Recently Flags Unlimited has completed yet another round of Toronto Blue Jays banners for the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Maybe you’ve seen them… the 50’ tall “Let’s Go Blue Jays” banners? They’re kind of hard to miss if you spend any time at the landmark building in Toronto.
Producing banners that large is no small feat - the approximate size of Blue Jays banners is 10’ wide by 50’. They require lots of attention throughout our production process. When the artwork comes in, Flags Unlimited has a matter of days to turn that artwork into oversized banners ready to install. Here is how we do it…
The Artwork
The Blue Jays artwork is submitted to our Graphics department. Sounds simple, but banners that size come with electronic art files to match! Our graphics team takes the art files and lays them out on a mock up with our specifications of sewn joins, sleeve requirements and wind vents.
Pre-Production and Large Format Printing
Once the mock up is approved, it moves to Pre-Production. The same as with the artwork, files this size require time to prepare and process through our rip. Preparing the artwork means adding trim, considering fabrics widths and shrinkage, colour management and more.
Flags Unlimited prides itself on the management of these files. We have over fifty years of expertise and resources to make sure we are producing the very best product we can; from the fabrics we source, to the processes and printers we use, to the team we trust.
Sewing and Production
This is really where size becomes a “big” factor. Trying to move a 50’ banner around a production floor can be challenging. It’s weight and size make normal finishing tasks a bit more of a workout. Our team has adapted many techniques for processing such large format banners as we make gigantic flags and banners quite frequently. Flags Unlimited has a massive table for stretching the banners out to work on so they’re not on the floor, wheeled bins to help move the banners around the production floor and extra hands on deck to maneuver pieces through simple tasks like folding.
The sewing and production floor is where we add liners if they’re double-sided banners, create and attach sleeves and add all the extra finishing details required for banner installation.
The Blue Jays banners required wind vents which are added at this step as well. Wind vents are added to allow a certain degree of “blow through”. Without them, the banner has the potential to become a large sail in a heavy wind, which could damage the banner and/or the structure it’s attached too.
Finished Product
Installation of banners is something we leave to the professionals. This is a great time lapse video of the Blue Jays being installed on the Rogers Centre. You really get an idea of just how large these banners really are.
Flags Unlimited has the ability and capacity to process large format orders from start to finish. If you think that large format printing and over-sized banners will get you noticed but don’t know where to start, call us today to find out more. We’d love to work with you on your next BIG project!