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Are you designing office wallpaper? Having installed and managed a fair few office wallpaper projects over the years, I thought I’d share a few tips that may just save you a bit of time…
The Things That Nobody Tells You When Designing Office Wallpaper!
When designing office wallpaper there are a few things you may not be told until its too late! These helpful tips may save you from installation problems, reprints or at least a bit of studio time. Hopefully you’ll be working with a printer that does its own installation, and therefore they can offer you advice at the design stage, before anything goes to print.
If not, these 5 points will be critical to make sure there are no surprises in store when it comes to the wallpaper installation.
When you’ve had the office walls surveyed, checked for specialist paints, unsuitable wallpaper surfaces and lumps and bumps smoothed over, you’re ready to submit those visuals into final artwork.
#5 Tips to Help You Design Great Office Wallpaper
#1 Use a generous safe area
That’s the area around each of the 4 edges. Wallpaper hanging isn’t always millimetre precise installation and walls can vary in shape and size, particularly in older buildings. We like to keep text and important parts of images about 250mm away from the edge. This may change with smaller walls, and if you need to get closer it is possible, but would probably need to be highlighted to your installer.
#2 Add Extra For Fitting
We typically use 25mm extra on all 4 edges (with 3mm bleed added to this) Its important the installers themselves know this, otherwise they’ll be guessing where to start the installation of the wallpaper, If its a wall which includes windows or irregular shape, discuss with your installers how much extra they would like to work with. If your printer isn’t doing the installation themselves, your project manager should be able to help.
A little extra wallpaper is important when fitting as most walls notoriously have a lot of variation along their lengths. And that little extra can prevent any gaps.
#3 Look at the wall from all angles
Take multiple views of the wall into account. There’s nothing worse than finding an obstruction in front of that important text. This might mean visiting the office to check for yourself, however a good survey by the printer should take care of this. Ask the printer to include multiple views in the survey pictures. This will give you the chance to amend the position of text, eyes etc on the final design.
#4 Look out for obstructions
Be aware of light switches, conduit, pipes and anything else sticking out of the wall. A badly placed piece of plumbing could be very embarrassing! The position and size should be marked in your survey notes, but keep well clear when designing, the wallpaper may go on with adjustment, so use that safe area around these areas too.
#5 Check the Image Quality
Ask the printer to check that the image quality is suitable for a wallpaper. Whilst your vectors will be fine, its essential you check that there is no quality loss in images as the image is enlarged.
Understandably it is difficult to see how your images will stand up to such brutal enlargement from your computer screen. Any blurriness or pixilation is sure to show once its up on the wall. A good first test is to blow up to 100% of print size (200% if designed at half size). This will begin to show any loss of quality, its simple but its sure to give you a good indication of how your graphic will look.
Working With Designers to Create Stunning Wallpaper
We work with designers to create the highest quality office wallpaper and wall coverings. This is aided by our AGFA workflow which allows us to match brand colours across all our presses, from Heidelberg and Indigo to our Large Format presses.
If you would like to take advantage of our site survey, please don’t hesitate to get in touch 01270 625207. Or email our installation manager jamieb@jprint.co.uk – Jamie will help and offer advice on your office wallpaper projects.