Events & Activations
Custom fabrication with Procura SEG backlit graphics
Custom fabrication and backlit graphics for Lion Heart and Kawasaki, built on Procura SEG systems. A lit structure has to do two things at once: hold together as a piece of hardware that ships and rebuilds, and read as a clean sheet of light with no sign of the machinery behind it.
What the job demanded
A backlit face is the least forgiving surface in exhibition work. Anything inside the cavity that is closer to the fabric than everything else will announce itself as a bright patch, and any structural member crossing behind will show as a shadow line. The cavity therefore has to be designed around the light rather than the light dropped into a finished box. Around it sits the fabrication problem: a custom structure has to be engineered, test-assembled, taken apart, crated, freighted and put back together by a crew reading a parts list on a hall floor. Halls themselves work against the graphic, because ambient light from neighbouring stands raises the black level and reduces the apparent contrast of anything illuminated.
How it was produced
Procura SEG is the graphic system throughout. SEG stands for silicone edge graphic: a silicone bead is sewn around the perimeter of the printed fabric and pressed into a machined groove in the aluminium extrusion. The bead holds under tension, pulling the face flat and pushing the image right to the edge of the frame, so there is no bezel breaking up the lit surface. Faces were printed as backlit fabric, which is produced to a separate density curve because transmitted light passes through the ink rather than bouncing off it, and a file prepared for a front-lit panel will read washed out when illuminated. Cavity depth and internal finish were set to let the LED output spread and overlap before it reaches the fabric. The surrounding fabrication was built in aluminium, test-assembled, then crated as numbered components.
