Banner Stands for the 'Times Past' exhibition in Southwark Cathedral

W&Co was contacted in the summer of 2016 by marketing and events management company, Max Communications, to manufacture and print five FabriTex tension fabric freestanding display stands. The display stands needed to be easy to use, portable and visually impactful as they were for a new and exciting exhibition called taking place inside Southwark Cathedral.  The Times Past exhibition, which showcased photographs from The Times and The Sunday Times archive, opened in the Link concourse of Southwark Cathedral and Cafe from Saturday 2^nd July until Wednesday 7^th September 2016.

From attending a site visit with the client, News UK, and the Cathedral curator present, W&Co was able to visualise the space in 3D on the computer, with the intended FabriTEX display stands shown in the internal archways. The 3D depiction enabled the client to clearly see the available space and the size of the visual area for the graphics. Once the frame sizes were determined, W&Co’s graphic department worked closely with ‘News Syndication’, News UK’s reprographics department, who collated and supplied the artwork for the graphic prints. The graphics represented The Times Past’ features images of the Southwark area in the 20th century.

W&Co’s reputation for supplying innovative displays and signs gave the client confidence in selecting the right product for the job. The FabriTEX tension fabric banner stand supplied was made to a custom size of 841mm wide x 2000mm tall and was a 45mm deep double sided display stand that has a tension fabric graphic on each side.

The graphic is printed onto the fabric material using high quality direct print techniques, with a sewn on silicone rubber strip at the edges which pushes into the side channels of the tension fabric frame profile. This makes the graphics very easy to change and cost effective to replace and future proofs the frames for use at other events. The large graphic area gives a high impact visual making these stands ideal for use in places such as exhibitions.

The event was covered well over the duration of the event in the online media and locally in the Cathedral events calendar and encouraged more people to explore the church’s architecture and vital services that the Southwark Cathedral has to offer the local community.

An online Tweet taken from News UK website: by Robert Hands, TNL Executive Managing Editor, said:

“The Archive team have put together an evocative collection of photographs that showcase life in Southwark going back to the early 20th century and it’s fascinating to see how the area has evolved. This has been a great partnership with the cathedral team.”

W&Co celebrates 10 successful years supplying John Lewis

Following the recent opening of Essex’s first John Lewis department store in Chelmsford, W&Co Displays and Signs celebrates the homecoming of their light boxes to Essex and 10 successful years supplying to one of the UK’s favourite and best retailers.

The relationship between the two companies began in 2006 when Vickie Tuley, the then Concept Designer of John Lewis, enquired for a new slimmer type of lightbox for a trial in their Glasgow store stating “We are looking for a quality lightbox that diffuses the light evenly... the frame has to be front loading and easy for our staff to load and reload images. We use a standard light colour throughout our department and we would want the colour of the lightbox to be warm enough to fit in to the overall department ambience.”

W&Co's sleek ultra slim T5 tube illuminated light boxes were originally selected for the trial due to their superior build quality, high brightness and even illumination and following the fitting in the summer Vickie remarked, “Lightboxes look excellent at Glasgow. Everyone is really pleased with the look - especially of the larger ones.”

Subsequent to the success of the light boxes in Glasgow the nationwide roll-out commenced, seeing the first of the products installed into the Perfumery and Beauty departments at John Lewis’ flagship and largest store in London’s Oxford Street. Thereafter other prestigious stores were fitted out including, Bluewater, Edinburgh, Milton Keynes, Leicester and Newcastle.

Five years and several stores later an LED version of the ultra slim light box was approved and the first of these were installed in Westfield Stratford City in time for the London 2012 Olympics. The LED light boxes offered higher brightness in a slimmer and thinner frame and, more importantly, lower energy consumption than the traditional T5 tube versions which were winning features for John Lewis as they contributed towards their commitment to sustainability and energy savings.

One of John Lewis' foremost retail designers, Mag Secretario, commented, "The new LED light boxes are excellent," he continued, "W&Co's exceptional service has helped our success creatively, financially and sustainably by supporting our business case towards a sustainable design approach to branding."

In 2014 the light boxes evolved from snap frame to magnetic lift off front covers. This was so that staff could change the graphics more easily and quickly. This also enabled these even thinner light boxes (only 24mm deep) to be fully-recessed into the new stylish trellis-like framework in the Premium Beauty department which allowed shoppers to see through to other departments whilst still being able to easily distinguish individual brands.

