{"id":539,"date":"2006-07-10T04:41:21","date_gmt":"2006-07-10T04:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/graphicdisplayusa.com\/blog\/?p=539"},"modified":"2020-02-11T22:59:43","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T22:59:43","slug":"dibond-offers-beauty-reusability-corporate-set-designs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3acompositesusa.com\/blog\/dibond-offers-beauty-reusability-corporate-set-designs\/","title":{"rendered":"DIBOND\u00ae Offers Beauty, Reusability in Corporate Set Designs"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS \u2013 With 20 years\u2019 experience as a corporate meeting management specialist, Michael Roccaforte, of Roccaforte, LLC, in Carmel, Ind., is confident in his abilities to develop stage and set designs to meet the individual needs of his clients. But he often found himself frustrated when describing his unique ideas for custom designs to fabricators.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, it was difficult to find substrates that would accurately represent the mock-up illustration I would present,\u201d said Roccaforte. \u201cIn some cases, the materials were very exacting for fabrication \u2013 which is great \u2013 but not very flexible or creative.”<\/p>\n

So, Roccaforte \u2013 whose background included meeting management and photography when he started his business with his wife Deb in 1993 \u2013 taught himself computer-aided design (CAD) in order to start designing his own meeting sets 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to be bound to someone else\u2019s limitations or be forced to accept sets that were not built to the quality I expected,\u201d he said. \u201cFinding the right material goes a long way toward creating results that meet everyone\u2019s expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"d0e0f15aae42d795438e21913e8f3b4e_f289\"<\/a>Roccaforte began to experiment with substrates for building custom sets, including Dibond\u00ae graphic display board by 3A Composites USA. Dibond is a rigid, durable aluminum composite material consisting of two pre-painted sheets of .012-inch aluminum bonded to a solid polyethylene core \u2013 a unique composition that makes it approximately one-half the weight of aluminum. In addition to lighter weight than aluminum or wood, Dibond offered Roccaforte the ability to design large meeting display pieces that could be scored and folded to create multi-dimensional effects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw the Dibond at Meyer Plastics (a Dibond distributor) in Indianapolis, I knew this material had the potential to be formed into the unique set pieces that I envisioned creating for our clients,\u201d said Roccaforte.<\/p>\n

Roccaforte built his first set pieces from Dibond in 2003, including large stage backdrop panels featuring waterfall effects for corporate meeting client Nalco, which provides water purification solutions for industrial clients. The white Dibond panels, which were painted copper, have proved so durable that Roccaforte has been able to re-use them for other meetings, adding custom touches for each client.<\/p>\n

\u201cA wonderfully creative benefit of Dibond is that it soaks up the light and reflects it back,\u201d said Roccaforte. \u201cPeople look at this material and they can\u2019t tell what it is. When we\u2019re using it with water panels, they\u2019re just mesmerized. They haven\u2019t seen it in a ballroom stage setting before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"3718b4cad224049e169e9422f026f629_f287\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2005, the water panels served as stage backdrops for another corporate client\u2019s meeting in Boston, and additional Dibond panels were used to create stylized winged podiums. Later that year, the water panels were installed on either side of a 26-foot tall by 11-foot wide Dibond cross bolted within 2-inch square aluminum framing. This large cross \u2013 which was vertically suspended from the ceiling \u2013 served as the focal point of the 20-year celebration of College Park Church in Indianapolis held at the Indianapolis Convention Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a powerful set,\u201d said Joe Rice, administrative pastor, College Park Church. \u201cWe loved the lighting and water effects. It set the mood but wasn\u2019t overbearing or pretentious. They were able to move it in and out of the convention center without any problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roccaforte described the cross as \u201cstructurally sound\u201d and credits much of that strength to the Dibond graphic display board. \u201cThe Dibond aluminum composite panel gave this large hanging cross strength that usually isn\u2019t found in materials so light and thin,\u201d said Roccaforte.<\/p>\n

\"90e31c26abcdc149c2ce8c13c5a998e6_f288\"<\/a>The Dibond was scored and bolted to the back of the frame, according to Roccaforte, who scores Dibond to create beveled dimension. In order to conserve shipping space, Roccaforte ships many pieces flat, folding them during installation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can take a substrate that is really flat and make it look like it\u2019s got a lot of dimension,\u201d said Roccaforte. \u201cDibond holds up great in shipping.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dibond material is either cut on the back with a CNC router using a 45-degree bit or cut by hand then hand-folded, according to Adam Walsh, president, ISF Sign Specialists in Indianapolis, which has fabricated Dibond set pieces for Roccaforte. Dibond set pieces then are spray painted with automotive paint.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael uses a lot of copper tones,\u201d said Walsh. \u201cThese pieces are resilient. They may get a scratch here or there, but that\u2019s easily fixed with a paintbrush. Dibond also is lightweight. It wins hands down over aluminum with half the weight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roccaforte sees no end in sight to his ability to reuse these Dibond set pieces.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ll use them until they wear out,\u201d he said. \u201cDibond is really durable and very flexible in its application. We\u2019ve even been able to cut pieces of Dibond from older display pieces to create new ones. We\u2019ve also started experimenting with adding frosted plexiglass panels to sets to give even more dimension to the Dibond flat panels; plus, this technique adds a two-toned color without actually changing any paint colors. The Dibond panels are absolutely great to light. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re continually challenged to create new and innovative designs for our clients, and Dibond continues to be an integral part of our design planning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS \u2013 With 20 years\u2019 experience as a corporate meeting management specialist, Michael Roccaforte, of Roccaforte, LLC, in Carmel, Ind., is confident in his abilities to develop stage and set designs to meet the individual needs of his clients. But he often found himself frustrated when describing his unique ideas for custom designs to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3acompositesusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3acompositesusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3acompositesusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3acompositesusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3acompositesusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/3acompositesusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4083,"href":"https:\/\/3acompositesusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions\/4083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3acompositesusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3acompositesusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3acompositesusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}