Ltd Ltd is known for its high-end creative work. Melony Rocque-Hewitt spies on some of its more ground-breaking work.
They’re a restless bunch, the crew at Learn to Dream, or Ltd Ltd as its more commonly known. This restlessness is not a phase but a defining condition that has been part and parcel of this London-based, wide-format, digital printing company from the off.
“We have always been a company that experiments and which likes to push boundaries,” says Craig Beecher who, together with Seymour Reeves and Stuart Hart, set-up Ltd Ltd just over a decade ago. This founding triumvirate has a photo-lab background and has been involved in digital print from its earliest days. Early high profile clients for the company included the Tate Gallery, Liverpool and the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds. These days the company services a broad range of clients across retail, exhibition and event, exterior, interior, museums and galleries encompassing brands such as ASICS, Adidas, HBSC, EDF Energy, Coutts, V&A and Google.
“In the early days everyone who owned a wide-format printer was outputting to paper. We always wanted to do something different and got involved with media research and development,” says Beecher. “We were one of the earliest companies to digitally print onto silver foil and acrylic. We learnt how to print and finish unusual substrates. It was often trial and error but it allowed us to be different and to offer new substrates with confidence.
“We experiment every day and there’s never a point when we’re not producing or challenging something. At present for example, we are beta testing a new machine from Epson and we are enjoying pushing it to its limits and beyond,” he says.
Despite its reputation for challenge and experimentation, Ltd Ltd is also known for the close collaboration it enjoys with its clients. “Being able to talk, collaborate, sample and ultimately produce the end product is the way we approach all of our projects,” says Beecher.
A recent project carried out for client Space Invader Design for Peninsular Building Services in Manchester is a good case in point. This was the first time that Ltd Ltd worked with interior design company Space Invader. The brief was to create a giant manifestation installed onto glass turning the Peninsular Building into a stunning landmark. Space Invader liked the idea of a tree graphic effecting feelings of movement and space. From this initial meeting, Ltd Ltd produced a series of speculative samples that were then presented to the end client, who loved the look and feel of the design. Once the go-ahead was given, Ltd Ltd then also produced full height working samples, which revealed the true impact the printed designs would have on the glass.
The so-called Trees project is simply stunning. The graphic is a hefty 44m wide and stands 4.2m tall at its highest point and includes beautiful crystal-like birds and falling metallic leaves. All manifestation was attached to the exterior of the glass.
Digitally printed substrates included vinyl as well as translucent and mirrored translucent materials. Ltd Ltd also used a particular media to produce birds that changed colour when people walk past. Also to give different levels of opacity, and thus to effect a real sense of animated movement, a percentage of white ink was printed onto sections of the translucent material.
The trees job was ostensibly a print-and-cut exercise. Once sections were printed, they were then put onto offline cutting machines. In all, it took a week to output and cut out the graphical elements. It took three days for the four-man, in-house installation team to install the graphic. “We made sure that before the actual install went ahead we had tested everything extensively, so we wouldn’t get any nasty surprises,” says Beecher.
He won’t be drawn on what hardware any of this job was output on, but concedes that the company has a dozen wide-format digital printers in-house that cover latex, eco-solvent and UV technology.
For Ltd Ltd, it’s never about the technology. It’s always about how to optimise the technology to make it work in a creative way. “We really like to do things differently. We like to challenge our clients and offer new and innovative substrates to help them achieve the best creative results they can. We always say here, whatever a client wants we will make it happen for them, and often we can help in exceeding that vision.”
Licence to print
With Skyfall winning the Best British Film at the 2013 BAFTA’s and its theme tune bagging an Oscar this year, it’s a timely to have 007 on your books! Last summer Ltd Ltd had four weeks of being shaken and stirred as it produced a range of wide-format output for a stunning exhibition at the Barbican, celebrating 50 years of Bond.
‘Designing 007:Fifty Years of Bond Style’ was designed by Ab Rogers and Praline with the overall project management from Richard Greenwood Design. While this travelling worldwide exhibition showcases the Bond phenomenon from the 1962 Dr No to the 2012 Skyfall, it also acts as a great platform for wide-format digital print.
Digitally printed elements include images printed on digital wallpapers that were liquid laminated and which cover wall and freestanding panels of anything from 3m x 2m up to 8m x 3m.
A swirling tunnel at the entrance of the exhibition that leads visitors into a main area is covered with silver wallpaper on which iconic Bond images are printed. The metallic quality of the paper produced a nostalgic celluloid feel to the proceedings.
A huge underwater image is a main feature of the exhibition, and this was printed onto backlit translucent material, while a number of images were output to self-adhesive and used on light boxes.
Ltd Ltd used a bespoke Opal backed media on which to print the full series of Bond movie posters from 1962 to the present day. These posters look as though they have been positioned onto separate light boxes but this was not the case. The set of posters were covered with black vinyl and perfect apertures were then cut out by hand, in-situ, revealing the images beneath.
Every single printed element had to be approved by the Barbican as well as the sponsor Eon. “We produced an extensive set of tests. There were also lots of option tests so that the designers could see the different finishes and effects,” says Ltd Ltd’s Beecher.
The entire exhibition was designed exclusively for the space it inhabited, and in all, a dozen different types of media were used. Even the cut out, gold acrylic text plates accompanying various exhibits were digitally output.
“One of the greatest challenges we faced with this project was making sure that all the original film stills looked good when they were blown up to huge sizes,” adds Beecher. “We had to bring-up archive film stills to the same quality as the more recent ones.”
To this end, Ltd Ltd had to undertake extensive Photoshop work so all images were of the same consistent, high quality. In addition, as this exhibition is travelling the world, Ltd Ltd has put together an exhibition template detailing an itinerary of effects, medias and finishes to act as a guide for other wide-format print shops outputting images for local gallery spaces.