- What it is
- A frame built from bolted aluminium extrusion or truss, spanning a doorway, a corridor or an atrium walkway, with a printed header across the top and usually a printed wrap on each upright. Because it is assembled rather than bought off a shelf, it is sized to the opening instead of the opening being made to fit it. It is the one branded element at an event that every single visitor passes under, and the only one that appears in the background of other people’s photographs by default.
- What it is printed on
Either a woven polyester skin tensioned into the extrusion with a sewn silicone edge, or a PVC-coated banner tensioned through eyelets with bungee cord. Fabric is flat and completely matt and photographs without a hot spot; coated banner is heavier, far more tolerant of an outdoor site, and the sensible choice where the span is long and the structure is truss. Neither is a sheet the caliper table holds.
- How it feels
- Fabric on a closed frame is drum-tight and matt, and from underneath it reads as a painted surface rather than as a print. Coated banner has a faint sheen and a real weight to it; take hold of an edge and you can feel the woven scrim inside the coating, which is the layer actually carrying the tension.
- What it suits
- Roadshow entrances, mall atrium activations, conference halls, race and community event start lines, and any opening where the brand should be above the crowd rather than in it. It does not suit a low ceiling — a header people have to duck under stops being photographed and starts being a hazard — and an outdoor span needs an engineered structure specified for wind, not a frame chosen on graphics alone.
- Lead time
- Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days. Installation, where it applies, is scheduled on top of that.
- The common mistake
- Designing the header as one long strip of centred type. Almost nobody sees a gantry square on: it is read at a sharp angle from down the concourse, then from directly underneath, where a centred wordmark is foreshortened into a smear. Repeat the mark towards both ends, keep the centre simple, and spend real attention on the leg wraps — they are read at arm’s length by everybody queueing.
Print idea
Entrance gantry
An overhead frame spanning an entrance or a walkway, carrying a printed header above the crowd and a wrap on each leg. It is the element at an event that everybody walks under and most people photograph.
Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
What entrance gantry is
A frame built from bolted aluminium extrusion or truss, spanning a doorway, a corridor or an atrium walkway, with a printed header across the top and usually a printed wrap on each upright. Because it is assembled rather than bought off a shelf, it is sized to the opening instead of the opening being made to fit it. It is the one branded element at an event that every single visitor passes under, and the only one that appears in the background of other people’s photographs by default.
Either a woven polyester skin tensioned into the extrusion with a sewn silicone edge, or a PVC-coated banner tensioned through eyelets with bungee cord. Fabric is flat and completely matt and photographs without a hot spot; coated banner is heavier, far more tolerant of an outdoor site, and the sensible choice where the span is long and the structure is truss. Neither is a sheet the caliper table holds.
- The panel, drawn to its finished proportion.
- The aperture — what is still visible once the frame is closed. The deep silicone-edge profile takes 40 mm off every edge, drawn at the panel’s own scale.
- The silicone bead, sewn around the whole perimeter.
- The frame channel, in section. The bead seats in it and the edge of the print disappears.
- The seam: the panel is wider than the 3200 mm the cloth is woven in.
The specification
Six fields, and the last one is the useful one.
The same six questions are answered for every entry in this section, in the same order, so two objects can be compared without reading two pages of prose. The mistake is stated last and stated plainly, because it is the one that costs a reprint and it is the reason this page is worth sending to a colleague.
Where this sits.
Every entry is indexed three ways, because a buyer arrives knowing the occasion, the object or the material and almost never all three.
- Application
- Material and effect
Also worth looking at
- Modular backdrop wallStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Ceiling-rigged bannersStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Mesh bannersStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Teardrop and feather flagsStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Branded pop-up gazeboStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- ExhibitionThe specification, and how it is quoted
- Every print idea, indexed three waysThe section index
- The materials libraryCaliper, weight and what each finish costs
Send the specification for this, and it comes back quoted.
Every job is quoted from its specification — stock, quantity, sides, finish, size and deadline.
- Quantity
- Stock — or the feel you want, if you do not know the stock
- Sides printed
- Finish
- Flat and finished size
- The deadline
Artwork is welcome but not required to start. Email sales@ezprint.com.sg if you would rather attach files.