Behind the Scenes

The MATERIALS

Printing the 0 Project.

0 is formatted on a large banner that will wrap the historical Maury School, where the Arlington Arts Center is housed. The banner will be printed on a Vutek QS 2000 UV flat bed printer at Snoyer’s center outside of Nashville, TN. Operating since 1994, Snoyer’s FASTSIGNS is one of the highest-producing centers in the FASTSIGNS franchise. He attributes much of his success to his commitment to, “investing in the latest printing technologies soon after their introduction, which allows my team to meet the needs of clients,” and take on ambitious jobs like the 0 Project. Despite the elevated technology of the Antioch store, Snoyer says his 14-person staff, “has a real family atmosphere”, with many staff members having been with him for years. Displaying an impressive civic pride, Snoyer works with the Nashville Chamber of Commerce and serves on the National Chamber of Commerce Board.

Snoyer is no stranger to large-scale production projects. He frequently produces banners and signage for teams playing at L.P. Field in Nashville. In 2002, his team created a 100-foot high, 150-foot wide banner for the end zone at the Music City Bowl Game. Printed on traditional vinyl banners, it weighed over 1,000 pounds and took 4 days to print. In contrast, 0, printed on DuPont™ Tyvek® banner media, a water resistive barrier material manufactured by DuPont, which combines strength, protective properties and high vapor permeability, will weigh just 95 pounds and will be printed in under a day. Snoyer took on the in-kind job because once he got into the details, the technical challenges became interesting. Being ever-civic minded, he added that “it’s a good thing to donate”. The organization sponsoring the 0 Project, the Arlington Arts Center, is a private 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. The AAC is a leading venue for contemporary art in the Washington, DC area.

DuPont™ Tyvek® banner media

The 0 Project is printed on DuPont™ Tyvek®, the same material used for FedEx envelopes and insulating houses. It is strong, durable and light.

Using DuPont™ Tyvek® to print the project on a large scale was always part of the plan. When offered the opportunity to complete the concept for exhibition at Arlington Arts Center, I immediately started researching the application of DuPont™ Tyvek® in large banner projects. I found little on the Internet that supported this possibility. I then wrote to DuPont the makers of DuPont™ Tyvek® and explained my idea. It appears that DuPont™ Tyvek® although ideal as a banner material is still not fully utilized as such. DuPont has been instrumental in providing assistance to the 0 Project and supplied all the DuPont™ Tyvek® used on the art work at Arlington.

Deborah Weber at Hewlett Packard was first contacted by DuPont Graphics to supply the project with a form of DuPont™ Tyvek® that is coated for outdoor use. Although in the end we did not use this particular product. Deborah became the person who most supported this ambitious effort from it’s earliest stages. Her kindness and unwavering help, kept me going through a long winter of doubt and setbacks. In the end she was the person who found Scott Snoyer and from then on the project developed and assistance was offered from many sources. Deborah and I have not met, only emailed, she is in Colorado. I can only offer my deepest thanks.