During National Heart Month, Chicago’s most popular street was suddenly adorned with 100 acrylic heart sculptures.
A giant Valentine’s Day stunt that was the work of 100 suave Casanovas? No.
It was even more worthy cause than love – a month-long campaign from Northwestern Hospital’s Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute to promote heart health awareness, called “Hearts A Bluhm.”
Each acrylic heart featured a tip to passersby about cardiovascular health. All kinds of designs were contributed from Columbia College students, staff, faculty and alumni. Professional sports teams from around the city got into the act, with members of the Cubs, Sox, Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks signing “team hearts.”
SBT To The Rescue
Just before the deadline for this project, we got a call at Signs By Tomorrow: Could we print graphics for several of these sponsored hearts and install them? We weren’t about to let anyone down for something this important.
Mark Schellerer, our senior project manager, ensured that the first order was in and out in the very same day.
Of course, that was just the beginning.
“Every morning that week, there was another project waiting for us to print and install,” says Schellerer. No matter what different brands we had to print and install, we made it happen – from Des Plaines Casino to McGrath Lexus to Diet Coke.
How’d we do it?
For a time-sensitive job like this, Mark Schellerer and his team turned to our HP DesignJet L25500 sixty-inch-wide format printer. Why? As Mark explains, “Latex ink can stretch as much as 200 percent without the fading you’d see in something printed with a solvent inkjet.” We also used a 3M™ Controltac™ 180-10 media— which is the same material we use for many vehicle wrap projects we’ve done here at ER2 Image Group (Formerly SBT Bloomingdale).
Every story involving hearts needs a plot twist.
Does every print job go perfectly without a hitch? Of course not. But that’s when you’re glad you’ve got the experience to make the right call at the right moment. In our case at ER2 Image Group (Formerly SBT Bloomingdale), we quickly realized that the graphics template we received wasn’t sized for covering the hearts. Yet, Mark didn’t panic. He provided enough bleed and made file adjustments to work around the issue. Since this was a job similar in structure to the kind of work we do with vehicle wraps, handling the last-minute curve was a breeze.
Crisis averted. Hearts saved. A foundation raises the important funds it needs. Just another day in the life of what we Schellerers and our team do, time after time.
To read about the other fine partners who participated in the “Hearts A Bluhm” project, click here.
