A Wild Wide-format Ride

Most in-plants’ print jobs center around the core business of their parent companies. But, on any given day, Brian Kniceley’s shop on the shores of Lake Erie could be producing a range of items including window décor for a donut shop, props for a magic show, vehicle decals, or informational signage about the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

It’s hard to find a common thread connecting these wide ranging jobs, but knowing that Kniceley’s parent company touts itself as “The Roller Coaster Capital of the World” makes the picture a little clearer.

Cedar Point, located on a peninsula in Sandusky, OH, is among the largest and oldest amusement parks in North America. In addition to the main amusement park area, Cedar Point is also home to Soak City Water Park and Challenge Park, which includes additional thrill rides, go-karts and miniature golf.

As any fan of amusement parks knows, signs, banners, concessions menus, and vehicle decals play an essential role in the experience. At Cedar Point, this wide-format printing is produced in-house in a four-person design and production shop.

Kniceley, an environmental services graphic designer for the graphic services department, explains that in an amusement park, it’s typical to expect the unexpected. This is why maintaining an in-plant specializing in wide-format is integral to keeping up the park’s appearance.

“There are some things that just can’t help but be last minute, and they know they have people here and the equipment here,” Kniceley explains. “If it needs to get done, it will get done.”

More Than Meets the Eye

In addition to the signage found throughout the park, Kniceley explains that the print shop also produces vinyl banners, large-format menus for concession areas, cards used in live shows, artwork for the park’s offices, material to be placed on easels in hotels, and more.

The in-plant maintains a 54˝ Roland VersaCamm VS 540 printer and plotter, which Kniceley describes as the shop’s “workhorse.” But because of the nature of amusement park signage, he says the in-plant also keeps paint, brushes and rollers alongside its high-tech printing equipment.

For example, many of the signs in the park are produced on high-density urethane. That material can be carved to shape and painted, with a digital print then placed on top of it.

Kniceley explains that the VersaCamm’s low-solvent system provides better durability than water-based ink systems. He says that this iteration of Roland’s wide-format technology is also an improvement over the company’s previous models, which included the SOLJET and CammJet.

When signage does need to be repaired or replaced, Kniceley says it is rarely because the print quality has deteriorated. Rather, it’s because information needs to be updated or perhaps the identity of a ride has been reimagined.

“Our menus change every year and our live show signs change every year, so

there’s a lot of stuff that’s totally redone on an annual basis,” he points out. “It hasn’t been a real issue with prints failing before their time.”

While the VersaCamm is the only printer that the wide-format shop uses, it also implements a GBC cold laminator, which helps increase the durability of the signage. Kniceley explains that lamination provides the finished product an extra protective element that guards it from issues stemming from physical contact.

“It’s not necessarily for durability as far as light or moisture, but just handling,” he says. “It’s a nice abrasion guard to have. And with the extra layer it’s easier to apply.”

Staying Ahead

While the in-plant does need to react quickly when signs within the park need to be repaired or replaced on the fly, Kniceley explains that the workflow schedule at the amusement park has the in-plant producing items well in advance.

For example, when explaining his work to those outside of the park, they are often surprised by how busy the shop becomes during the winter when the park is closed. He explains that during that time, items can come into the print shop to be measured and tested.

“People still ask me, ‘Oh, you work during the winter?,’ ” Kniceley relates. “But it’s actually our busiest time. Once the park is open...that is when things are just a little bit easier.”

But that little bit of down time is brief. During the fall, Cedar Point becomes a haven for Halloween activities, which require plenty of wide-format printing for sets, backdrops and signs.

“We have a major HalloWeekend event in the fall,” Kniceley explains. “That keeps our summers really busy now because as soon as our park opens for the season in May, we start working on what we’re going to put in for HalloWeekend, which begins in September.”

Kniceley explains that once the park closes during the fall season, an assessment can be made as to what signs, graphics or items need to be repaired or replaced. New jobs will be sent in from the various departments, such as the foods division or live entertainment division.

In many cases, Kniceley says a full-on replacement can be avoided with a little maintenance work. He says that these repairs are typically done on expensive jobs or ones with a large or challenging structure and substrate.

“Sometimes if it’s on a really simple substrate, we will just replace it,” he says. “If it’s something that’s part of a custom-shaped background, we’ll work on repairing what’s needed for the structure of it. Then usually we’ll peel off the old print and reprint when it’s inside the sign shop.”

Custom Cuts

Because many of the items printed for Cedar Point have intricate shapes and are not the typically rectangular items most print shops produce, Kniceley says the shop makes good use of the VersaCamm’s contour cutting feature. With that feature, the shape of the sign can be designed using Adobe Illustrator and produced automatically on the printer. Kniceley explains that this ability to add some creative freedom to the sign design was an important factor in bringing the VersaCamm on board.

“That was a really big selling point for us—the fact that not everything you do has to be a rectangle,” he says. “We can do shapes like the game signs. We can print that on the Roland, then it contour cuts it to match that shape exactly and then we just mount it on there.”

For smaller items, the in-plant also uses a 30˝ Gerber S-750 plotter. Kniceley explains that this piece of equipment is well suited for cutting one-color items, such as adhesive vinyl letters or numbers that can be adhered to vehicles or roller coaster cars.

Having the equipment and skill set in-house to produce the array of wide-format printing necessary for an amusement park has been beneficial to Cedar Point, Kniceley says. Printing within the park’s grounds not only ensures it’s getting done faster, but getting done right, he says.

“It’s helpful we have the ability to do it in a quick turnaround in an effective way,” he explains.