CityScape, developed by RED Development and CDK Partners, is a $900-million, 2.5-million-square-foot mixed-use development combining residential, retail, hotel, office and public park space that will ultimately span three city blocks of downtown Phoenix.  

Creative agency Bozell concepted and designed the event graphics for the grand opening event, held at the US Airways Arena in Phoenix. Computer renderings provided by Callison Architects were superimposed onto photos of the existing skyline and printed onto 40-foot vinyl banners, which were printed by grand format printer, Commerce Color in St. Louis, Missouri.

At a key moment in the celebration, three giant event graphics, vinyl banners unfurled from the ceiling and dropped dramatically into place, offering a real-time/in-perspective view of what the city of downtown Phoenix will look like.

Bozell’s Michael Pitzer found Commerce Color through a search on the Internet and selected them after visiting their website and seeing the size and scope of their previous work. What he saw gave him confidence to move forward with this project, which involved some things that had never been done before with printed vinyl banners.  

The event graphics presented some unique logistical challenges: The banners were huge, so shipping was a challenge, as was installation: Commerce Color was selected in part because they had the ability to print on very lightweight material. Commerce Color also printed custom floor graphics for the event. Bozell contracted with an artist to do a “sidewalk chalk painting,” which was then printed as a vinyl floor graphic. It looked like a huge hole in the floor, with guests peering down into a view of the park being developed as part of CityScape.

Says Pitzer, “Commerce Color did a great job. They worked really hard, got the event graphics done in an insane amount of time and the banners worked perfectly. The whole thing came off beautifully. If anything, I was amazed at how inexpensive it was to do something so dramatic.”

more info: Commerce Color, Event Graphics, Vinyl Banners, Floor Graphics