Canadian printing companies and graphic suppliers have been active leading up to and during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. As a great source of pride for the country, printers are helping make the games vibrant, personal, current and environmental. Following are some of the acknowledged highlights to date:
From Greece to Vancouver
The Olympic journey for George Kallas, president of Metropolitan Fine Printers in Vancouver, began early in the decade. Metropolitan printed Vancouver’s 2010 Bid Book back in 2003 and Kallas was there when it was presented to the International Olympic Committee. He was also part of the Canadian contingent that traveled to Greece, his motherland, this past fall to witness the lighting of the Olympic torch in Olympia on October 22. George also took part in the final days of the Olympic torch relay as it traveled to Vancouver. In celebration of his Olympic journey he has posted a photo montage online for all to see.
Personalized photo books, posters and more
Montreal-based printing giant Transcontinental is producing the official Vancouver 2010 photo products website where visitors can upload digital photos and create personalized photo books, calendars, notebooks and posters, incorporating their own images with official Olympic themes. Users are also able to select images from a variety of professional stock photography as well.
“One of the most striking elements of any Olympic or Paralympic Games are the photos―they truly say more than a thousand words about the struggles, triumphs and joy the athletes and spectators experience,” said François Olivier, president and CEO of Transcontinental Inc. in a release. “We’re eager to give to everyone the possibility to create their own souvenirs of the 2010 Winter Games.”
Posters, printed on a re-stickable substrate, range in prices from $17.99 to $29.99, photo books from $19.99 to $39.99, notebooks $17.99. Shipping and handling is added to all orders. The products take between five and seven business days to process after being ordered, and the products are satisfaction guaranteed.
German-language daily printed at SFU
Simon Fraser University’s on-campus document solutions department is printing daily 12-page German-language newsletters during the Games. Called "Olympische Momente" (Olympic Moments), the content for the full-colour newsletters (compiled by photographers and reporters following the German athletes) is sent each night to Germany where the publication is assembled by German Olympics media partner medienfabrik Gütersloh GmbH.
By 1 a.m. local time the digital pages are submitted to SFU via their WebCRD file submission system and then printed on a Xerox iGen.
The newsletters are packaged by 6 a.m. and arrive at Olympic locations each morning by 9 a.m.
Banners by Barrie-based printer
The Look Company, based in Barrie, Ontario, landed the deal to supply over 12,000 street and indoor banners, as well as course and venue banners for the Winter Olympics. Specialiizing in wide format digital fabric printing, Look printed the banners on a special polyester based textile. "Best of all – the banners are recyclable and produced through environmentally friendly methods, and that is important when you’re dealing with over 12,000 banners” noted Ed Burke, founder and CEO of The Look Company in a release.
From graphics to flooring—a recycling project
A unique recycling effort will be turning Olympic graphics into useful flooring products following the Games. 3M Canada, a official supplier of building and vehicle wrap graphics for the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) will be removing and recycling the graphic banner materials used to adorn the Games, some 200,000 square feet of material.
In partnership with Mannington Mills, a New Jersey-based flooring manufacturing company, the sticky mass of vinyl wrap material reclaimed from the Games will become part of the post-consumer waste material used in Mannington’s premium flooring tiles.
The large 3M graphics are wrapping downtown buildings and Olympic sites as well as a fleet of 4,600 vehicles, 500 buses and eight ice resurfacing machines. ,br /> (all photos courtesy of 3M Canada)
