WORK > ARTOMATIC key projects > John Galliano (1991)
Vylene is the fabric that all is used to fill spaces between other pieces of fabric, either as part of the structure or to give some element of insulation. It's a fibrous, paper-like material that's not very dimensionally stable (it shrinks).
Richard Smith and Cara Galardo of Area wanted to use for an invitation to one of John Galliano's runway shows. They chose a suitable impossible four colour image, which meant the thing was guaranteed not to register as it went through the machines, getting smaller and smaller as it shrank in the dryers after each pass.
But, that wasn't the real problem. It came on a roll and didn't lend itself to sheeting at all easily. Material converters tend to stick to what they know and we couldn't find anyone who'd entertain touching the stuff. So, foolishly or otherwise, we volunteered to come in for "a couple of hours" to do it one-sheet-at-a-time on our guillotine. Luckily, we started early on Saturday morning because it was late Sunday evening before we finished.
It wasn't perfect at all. This picture shows about the best registration we were able to acheive. But, nevertheless, it looked fantastic and was (almost) worth the heartache of producing it.


