10 Things to do with Big Prints.

We love photography. We love big prints. We love making photographs into really large (huge) prints of astounding sharpness and clarity.

Point made? Good.

We were thinking of some of the kinds of things our clients were doing with large prints and decided to share them with you. While there are many things to do with large prints, these ideas should spark your interest as get your creativity charged.

And with prices for large prints at an all-time low, this is a perfect time for you to do some creative things with large prints.

1. Conference Rooms and Lobbies
What a great place for large images. Just imagine how cool a 24 x 48 print would look at the end of your conference room. How about a 36 x 84? Tying it into the theme of the company or the project that is at hand can inspire the interest of all. A calming, soothing image may make client meetings more palatable.
Photographs in the lobby generally go one of two ways; they can reflect the mission of the company, its people or the locale/region of the company – or it may be a totally off-the-wall approach with something that sparks a smile or an inquiry.

Black and White images can make a very dramatic statement in an office that may have some nice colors already, and brilliant, glossy, color images on metallic paper can add some serious pizzazz to an office that may need a little sparkle. Either way, the images should be as large as you can make them, allowing for installation and a little breathing room.

One office I remember had full size black and white images of some of their employees on a pure white background. They were fitted into panels on some of the walls that were visible from the lobby. The lobby also featured a giant photo of someone swinging a golf club, with an interesting crop and some blur.

2. Supercharge a Lifeless Room
Some spaces are boring. Some spaces simply need help. Think of some of the spaces in your offices that are, well, boring. Break room, copy room, stock room… you know the ones. Add some life and some zip with a bright, colorful image. These spaces can become so much more interesting and inviting for employees and guests, with the addition of one large photograph.

Subject matter could be relevant to the room where the image goes, like close-ups of coffee making equipment in the break room, or a cool forklift image on the wall near receiving. Cost effective and dynamic, a large photo could really make a difference in places that are normally mundane.

3. Big Portfolio for Big Impact
Now this is like a blast from the past. Used to be that artists would carry large prints of their work in small, flat suitcases. Everyone did it. I did, carrying a flat file box with mounted 11x14 images. Then entered the 'small is better' era and things shrunk up to some small, cool little boxes (4x5, 3x4…) and books. And now everyone is doing it.
Hmmmm… sounds like a good time to start thinking about doing it different than the competition. A portfolio of 12 16x24 images on metallic paper, mounted and ready for presentation could cost as little as $250.

Now when everyone shows up with 4x5 portfolios, you show or drop off a portfolio of extra large, killer images. Remembered? I think so. And with the price so affordable, you could make up two or three portfolios for what a single book with little images costs.

4. Spice up a cubicle
I once had a friend who worked at a big company. A really, really big company. He had a cubicle. Not having ever worked in that kind of company, I was amazed… astounded really, that the space he had was about the size of my bathroom. The walls were naked and he had a computer and a chair. He was the assistant to the VP of Marketing (whose cubicle was slightly larger than my friends) and he was allowed to do what he wanted in that space.
Cool.

For his birthday I made a 30x40 print of an old building I shot in a ghost town in Nevada. It had signs all over the side of it that said "post no advertising". It was in black and white, and I had it laminated on foamcore. Pretty soon many of the cubicles were sporting large pictures.

Cubicles cry out for some personalization. A big image of a tranquil scene or a window overlooking a lake… ahhh… could make a big difference in how you feel in that space.

5. POP Display
Photographs are reality in two dimensions. That makes them perfect for conveying an emotion and eliciting a response. And in a retail arena, you want to do that as fast as possible. There simply is too much visual clutter competing for the attention of the shopper. A POP that, well, really pops is essential.

So many POP's (Point – of – Purchase) are too tiny to make an impact. Imagine a wall-sized image of someone using your product, or a group of your products 10 times the normal size. Maybe you take a group of smiling kids playing with the product, or a gorgeous walking path with the perfect (demographics) couple walking hand-in-hand with your product in tow, blow it up to the size of the back wall of the store… Voila! You have gained the attention of the visitors, and hopefully drawn them to the area where they purchase the items.

6. Dividers (Spacers in a Room or Office)
Do you have an office or space that needs a little separation? Walls would be too much, and a tri-folding divider just aint gonna cut it. How about two sided prints mounted on a sturdy board and suspended from the ceiling? It could be in a single panel, or a couple of panels. Simple, elegant and amazingly affordable, they can also be taken with you if you must leave.

You may want to talk to someone who is good with tools on some ideas to keep them from wobbling. In our old office we anchored them at the top and at the bottom by industrial metal cord. A very hi-tech/lo-tech kinda look. We used images of the southwest and we printed them in panels so we had a sort of triptych look going on both sides.
You can create free-standing walls as well, and attach the images to them. Simple and modular, the images can be grouped to show a theme or randomly inserted as the walls get moved and re-assigned.

7. Night Lights (Transparencies with light boxes)
Transparency material has never been this good. The back-light transparency material today has so much more color, sharpness and contrast that it becomes nearly mesmerizing. Retail stores can use the flat light box in their window. Rear lit images can create a very stunning display of their goods and then they can double as a nightlight that still keeps the message going out to people who may walk by after hours.

8. Focal-Point for a large living space
We have a large living room with a two story wall that divides it from the kitchen. My wife and I were trying to figure out what to do with it. Bookshelves or similar would require some sort of ladder. Nope, we have little ones. Stereo speakers definitely gave it that 60's East Village look. No way.

We decided that a large photograph would be just the thing. We combed through my images and didn't find much that can be used there (I am, after all, a glamour photographer). So we decided to think of an image to go there. I took an image of the wall with my digital camera and put it into Photoshop. We then made a virtual space on the Photoshop wall so I could insert images in there to see what looked good. We decided that since it was the music end of the room, (piano, saxes and a drum), we should do something musical for the image.

A few months later we were in LA and a corner sax player picked up his soprano and pointed it nearly straight away from him and with tons of buildings behind him. I snapped the image and it is now the centerpiece of the 'music wall."

Think of images that may work well in your living, family rooms. Maybe a collage would be cool, or a shot of a pet… anything that says a bit of personal information about you or your interests as well as sparking a bit of interest in the viewer.

9. Children's Room Wall Graphic
Children's rooms need big pictures. Kid docs tell us that they like the stimulation of bright colors and especially faces. Maybe a large wall shot of the new family can help the littlest member see and recognize them. Zoo pictures very large can also be so much fun. One kids room we've seen had a huge image of the local zoo's elephant. Even though it was a snapshot, at that size, it had something to say.

Change the images up every 2 – 3 months and watch the stimulation in the babies' faces as they take in the big image with all the colors.

10. Here's where you come in.
Send us your ideas for big prints so we can share them with our readers. If you have done something really cool with a large photograph, send it to us. You needn't have had it made at Mighty Imaging, just that you made it big and made a big statement with it.

Send the ideas, preferably with an image of it in use, to Stephanie. We will get back to you when we get ready to publish it.

Thanks,
Mighty Imaging