The new ultra thin Tanto LED light box has the same bright and even illumination as the snap frame LED light box used in the Perfumery department, so a continuity of graphic lighting was maintained throughout both departments. The first of this new style was introduced to York soon followed by their flagship in London's Oxford Street, Exeter and High Wycombe.

Most recently over the last year Tanto LED light boxes have been used in Birmingham Bull ring, Liverpool and Basingstoke and now at Chelmsford, the first John Lewis store in Essex, which has the largest beauty hall out of all of John Lewis's small full-line department stores, with 14 premium beauty counters including M.A.C, Charlotte Tilbury and Nars. The branch manager of John Lewis Chelmsford, Laura Rawstron, said, “The business has had ambition to open a shop in Essex for some time now, and the Bond Street development couldn't be a better proposition for us.”

W&Co look forward to continuing their fantastic working relationship with John Lewis with new store openings in Leeds at the end of October 2016, then Oxford and Westfield White City opening their doors in 2017.

Tension fabric LED light boxes steer customers in the right direction

Various large format tension fabric LED light boxes were manufactured and installed at Inchcape West London Volkswagen in Brentford; Volkswagen’s largest UK car showroom and new flagship dealership.

W&Co was approached by branding experts, Integrity, to help design and manufacture a series of LED light boxes to create a fully illuminated feature wall in the main reception and illuminated way finding signage.

The impressive illuminated feature wall constructed from numerous large format fabric face LED light boxes which are fitted around a central doorway and a nine screen video wall as well as wrapping around a corner at one end.

W&Co worked closely with Integrity, both the site contractors and AV suppliers to ensure a well coordinated effort to complete this striking and high quality light box installation.

The majority of the light boxes that make up the wall have been covered with plain white backlit tension fabric whilst some of the larger areas have been digitally printed with images and information on historical VW models from 1945 to present day.

To accompany the main feature light box W&Co has supplied a 7m long, double sided tension fabric light box to act as way finding signage for customers across the 4 floor showroom, which was fixed to the ceiling for maximum visibility as soon as you enter the dealership.

W&Co was also asked to design and develop ceiling hanging tension fabric LED light boxes to go above the cars in other VW showrooms. This square shaped, multi-faced, feature lighting unit is essentially four double sided light boxes neatly connected together with mitre joins to create rectangular highlighters above new key VW models on display. 

Previously W&Co has supplied ground fixed outdoor advertising LED light boxes for Volkswagen to illuminate promotional posters close to the roadside.

For more images follow this link: http://bit.ly/2b6CqvF

Digital signage or printed signage? We explore the merits of both.

W&Co believes that digital signage is better for captive audiences and static printed signage for the passersby and a combination of both is likely the most effective form of advertising overall.

While each has their own benefits, there is a case for using digital signage and static printed signage as proven to W&Co Displays and Signs by many of their own customers, including: Volkswagen, Infiniti and Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust.

In support of the case for static printed signage for quick passing trade, Volkswagen Canterbury made the decision to swap their freestanding digital signage for a static illuminated graphic display after their moving digital roadside promotions were not being noticed by members of the public in quick moving traffic. Whereas Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust upgraded their waiting rooms from printed static signage by installing digital signage screens which allowed the hospital to maximise limited advertising space and update their information in real time to captive audience of waiting patients.

Most recently, Infiniti demonstrated just how effective digital signage and static signage can be when used together at concession stands in shopping malls around the UK which acted as pop-up car showrooms. Freestanding digital signage screens were supplied to Infiniti to enable them to display attention-grabbing digital advertising videos alongside a static sign displaying the company’s logo and name which was great for constant brand presence.

So essentially the printed signage with a brand name and single promotional message helped draw people onto the stands and the digital signage screens filled in the finer details of the car’s features.

Therefore, while digital signage and printed signage have their own individual benefits a clever usage of both in a coordinated advertising strategy offers the best results.

Read all about it! Acrylic LED cubes for The Huffington Post

In Mid July 2016 W&Co was approached by AOL to supply two illuminated acrylic cubes from the W&Co Nebula illuminated display range for an event for The Huffington Post UK. The cubes were used as part of an editorial project called Thriving Families, taking a look at the important role food plays in families and spearheaded by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. Dad-of-five, Jamie Oliver guest edited The Huffington Post UK on 15th July 2016 as part of the initiative to highlight how parents and children can thrive in today’s society. The event utilised the cubes specifically as a prop and focal point for photos and helped frame Jamie Oliver during the interview.

