While a property is being developed, hoarding has the unique opportunity to engage the community and build excitement for what’s to come. Unique to the designers at Embrace Building Wraps in the UK, they often look at a development’s surroundings to determine the appropriate level of advertising at any given site. The project, at 55 Colmore Row, is surrounded by historic architecture, requiring a singular approach to hoarding design.
The resulting building banner is the UK’s largest, measuring over 26,000 feet. Commissioned by UK developer IM Properties, the team at Embrace was responsible for covering a major commercial development in the business district of Birmingham. The development will feature, upon completion, 160,000 square feet of flexible office space.
“55 Colmore Tow combines five Victorian terraced properties with original facades into a single, prestigious business hub,” Embrace explains. Additionally, the project is situated directly across from the iconic St. Philips’s Cathedral. Therefore, the building wrap had the unique task of serving as a gigantic billboard to advertise the upcoming development, but do so subtly. Prompting the designers at Embrace to take a minimalistic approach, using a color palette of only black, white and orange.
Due to the buildings’ status as a Grade II listed Victorian façade, “Great care was taken to protect the façade during the works and installation of the banner. The banner would actually assist in keeping the mess associated during the building works contained within the unit,” Embrace describes.
To cover such a large area the banner required 2,500 eyelets affixed to a 468 long custom tube-based frame that offset it from the façade. The banner weighed over 2600 pounds and took 80 hours to print.
The semi-reflective orange hoarding was completed using nearly 230 feet of Dibond aluminum composite. The digitally printed panels cover the length of the project and feature additional advertising space meant to entice passersby.
information and photography courtesy of Embrace Building Wraps