Inspiration Spotlight: Celebrating the Power of Curiosity, Passion and Purpose

3M headquarters building in St. Paul has been wrapped to encourage people everywhere to pursue their own sense of curiosity. (Photo credit: 3M)

The Vomela Companies, one of the largest printers in the US, recently completed what is the single largest printed graphic in the company’s history. According to Laurie Bauer, senior manager – corporate marketing for Vomela, the company was tasked with wrapping 3M’s highly-visible headquarters in the Twin Cities as part of the company’s multi-year corporate advertising campaign, simply referred to as ‘Wonder.’ The 20,000 sq. ft. graphic covered 12-stories of two sides of 3M’s St. Paul headquarters building.

The partnership between Vomela and 3M goes back for more than half a century, and this project —like many Vomela projects — was printed on 3M materials.

3M wrapped its main headquarters building to encourage people to pursue their own sense of curiosity that can lead to discovery and problem solving. Viewable from the eastbound and westbound lanes of Interstate 94, the building wrap covers 30% of two sides of the building and serves as a visual representation of 3M’s Wonder campaign. The Wonder campaign seeks to inspire people to examine the world around them and see that curiosity can lead to great discoveries.

(Image credit: Vomela Companies)

“Every day around the world, 91,000 3M employees from diverse backgrounds and perspectives are inspired to go beyond simply asking questions so that they can solve our customer’s toughest problems and change the world for the better,” says Laurie Altman, vice president marketing and sales operations at 3M. “That powerful combination of curiosity, passion and purpose — using 3M Science to improve lives — has been a part of our DNA for more than 116 years. We know there are many passionate and intellectually curious people in the world and we invite everyone to join us in embracing the spark that leads to problem solving.”

“Active curiosity leads to great ideas. The next ‘big’ idea will come naturally from a creative collision of many smaller ideas that build upon each other,” says Eric Quint, vice president and chief design officer at 3M. “Though the best idea is a result of collaborative creativity reminding us that we are part of an ecosystem, uniting purpose with partnership, that creates meaningful innovations.”

This project presented a big opportunity as well as some unique considerations. The installation is made up of nearly 500 individual pieces of film on each side of the building, which fit together like a mosaic. To create a seamless color fade on a variety of surfaces, Vomela color-matched with sections of the building to create a continuous gradation that eventually disappears into the building.

Additionally, the 20,000 square feet of vinyl graphic needed to withstand the summer heat and Minnesota’s icy winter temperatures during its nearly one year required life span on the building.

(Image credit: Vomela Companies)

Vomela wrapped the windows with perforated films to allow for natural light to still get through and to prevent obstructed views from the inside. Specifically, two types of 3M films supported the vision for this installation —3M Controltac Graphic Film IJ180CV3, opaque for the windowless surfaces, and 3M Scotchcal Perforated Window Graphic 8170-P40, perforated to cover the windows. The perforated film allows for 60% of light to transfer through the window into the space inside, while still reflecting color on the outside and providing viewability from the inside out.

The graphic required 100 hours of printing time on an HP Latex 3600 printer, plus laminating with 3M Scotchcal Gloss Overlaminate 8518, cutting, boxing and shipping the finished product.

Over the course of 4 days, three shifts of 3M-certified installers worked around the clock using a swing stage typically used for window cleanings to install the graphic.