The Big Picture - October 2012 - (Page 10)

upfront upfront A Post-Olympics Victory At the center of every modern Olympic Games is the iconic stadium, which for the 2012 London version of the sporting extravaganza featured a stunning fabric wrap comprising more than 300 individual panels, each measuring approximately 80-feet high x 8-feet wide. But as impressive as the graphics were, it’s what’s being done with them in their post-Olympics life that will have a longer-lasting e ect. Leading up to the games, Dow Chemical Company signed on to develop a sustainable media solution for the stadium wrap. The multinational chemicals manufacturer had to meet the rigid “green expectations” imposed by the games’ organizing committee, as well as London’s stringent ﬁre-code guidelines. In addition, Dow was to come up with a second-life plan for the printed graphics: How could the wrap be e ectively repurposed after all the medals had been won? Dow called upon Washington-based print provider Rainier (rainier.com), which had produced graphics for the two previous Olympic Games, to gauge the feasibility of such a massive undertaking. “Was it possible? What would it take to wrap a stadium of this size? And, could it be done using polyethylene materials, so that the process and materials would be sustainable, and so that the results could be repurposed? These were some of the questions we had,” recalls Rainier’s Scott Powell. Rainier led Dow to The Cooley Group to ﬁnd a fabric that could work. From there, the stadium-wrap trinity was born: Dow, Rainier, and Cooley. In less than a year’s time, Dow would handle aspects of the chemical composition, Cooley would engineer and produce the fabric, and Rainier would output and install the wrap. The three companies engineered an entirely new fabric all the way down to its chemical composition. The new material was made of a lightweight polyester fabric with a polyoleﬁn elastomer-based coating. According to Cooley Group, the fabric is approximately 35-percent lighter and has a 20-percent lower carbon footprint versus conventional materials. With the fabric in hand, all 336 graphic panels were then output by Rainier using the company’s Durst Rho printer. FabriTex, a division of ShadeUSA, installed the panels in only ﬁve weeks. Once the Olympics came to an end, the wrap began a metamorphosis into its new purpose: Dow is partnering with Article 25, a building and development charity, as well as Axion Recycling, to transform the wrap’s panels into shelter solutions for at-risk children in Uganda and Rio de Janeiro, and for recycling projects. “These projects will build understanding about the importance of the use and re-use of materials in the global community,” says Article 25’s Robin Cross. “London won the honor of hosting the Olympics by promising to inspire a generation of young people to greater heights of personal and sporting achievement. By using the stadium wrap to build essential facilities in Uganda and Brazil, we hope to deliver on this promise and bring part of the Olympics to some of the most marginalized youngsters in the developing world.” 10 THE BIG PICTURE OCTOBER 2012 http://www.rainier.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Big Picture - October 2012

The Big Picture - October 2012
Contents
InSight
Wide Angle
UpFront
Inside Output
Business + Management
Industry Roundtable: Foreseeing a Road to Success
Remote Output
Outdoor Evolution
A Specialty Media Solution
R+D
Job Log

The Big Picture - October 2012