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A 4,000-sq.-ft. mural creates an inviting backdrop for Sea-Tac travelers.
By Steve Aust
Blessed with Puget Sound’s picturesque beauty, the view from the Space Needle, the beauty of Mount Rainier and the presence of such-profile companies as Starbucks, Microsoft and Amazon.com, Seattle-King County boasts approximately 1.8 million residents. According to Seattle Convention and Visitors’ Bureau (CVB) statistics, the area attracted 9.4 million visitors in 2006.
The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, also known as “Sea-Tac,” which serves this dynamic area, transported more than 31 million air passengers in 2007. Consequently, the Seattle CVB and Port of Seattle officials, who oversee Sea-Tac’s operations, sought Emerald City ambience in the airport’s bustling international-arrivals terminal via a breathtaking photographic mural of the Seattle skyline and a word of “welcome” in 25 languages.
The Seattle CVB and Port of Seattle, which allocated $50,000 for the project, commissioned local photographer Michael Craft to capture the image. Craft subsequently hired Seattle-based BIGink, a large-format graphics provider, to produce the 250 x 16-ft. mural. Craft snapped the shot using his Fuji panoramic camera and Pro-Via transparency film.
“I wanted to create an aerial perspective that captured all of the regional icons – Puget Sound, the Space Needle, Mount Rainier, Elliot Bay. The ferries contribute to an amazing view that encompasses the city’s beauty in one shot.”
Craft turned over his original transparency to Seattle’s Cosgrove Editions, which scanned it at 9,800 dpi on its Tango drum scanner. The resulting file measured approximately 6GB; Craft divided it into five sections to facilitate retouching and color-contrast measurement and rejoined the sections to deliver the file to BIGink.
To determine mural placement, BIGink developed a 1% scale model that it submitted to Sea-Tac’s review board, which included Port of Seattle and CVB officials, as well as a member of the airport’s construction consultant firm. BIGInk used Onyx’s ProductionHouse™ RIP to profile the colors. According to James Kaul, the shop’s production manager, tiling the images wasn’t difficult, but the job required significant color modification.
To test the print, BIGink output several small, actual-size sections before printing the entire mural in 62, 4-ft.-wide panels on its Gandinnovations Jeti 3324 solvent-ink printer with UV-fade-resistant inks. The shop printed the mural on 3M Graphics Market Center’s Controltac IJ 180-10C with Comply v2 air-egress film for most panels; for the three that covered a window, BIGink used Clear Focus Imaging Inc. ImageVue 65/35. Because the wall bore semi-gloss paint with good tack, minimal surface prep was required.
However, the airport’s heavy traffic stipulated that installers work between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and be subject to stringent security searches. All told, BIGink devoted 20 hours to proofing the image and file preparation, 30 hours to producing and laminating the print, and 72 hours to installation.
“The mural will be installed for a minimum five years per Michael’s licensing agreement,” Kaul said. “Then, it can be relicensed for five more years or removed. The spirit of collaboration among all parties involved helped create this truly amazing project.”
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