Kerb Appeal, With Metamark

Southampton based Elmtree Signs went to lengths to design and construct a winning Point of Sale extension for Southampton FC...

Fans' dedication to the clubs they support is demonstrated in many ways. Possibly the most popular is the wearing of the club's strip when attending matches and in a social setting. A trip around a stadium's shop though will reveal many more. The club's merchandise and its promotion and marketing is a business in and of itself and there are some very inventive ways that fans can sound out their dedication.

Southampton FC recently knocked on the door of Elmtree Signs looking for a novel means of promotion the availability of an equally novel new line of merchandise. Southampton FC and Elmtree Signs are no strangers to each other. The Southampton based signs and graphics manufacturer has counted Southampton FC among its customer for many years and supplies much of the signs and graphics the club uses in its promotion.

Elmtree Signs is no stranger to taking creative solutions beyond the edge either. The company has been around for getting on for forty years and grew up when songwriting was a skill in big demand. The knowledge of type, its proportions and its layout persists to this day. The company doesn't just make signs using the latest tech. It makes signs that look 'right' using the latest tech.

Southampton FC on this occasion was looking to promote the availability of a Brxlz model of its stadium. Brxlz comprises snap together building blocks that ultimately become models - in this case of the club's ground. The product is made by FOCO and it's a worldwide phenomenon in the field of sport merchandise. Elmtree Signs' solution to its client's needs effectively extends the reach of the product's point of sale to the kerb beyond the club's megastore. It's impossible to ignore and reflects the creative capabilities that Elmtree Signs puts at the disposal of its many customers.

The team at Elmtree Signs design and fabricated large scale stylised replicas of Brxlz components but truncated the boxy geometry so that when the fabrications are situated, they appear to be emerging from, or vanishing into, the ground underneath them. The angles at which they're sat, the size and the detailing all conspire to make a very eye-catching display and one that brings a lot of attention onto the product and into the club's megastore.

The structures are made from an MDF clad wooden armature complete with MDF details. The whole fabrication is assembled to form free-standing elements at odd angles and with different degrees of reveal. They're further clad in “Southampton Red.”

The cladding graphics are colour-critical and made from printed Metamark MD5 laminated with its matching MetaGuard Laminate. High standards of colour fidelity are demanded by the client and maintained by Elmtree Signs. MD5 is very highly regarded and often used for reference-quality colour work. Elmtree Signs printing is of exemplary quality. Despite the fields of even colour, no unwelcome print artefact is visible. It's a quality job.

The finished assemblies do the job they were designed to do. They're solidly constructed, durable and attractive. They're functional too. In effectively extending the reach of in-store PoS Elmtree Signs' work delivers much bigger impact from the whole promotional mix. All that's needed now is an army of fans with the patience to build a Brxlz stadium. There's no doubt at all, they're out there.