Felipe Pantone at the Saatchi Gallery

The Graphical Tree were contacted by the installation and logistics coordinator of Chelsea’s Saatchi Gallery to work on a site-specific piece for their Saatchi Gallery’s Beyond the Streets London exhibition. The area was to showcase the work of the incredible Felipe Pantone, with the room itself becoming an extension of, and an integral part of the show.

Felipe Pantone is an Argentinian-Spanish fine artist based in valencia who started creating graffiti at the age of 12. To quote his bio, “Pantone’s work deals with dynamism, transformation, digital revolution, which feels like a collision between an analog past and a digitized future, where human beings and machines will inevitably glitch alongside one another in a prism of neon gradients, geometric shapes, optical patterns, and jagged grids.” This is certainly apparent in the work we produced for him and the Saatchi Gallery.

The initial contact came via email, with a multi-page PDF document with the idea and concept for what they wanted us to produce, and provisional dimensions of the walls and floor in question.

The sharing of a brief gave us enough of an idea to put together an estimate, which upon provisional sign-off, allowed us to venture further into the project, including an important site survey. We’ve written about how to prepare a brief for a large-format print estimate in this quoting help guide article.

The purpose of the project was essentially to cover five walls and the floor with print. This consisted of the entrance wall, two partition walls, the left wall, the right wall, and a floor graphic along with six plinths. This was a big and important piece of production to be seen by a lot of people throughout the duration of the show. As well as looking over the space in prep for the installation, we also needed some measurements, so we paid a visit to the site, which also gave us a chance to introduce ourselves to the client. Although we had worked with the Saatchi Gallery previously for the Rolling Stones Exhibitionism show, this was our first job with this particular project manager. It’s meetings like this that help to build a strong relationship from the start.

While on-site we discussed materials and found out that the Saatchi gallery would be laying down a temporary green ply flooring for the floor graphic to be applied on top of the temporary flooring. It was important that the entire job was printed on the same material for both wall and floor graphics, so there would be no difference in colour. Because of the heavy footfall, we decided on a grey-back permanent self-adhesive vinyl with matte lamination for the walls, switching to a non-slip laminate used for the flooring. All the printing was produced using our eco-latex inkjet.

The whole production run in total equated to over linear 230m of print, and an additional 230m linear of seal. It’s also a lot of media to install.

After an in-studio meeting with our production manager and job account manager, our installation team met on site at the Saatchi Gallery with a detailed site plan of the graphics to install, including the plinths to be covered. Having undertaken an initial site visit we were able to point out any unusual features or things to look out for in the room when installing. This information can be factored in when printing and producing a set of graphics if necessary too, as it can all aid in a smooth and efficient installation.

Walking around the Felipe Pantone show once it opened the wow factor of the room was quite apparent.

Everyone and we mean everyone who entered while we were in the room ourselves had a reaction to the environment. These large-format printed pixel wallpapers have an impact, which is what great graphics can do for you – they can elevate an already interesting space filled with fantastic art and expand it to the next level.

The design may be bamboozling, but it’s also visually interesting, attention-grabbing, and importantly memorable. For us, it’s a privilege to play a part in producing some show-stopping graphics, ones that the audience will no doubt remember for a long time after exiting the gallery. What is art for after all, if it doesn’t provoke feeling and a memory.