As senior graphic designer for Roland DGA, Priya Garcia is responsible for designing a wide range of materials, from product brochures and advertisements to print files, samples and wide-format trade show graphics, for each of the company’s product lines. With more than 20 years of graphic design experience, she has in-depth knowledge of design and production processes for both print and electronic mediums. She is also an experienced presenter and former graphic design instructor at the college level. Priya will be contributing to the Tips & Tricks blog based on her design work at Roland DG.
In the past year, the Roland DGA corporate office underwent a major renovation and build-out that wrapped up last month. The construction left us with one VERY long hallway; 170 linear feet to be exact.
My challenge (accepted!) was to create a design for the space.
“The Longest Hallway in the World”
I had to keep a few things in mind while planning for the project. The hallway presented a number of obstacles with no windows, a drop ceiling with fluorescent lights, and lots and lots of solid blank walls. Also, I was given freedom to have some fun with the space because of the location of the hall, so I wanted to treat it a bit differently than the other areas I had designed for.
My solution was a space that would tell a story and also help Roland DG employees connect with the larger company as a whole. After brainstorming with some of my co-workers, I decided to design a gallery space that would feature abstract photography of everything Roland DG.
I recruited a small team of talented Roland DG employees to take photos all around our building, capturing everything from product parts to office supplies. I then used these images to design 49 unique floor-to-ceiling panels, that would all be printed, of course, on Roland DG devices.
To add variety, I planned to print the panels on two different Roland DG printers and arrange them in an alternating pattern. Half of the graphics would be printed on Roland DG WallFlair Removable Fabric™ with the SOLJET® PRO 4 XR-640 and applied directly to the wall. The other half would be produced on ½” Ultraboard with the VersaUV® LEJ-640, and then mounted to the wall with 2”standoffs.
Along the opposite wall, I placed 19 30” x 30” framed canvas prints that would also be produced on a Roland DG inkjet. Using full-size graphics on both sides would have made the hallway feel even more long and narrow, so we balanced the large images on one wall with smaller framed art on the other. As finishing touches to the design, I added some benches throughout the hall.
The best way for me to share my work on projects like this is to do a Photoshop® mockup of the final design. This helps me share my vision everyone involved. It also helps me refine my design because I might see something along the way that I want to add or tweak. Changes are much less expensive and time consuming when caught here rather than in the production process!
My Photoshop mockup
Mock-up of another angle
Once the design was approved, we were ready for setup and production. To determine the sizes that we needed and what the graphics would look like in position, I created a layout in Adobe® Illustrator®. This allowed me to work out the kinks and prepare my print files. I then sent our big-scale, high quality photographs to print, which took two full days on the XR and four days on the LEJ.
Illustrator Layouts
Once production was completed, a team of two worked for three days to apply and mount the graphics. As you can see by these finished photos, the end-result came out almost exactly like my mock-ups, and my work on “The Longest Hallway in the World” was complete – a beautiful and functional space, full of color and Roland DG culture.
