are relatively rare.) The San Francisco Highway and Transportation District, Golden Gate Parks Conservancy, the National Park Service (NPS) and other organizations that manage and support the Golden Gate Bridge embarked on plans to celebrate its 75th anniversary, which culminated in a two-day festival over Memorial Day weekend. To complement the fireworks and other activities in context with the bridge’s legacy, the event’s steering committee and corporate sponsors commissioned event graphics and an informative exhibit that recounted the Golden Gate’s rich history. NPS and Conservancy officials engaged Hunt Design (Pasadena,

CA), which has developed the Golden Gate National Recreation Area’s (GGNRA) master plan for the past seven years, to develop the celebration’s environmental graphics. “The project’s greatest challenge was to design a meaningful, historic exhibit that would not only celebrate the bridge’s history, but inform visitors of how it was built,” Jennifer Bressler, Hunt Design’s principal in charge of the project, said. “Hundreds of thousands of visitors were expected, rain or shine, so we had to deliver a high-impact exhibit that would communicate quickly. With live music, food vendors and lots of activity on Crissy Field [the GGNRA’s picturesque greenspace], we had a small window of opportunity to engage visitors.” Many graphic components were installed underneath an 80 x 100-ft., big-top tent with an internal truss structure. The firm designed the program using the Adobe Creative Suite and Sketch-Up (Google’s 3-D software program). Hunt Design developed these components: • Two, 14 x 25-ft. panels printed on Bandalux Polyscreen® translucent, PVC-coated, polyester fabric that depict historic photographs of the Bay Area;

• Eight, 6 x 14-ft., double-sided prints on 13-oz. blockout vinyl, which convey stories that reinforce the translucent-panel images; • Two, 14 x 25-ft. sheets printed on blockout vinyl, with photos that compare the bridge’s size to other famous monuments; • Three, 8 x 20-ft., tent-wall graphics that portray the Golden Gate Natl. Recreation Area and outline how its was retrofitted into its environs; • A 20 x 20-ft. floor graphic that shows a bird’s eye-view down to the bridge (two skyboxes, which repair workers sit in when servicing the bridge, were positioned atop the graphic). • And, beneath a big-top canopy, a 20 x 20-ft., truss-suspended piece of printed Celtic Group cloth replicates a bridge worker’s view when looking up at the cables. Coloredge’s Los Angeles facility printed the soft-sided graphics on the shop’s EFI-VUTEk GS 3200 10-ft.-wide or Durst Rho 500R 16-ft.-wide, roll-to-roll, UV-cure-ink printer. The larger fabric components were RF-welded together, with pole pockets and grommets sewn in to fit it over the truss. Coloredge

64 SIGNS OF THE TIMES / SEPTEMBER 2012 / www.signweb.com

Photo by Hunt Design

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Signs of the Times - September 2012

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