Given the increasing sophistication of architectural projects designed to showcase products at trade shows or to endow cultural exhibitions with a high level of visual appeal, this volume boasts imaginative, ...
The Cincinnati Reds migrate west for handsome spring-training digs -- and signs
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By Steve Aust
As expansion and westward migration caused MLB’s West Coast presence to blossom in the late ’50s and early ‘60s, spring-training facilities gradually popped up in warm-weather, Western locales. Although some attempts were made to create camps near Las Vegas as potential tourist attractions, they’ve been abandoned. Today, 15 teams have established spring-training operations in Arizona and created the Cactus League.
In recent years, some teams east of the Mississippi have begun moving their spring-training facilities to Arizona. In some of Arizona’s state-of-the-art, spring camps, teams are sharing facilities to help defray costs. Such is the case in Goodyear’s self-titled ballpark, where the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians are now sharing facilities. The Indians moved their preseason operations there last year, and the Reds opened their inaugural spring camp in Goodyear in February. The overall construction cost $108 million, and the team’s share a 10,000-seat stadium while maintaining separate practice facilities and offices.
The city of Goodyear, which owns the facility, hired Trademark Visual (Phoenix) to create sign programs for both teams. David Baum, the shop’s general manager, said the shop earned the job through a bid process.
Trademark’s work for Goodyear Ballpark entailed a very diverse sign program. In addition to the ballpark’s main-ID environmental graphics, the company also created interior and exterior signage that identifies both teams’ training facilities, and window graphics for the teams’ stores, among other applications. The ballpark’s general contractor, Barton Malow (Southfield, MI), hired Trademark Visual for the job.
The ballpark’s architect, Kansas City-based Populous (formerly known as HOK Sport), executed the environmental-graphic design, and coordinated their template with Trademark Visual’s shop drawings.
To create a color palette that matches desert environs, Populous devised the Reds’ silver building-sign logo – a departure from the team’s namesake color. Trademark Visual fabricated the sign using its waterjet cutter and a somewhat unusual substrate – Corten, a steel variety that’s designed to create a copper patina as it ages. The shop also used Corten to fabricate various pole and directional signage.
Trademark Visual created the stadium stores’ more than 3,000 sq. ft. of captivating window graphics using 3M’s IJ66 perforated, window film, which it printed on its NUR Tempo II with UV inks. Except for the graphics’ sealed edges, the project required no laminate.
For the concession stands, the shop produced signs via a process that entailed designing with CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator. Fabricating reverse-pan channel letters and faces required the shop’s Gerber Sabre router and cladding faces with 3M vinyls. The facility’s illuminated signs, which entail some of the building and pole signage, incorporate Sloan Great White LEDs.
David Baum, the shop’s president, said, “The opportunity to create distinctive signs from unusual materials, and work with a top-flight architect and GC, makes these types of architectural-sign projects especially worthwhile.”
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