Events & Activations
Outdoor large format dye sublimation with low-profile hardware
Large format dye sublimated fabric graphics for Holman, tensioned into low-profile Procura hardware for outdoor use. Putting a fabric graphic outside changes almost every decision in the build, from how the frame is anchored to how tight the skin has to sit before it is left unattended.
What the job demanded
Fabric outdoors is a wind problem before it is a graphics problem. A tensioned skin that is drum-tight presents a stiff surface and behaves predictably; the same skin left even slightly slack starts to move, and movement fatigues the seam, the frame and the anchor points in that order. Low-profile hardware makes the visual result better by reducing the frame to a thin line around the image, but a slimmer section has less material resisting that load, so anchoring and ballast have to compensate for what the extrusion no longer provides. Weather adds the rest: water needs somewhere to go rather than pooling in the fabric, and sustained ultraviolet exposure is unforgiving of any colour that sits on top of a material instead of inside it.
How it was produced
Dye sublimation is the reason fabric works outside at this scale. Disperse dyes are printed and then driven into the polyester under heat and pressure, where they turn to gas and bond within the fibre itself. The colour becomes part of the material rather than a coating on it, so there is nothing to crack, flake or lift when the fabric is folded, tensioned or rained on, and the finish stays matte with no glare off the face. Procura hardware carries the graphic in a low-profile aluminium extrusion with a silicone edge channel: a silicone bead sewn to the perimeter of the skin is pressed into the groove, pulling the print flat and hiding the frame behind the image. Anchoring and ballast were sized to the exposed area rather than to the weight of the frame.
