Riot Creative Imaging

Creating the Wow Factor

Just north of Orlando, Florida, the owners of a new Chrysler dealership wanted to turn their blank walls into a unique environment that would turn heads and create a sense of story and place. They wanted to energize and motivate their customers.

For this, they turned to designer Kimberly Bewley of kbco designs. And Bewley, who had just finished a job for a Fiat dealership that involved creating prints on acrylics and standoffs, wanted to go big this time. Really big.

Having successfully completed the Fiat project with the help of Riot Creative Imaging in Orlando, Bewley invited Dave Powers and his Riot Orlando team to bid on the project at the Chrysler dealership. When the project came up, Powers and Riot Orlando won the project.

While Bewley worked on the concepts and drawings, Powers sent his installer to the site to take exact measurements. Bewley then sent the finished design files to Riot Orlando to be printed on an HP800 latex printer for the murals and an Oce GT350 for the acrylics. The murals were printed with environmentally friendly inks on adhesive-backed vinyl with a matte overlaminate.

During the installation process, the top edge of each strip was tacked into position on the wall. In a process similar to putting up wallpaper, the installers then carefully lined up the panels, left to right, top to bottom, before securing the first panel to the wall and adding the remaining panels.

In addition to the wall murals, Bewley and Riot Orlando created and mounted several reverse prints on acrylic with aluminum standoffs in the corners.

The project, which was originally more limited in scope, grew when the dealership's owners decided they loved what they were seeing. "They said, 'Well, we want something over here on this wall and new stuff on this wall and this wall'," says Powers. "After they got the first two murals up, they just kept adding and adding to the space." The final project came to 3,800 square feet of images, mostly of Dodge Rams, Chryslers, and Jeeps in action, on and off the road, in streams and mud, creating a sense of freedom and heart-pounding thrills.

"The first thing everybody does when they come in is to go, 'Wow!'" says Powers. "Even myself, the first time I went in there and saw it actually up, that's the first thing that came out of my mouth. And I've seen huge murals before, but this was like, Oh my gosh, this thing really looks good. Everybody who comes in loves it."

Large-scale wall graphics, designed and executed well, have the potential to create emotion and excitement — just what the owners of the dealership wanted.