Wednesday, April 06, 2016
RoscoLED Tape Creates The Colorful Spirit of TORONTO
Rosco Spectrum: The multi-colored, dimensional sign spelling out ‘TORONTO’ has become one of the city’s most photographed icons – for locals and tourists alike. The sign, which was originally installed as a temporary public art structure for the 2015 Pan Am Games, was constructed by Unit 11 Custom Staging. It is comprised of three-dimensional letters in Azo Sans Bold font, each measuring about 3 x 3 m (10 x 10 ft), for a total sign area of 3 x 22 m (10 x 72 ft) that is situated in the middle of a reflecting pool within Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I haven’t had much opportunity to use LED tape, but I know that it has gained a lot of popularity and has a lot of different uses. Given the size of the letters, I wonder just how much LED tape is in each letter. I would think that the letters would have to be pretty full in order to achieve the level of brightness that it looks like they have in the pictures. LED technology has come a long way since the first time I used it. I remember using LED strip lights in college and seeing that the colors that they produced weren’t as crisp as traditional gels, especially white. I think this is a great icon for the city of Toronto, especially because the sign can be manipulated to change colors. I would also be curious to know what material was used for the front of the letters. Clearly, it has to be something that allows the light to shine through and withstand the elements. It would also seem appropriate that the LED lighting influenced the choice of material.
I’m surprised by the amount of brightness they get out of the LED tape in that sign, it must be completely stuffed with the tape. Furthermore, I’m even more surprised about the consistency they get with colors from letter to letter, as that too is sometimes one of the downsides of LED tape. It’s nice to see LED tape used in away that’s something more than a cheap trick or cool point light system, it’s used as the method to realize the design of this sign. Yeah, sure, it’s only a couple of light boxes, but it’s a couple of really nicely built light boxes, ones that will probably last more than 30 seconds, which is more you can say for most things we do with LED tape here. I don’t know if it’s because we usually get really cheap stuff on amazon and Rosco’s product is just that much better, but I’m very impressed with the sign.
What a cool way to light up your city. I’m glad to see that Rosco is bringing their knowledge of light outside the theatre world. Although I’m sure this happens a lot this is the first time ive seen their name associated with a project this big. The continued research and development that the LED industry has made makes possibilities endless. Although I don’t know much about Roscos RGB+W I know that it allows you to achieve colors that regular RGB cant mix. I also think that it is really cool that they were able to address each letter so that it can be controlled individually. I don’t know if this is something the designer considered but I think it would take it one step further if each one04>004567ORTYOY0R0-LOIRE1r of the pixels could be controlled allowing the letters to have texture and not look so flat. I hope there will be a time in the near future where I can visit the “city’s most photographed icons”.
I think the main “take away” from this article for me is that concrete is way to heavy and should be avoiding if possible. But after think about it you have to understand that it is the most logical solution when trying to hold something down. The problem that I see, and the article touched upon, is the fact that its not really attached to anything so it not all that hard to just move it laterally. The “solution” that the article gives is actually pretty good but I would almost say that making some form of holder for the slab would be more affective. Almost like the holder and a contraption that used something other than gravity to hold whatever it might be down. It seem that so many things have evolved over time and we have mad advances in so many respects but when it comes to holding things in place weigh is one of the only answers.
Post a Comment