Brussels 9th December 2010– The EU Lisbon Treaty is being tested for the first time since its entry into force last year, said Avaaz and Greenpeace. The civil society organisations delivered an unprecedented citizens’ initiative signed by 1 million Europeans calling on the European Commission to ban GM crops until safety testing is made independent and scientific. The handover of the first-ever citizens’ initiative petition was marked by a world record-breaking digitally printed 3D art manufactured by large format printer Pyramid Visuals.
In early October, Weybridge based company Pyramid Visuals were contacted by Greenpeace International, to assist with the production and printing of an environmentally friendly, large format banner to help them promote the above cause when they unveiled it on the doorstep of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels to demonstrate the EU-wide objection towards genetically modified crops.
Having taken the brief from Greenpeace and discussed with them the logistics of printing, production and delivery, it was clear that this was going to be no ordinary task.
The artwork for the banner was being created in the US by American artist, Kurt Wenner, a world renowned street painter famous for his realistic 3D anamorphic street paintings. Kurt drew the image in the US, replicating his infamous street art, by drawing it in sections before scanning and compositing the artwork prior to emailing it, also in sections (11GB) to Pyramid Visuals in the UK. Once downloaded, our own in-house designers reformatted the images into printable sections and added the million legible signatures around the outside of the banner with perfect replication of the original artwork to create the world’s largest piece of anamorphic art.
From the outset, Greenpeace had specifically requested that the banner be printed on an eco-friendly material which Pyramid Visuals was duly charged with sourcing. Although the number of requests from clients wanting to use ‘greener’ materials is increasing and the printing industry is beginning to manufacture a wider selection of eco-friendly products, the actual substrate chosen for this job was a specific environmentally friendly, non-PVC fabric material.
For the printing of the banner – which required an overall finished dimension of 22m x 22m – and to ensure quality replication of the artwork (including the one million legible protest signatures around the perimeter), the decision was taken to digitally print it in sections on Pyramid Visuals’ in-house Scitex HP XL1200 machine. Once all sections had been printed, they then had to be welded together matching up each piece in accordance with the artwork to form a fully joined, large scale, circular fabric banner.
Once completed, the banner was carefully packed and personally driven from our office in Weybridge, Surrey to the European Commission in Brussels for arrival on the 9th of December 2010 by a Director from Pyramid Visuals who was on hand to assist Greenpeace with any issues relating to its unloading and prominent unveiling.
Pyramid Visuals are very proud to have been able to support Greenpeace in this record breaking high profile event as having recently been awarded an ISO14001 accreditation, we are a company that actively promotes and supports environmental matters.
