Wall murals are an excellent way to set the scene for any main attraction, whether it’s a special event, an exhibit, or any other venue.
The Orlando Science Center has recently used printed wall murals to great effect for its special exhibits, including one for the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination traveling exhibit, which showcased artifacts from all six movies, and one for Sesame Street Presents: The Body exhibit.
“It’s a great entrance piece when you’re going into the exhibit. It helps theme and create an experience before you even go into the exhibit,” says Eric Vickers, creative manager for the Orlando Science Center.
For the Star Wars exhibit, Vickers used LexJet PolyGloss PSA for the walls surrounding and leading into the exhibit, printed with a Canon iPF9100 from LexJet.
“They were photorealistic images from Lucasfilm, so I really like the PolyGloss for those types of images,” says Vickers.
Vickers adds that those wall murals “got the ball rolling” to make wall murals a regular feature of the special exhibits the Orlando Science Center hosts.
“We’ve been using LexJet materials since we got the Canon iPF9100 about a year and a half ago. We like the polypropylene material better than vinyl because we can get the same pop from it as we can from paper, and it’s easy to work with,” explains Vickers.
For the Sesame Street murals, Vickers decided to try LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric after testing it on various surfaces in the graphics department (see photos).
“It’s the best of both worlds, but opacity is the only thing we have to be careful with since it’s not completely opaque. If you overlap the seams on a graphic with a light-colored background they can show through,” says Vickers. “It’s much more repositionable than any other material we’ve worked with, and comes off the walls easily. It’s the most forgiving material we’ve worked with so far; we don’t get bubbling or imperfections in it. It’s a little trickier to cut, but it follows straight lines really well; you just have to be a little more careful going against the grain.”
