Printers including Abacus Print & Display and Stadium Signs are madly finishing millions of dollars of work for the Australian Grand Prix this Saturday, producing promotional products, car decals, dome coverings, flyers, posters and banners for the F1 season’s first race of the year, held at Albert Park in Melbourne.
Several companies that printed work for the event last year have chosen not to be involved this time around.
Among those that have made it off the starting grid is Melbourne large format firm Abacus Print & Display has been kept busy in its fourth year printing for the Grand Prix, producing the graphics for a giant helmet-shaped information booth, which travels from site to site to promote the event.
Director Rob Tennant says the nine-staff firm is also printing the graphics for Grand Prix seats all around Melbourne; a royal box sitting atop 10m high scaffolding on the main straight of the track, along with Banner mesh on the scaffolding; wrapping, ticket and merchandising booths, and Formula 1 car cube decals in Federation Square; and free standing towers around event.
“It has been great to see the Fed Square work featured in big Melbourne events like White Night,” he says.
“When you watch the event from a TV it’s always pretty cool to see some of your work on the coverage that will be beamed into millions of homes around the world.”
For the first time this year, Abacus also kitted out a converted shipping container for Total Oil, involving full self-adhesive vinyl with composite panel on the inside and vinyl cut lettering logos on the outside.
“It incorporates a game where people try to pump oil into tanks at the back. A timer counts the two contestants and first to fill their tank wins. There is a leaderboard across the whole event,” Tennant says.
“It was a new challenge on a very tight timeline but like all our jobs we worked out solutions for it that blew the client away.”
Tennant says Abacus prints with an Oce 350GT, a Roland SJ1045, and two HP L260s.
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Melbourne large format printer and sports event specialist Stadium Signs is also working its fourth Grand Prix, printing directly for Renault, which builds engines for four F1 teams.
Director Pamela Hammond says her company printed the covering for Renault’s 5m high and 10m diameter dome exhibition at the event and all its internal signage, a vinyl banner and decals for an F1 show car, and new models of the Renualt Megane and Clio that will sit under the dome, as well as other cars for the Federation Square event last weekend.
However she says there was less work available this year as Renault is relying more on social media and digital advertising in an attempt to target younger customers.
Hammond says Stadium Signs has a long association with Renault and are one of their go-to printers for fast turnaround work when it needs something last minute throughout the year.
“It’s pretty full on with Renault, we’ve been working all week and always have to be ready for extra jobs. You have to be adaptable no matter how much planning you do,” she says.
“It’s a great company to work with and the Grand Prix is such a prestigious event we can use to promote our work to potential clients, it’s something to hang our hat on.”
She says the six-staff company is straight into work for the AFL and Tough Mudder as soon as the Grand Prix is over.
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