Prototyping

Prototyping Process

Directory and Internal Signage

Materials: 54” roll of poster paper, Ink

Equipment: Roland TrueVis VG-540 vinyl cutter/printer, Paper Cutter

Since we wanted to print the directory and navigational signs larger than average printers could handle, we had two options: pay for a service which would print these posters for us, or do it ourselves using a Vinyl printer. As using a Vinyl printer was more cost effective, we decided to go with this option.

Printing the posters was overall a simple process. A PDF version of the directory and directional posters needed to be loaded in VersaWorks and resized. After testing different types of poster paper and different sizes, we decided on a 24” by 24” directional poster and a 15” by 24” directory on glossy paper. After the posters were printed, the final step was to cut off the excess printer paper using a paper cutter.

Starling Stickers

Materials: 30” roll clear sticker paper, Ink

Equipment: Vinyl Printer, Paper Cutter

To reinforce the Starling branding, we printed stickers of Starling with different designs. We plan to give these stickers to the check-in desk for the IHDD so that they can hand them out to the children visiting. This would also add to the child-friendly vibe of the IHDD that we wanted to reinforce. 

Creating these stickers was fairly straightforward. Following the same process as the directional posters, a pdf of the sticker sheet was loaded onto VersaWorks, then resized to fit the proportions of the 30” roll of clear sticker paper. We decided to create about 150 stickers, as that fit the proportions of the sticker paper well.

Starling 

Materials: 8” by 10” Acrylic, Ink

Equipment: Epilog M2 32/40 laser cutter, Roland Verra UV LEF-300 UV printer

The prototyping process for starling consisted of 2 steps: first printing 2 versions of Starling onto the 8x10 acrylic and then laser cutting the outline of both starlings.

Step 1

The UV printer was an overall smooth process which took around 5-10 minutes per acrylic. Setting up each print would take an additional 10 minutes. One thing to note that significantly impacted our laser cutting process was that the UV printer had automatic margins on anything you would print and would slightly distort the images compared to the original file. Thus, the preset outlines we had created in illustrator did not initially match up with the UV printed Starlings.

Step 2

The laser cutting process involved a significant amount of trial and error. First, acrylic was incredibly thin and thus setting the printer according to standard acrylic settings would cause the cuts to burn the acrylic significantly and create an unpleasant smell. Thus, over 30+ test prints were done using miniature versions of starling to calibrate the settings so the printer would still cut with minimal burning. The result settings were 10 speed, 10 power, and 100 frequency.

Additionally, another significant barrier we faced was that the UV printed Starlings did not perfectly align with the Illustrator file as mentioned in step 1 due to distortion. Thus, we had to create a second Illustrator file with outlines that would match the UV printed version of Starling.

After being stuck with the challenge of aligning the UV printed characters with the laser cutting track, we decided to switch gears. Instead of modifying the laser cutting file and adjusting the sheet of acrylic everytime, we created a new design file that is symmetrical if the sheet was turned 180 degrees. Because of this, as long as the characters are aligned on the sheet, we would be able to use the laser cutting file to cut out both Starlings at once. 

With the new Starling design file and tested laser cutter settings (speed: 8%, power: 10%, and frequency: 50%), we successfully printed Starlings onto our sheets of acrylic.

Bathroom Signage

Materials: 8” by 10” acrylic, paper, printer ink, glue

Equipment: Printer, sanding block

For the restroom signage we originally attempted to print our designs on each sheet of acrylic using the UV printer. With that, we found that the colors were not as vibrant and didn’t show up as well as we wanted them to. We tried a few things here such as printing a layer of white before the layers of color. However, the colors were still dull and difficult to see.

Thus, we opted to print our designs on regular paper and sandwich it between 2 sheets of acrylic using glue. In printing on printer paper, we can ensure that the designs look exactly like we designed them. Sandwiching them between acrylic makes the signs feel more sturdy and of better quality. To finish, we trimmed the corners of each sign and sanded them into smooth corners for a softer edge.