Sign Maker Profile Large IKEA bag in Oxford Circus
Greg continued: “When you’re doing projects like this, you need advertising consent from the local council, so they don’t like to see too much, and sometimes they only allocate a certain amount of space to it.
“So, with that, by making high-impact graphics or art, it improves the local aesthetic. It tells neighbours that you are a responsible contractor, and you are doing something that is looking to improve the area.”
A work of art
Walking by, you can’t see the extent of the building going on behind. All that is visible is a graphic imitating Greco-Roman architecture, as well as a large image of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man plastered on each side.
When lit, it is a beautiful visual, giving a sense of high culture and authenticity, and if just walking by, it could be easily mistaken for the building – a statement Greg took as a compliment. It is one of the six projects Embrace Building Wraps is currently undertaking in London and sits in the top three projects that Greg has been involved with. The other two are the wrap of Selfridges & Co in Birmingham and the visual graphic installed for the IKEA in Oxford Circus in 2023.
The Selfridges & Co project was started in 2020 and was the world’s biggest printed scaffold wrap. It was made up of 24 individual wraps and offset frames covering an area of 8,500m sq and took six months to install.
The project in Oxford Circus was to help IKEA move into the former Top Shop. Little advertising could be done for this wrap due to its location above other well-known brands and being in a prominent place, but a subtle design was created.
www.signupdate.co.uk
One side of the building was wrapped entirely in a blue material with two large IKEA handles hanging from the top, imitating the iconic IKEA bags. The rest was wrapped in a more generic visual design showing an outline of a building like flatpack instructions to prevent blurring the message with the other brands below.
Greg said: “The Selfridges in Birmingham is one of my favourites purely because it was on a massive scale and the complexity of it, with individual wraps; also, the actual design is very striking.
“It had no advertising on it, it was more of an art installation, and you could see it all over the Birmingham skyline. “The IKEA wrap is also a good one because of the scale and location, but also the 3D factor we had to consider.”
Wrapping for the future With such large projects, consideration has to go into what will happen to the materials once they are taken down.
It might seem difficult – after all, who would want a 750m sq IKEA bag – but Greg has managed to find inventive ways to dispose of his waste sustainably. He said: “The PVC and PVC-free products can be taken away for lots of purposes, one being added to fossil fuels to make them burn for longer. Sometimes it is ground down and turned into things like bollards or signs to be put on Heras fencing.
“Some people have turned it into tote style bags; some use it as boot liners in cars.
“Here at Embrace Building Wraps, we ensure there should never be a conflict between supporting the future of our planet and turning a profit.
“It is with a great deal of pride that we
The Vitruvian Man wrap for RH in Burlington Garden
are playing a role in the transition towards a more sustainable and environmentally improved future through our policies, procedures and commitments. “Another initiative is we automatically each month and, on every occasion, install a project for our clients we help fund projects that collectively go some way to help reverse climate change.
“In the last 52 months alone, we have supported the prevention of 252CO2e from being emitted through 51 verified carbon avoidance projects and funded the planting of more than 17,000 new trees across 19 projects."
The company has found an almost perfect niche, but the concept, as bold as it may seem, is a simple one.
It not only protects the landscape of the area, but also gives privacy to the builders and helps the owner tap into an advertising space not previously utilised before. It is probably why 65% of its customers are repeat business, they provide amazing decorations with expert installation and sustainable disposal.
May/June 2025 | 47 |
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