The Huffington Post, a Pulitzer Prize-winning source of breaking news, video, features, and entertainment, requested the two fully LED illuminated cubes to be created as part of the event which took place in their UK head office.  Each cube had to be easy to install, light enough to carry, evenly illuminate, and be branded with the HuffPost logo with printed and applied sign vinyl to each side of the cube. The units also had to be ‘plug and play ready’ so staff could use the units instantly.

The Nebula frameless acrylic cubes are part of the Nebula lightbox range, and are designed from white opal acrylic, with each cube internally lit by high brightness white LED's, giving even illumination throughout.  They are fully customisable and are available in a multitude of colours and effects from the Perspex range or other effects and graphics can be displayed by simply applying vinyl (or window cling print) directly to the faces of the lightbox. These acrylic LED lightbox cubes can be made to order as wall mounted, freestanding or ceiling hanging to suit your display requirements.

AOL requested that these cubes were to be able to free stand, and so sited perfectly at the centre of the event space (please see the images which accompany this editorial).

After the event W&Co was commended by Sophie Brugère, Marketing Executive, AOL UK, “The event was a great success, the boxes looked brilliant, we will continue to use them for future events.”.   

Click here more information and images of the Nebula product range: http://bit.ly/nebulaLED

(All images used courtesy of The Huff/Chris Gorman)

W&Co’s LED light boxes in a world of their own!

The Eden Project recently made use of custom built EconoLite LED illuminated tension fabric light boxes for their current exhibition of the winners of the ‘Wellcome Image Awards 2016,’ featuring biomedical and clinical images including the brain’s nerve fibres, a photomacrograph showing delicate golden scales of a moth and a digital reconstructed skeleton!

Due to the nature of the exhibition W&Co recommended the EconoLite light box with a thin depth of 38mm, enabling the images to be displayed as flat to the wall as possible and to allow room between the designs so the audience can truly appreciate each image. The light boxes were all custom made to specifications provided by the client to best suit the images and the area where they were to be exhibited.

W&Co also printed tension fabric graphics for all the light boxes in the exhibition ensuring the prints were of the highest quality and the 2016 winning images were illuminated beautifully.

W&Co was delighted to have had the opportunity to help portray the most informative, striking and technically excellent images by some of the UK’s most creative scientists, clinicians, photographers and artists. The client confirmed they were happy with light boxes at the exhibition with the Marketing Director for the Eden Project, commenting, “The light boxes are up and running [and] have been very well received...thanks again so much for your help.”

As well as the individual tension fabric LED Light boxes, W&Co provided weather resistant Sabre LED lightboxes which are suitable for promotional posters in any environment - even a Rainforest! They come with a convenient “swing open” front cover frame and a snap open profile that made changing the HP Latex Polyester printed graphics we also provided an easy task for the client. 

For more information and images about this project click here: http://bit.ly/2bmAlMY

Barclays bank on W&Co’s tension fabric systems

W&Co has been privileged to supply Barclays Bank since 2014, rolling out tension fabric light boxes for their “Community Wall” displays starting in South Kensington and stretching to as far as Rome, Italy! The Community display walls consist of multiple A3 and A1 FabriLITE Slim LED light boxes complete with backlit tension fabric graphics, highlighting individuals and businesses who have used Barclays as their preferred banking partner in that particular area.

The walls are often combined with printed graphics and TV Screens to create a dynamic, mixed media display to catch the eye of potential customers and businesses. W&Co has also successfully provided the Barclays HQ in Manchester with our tension “ECO” FabriLITE LED light boxes which were installed over 7 floors and recessed flush into the corridor walls.

Barclays is currently issuing a nationwide “upgrade” of their branches, aiming to be as interactive and futuristic as other premium brands.

W&Co has supplied Barclays branches including; South Kensington, Piccadilly, Great Yarmouth, Warrington, Grays, Swansea, Maidstone, Leamington Spa, Eltham, Newcastle and Rome. Our FabriLITE light boxes were specified for this project at the design stage due to their high build quality and finish as well as their high brightness and even distribution of light at only 40mm depth.