We had the opportunity to collaborate with one of our favorite push-the-envelope clients to assist them in gifting their clients with a splash of vivid colors and imagery coupled with distinctive typography. An intriguing design.
Beginning with a 105” long stream of design, we needed to fashion it into an accordion fold design that would eventually be incased in a clear acrylic box and presented to 80 of Borsa Wallace’s clients as a holiday gift.
The Challenges
- The project was a holiday gift, so it was time sensitive.
- Never been done before, we had to assess and overcome technical challenges fitting the project to the best-suited equipment and addressing unexpected complications.
- Cumbersome handwork painstakingly folding 28 folds 80 times to complete the project.
The client began with twenty-eight 6” die cut pieces to be hand glued together, a highly complicated procedure fraught with unseen difficulties. We proposed another approach that would afford them the same results. Due to the size of the piece we suggested using our inkjet roll printer and digital cutter to cad cut and score project. This too had it’s challenges.
We ran into technical issues with the roll printer, experiencing environmental factors that at times caused either shrinkage or expansion due to temperature. While typically this would never be notice, due to extensive size of accordion, even a 1/64” change is magnified over 56 panels. With the panels needing to fold and align perfectly, you can begin to imagine the precision required to produce this piece perfectly.
Finally these super long strips had to be folded slowly and patiently or the score would crack…it was a slow and cumbersome process.
We began discussions with the client before Thanksgiving and it took a few weeks to work out the kinks. Once we resolved all the problems, it took 5 working days to hand assemble
We handed the project off to Private Stock, who handled the finishing touches for the cover. The double thick, museum board panels were foil stamped in black and hand painted in bright red.
BorsaWallace mounted the final covers to the accordion, hand-numbered each limited edition piece, and assembled the final product into a custom acrylic box.
Through creativity and collaboration, this truly unique and eye-catching gift was a success… from A to Z.