Smithsonian photo exhibit, black plastic, print and acrylic - how's it made?

[SqueeGee]

I went on a field trip with my son today to the Natural History Museum. They had an awesome photo exhibit and I'd love to know how the prints were produced. Starting from the wall and going out, there is an approximately 1.5" standoff system that is completely concealed by the print. Next is a "sandwich" of thin black plastic(1/16" ish thick), the digital print and a clear, glossy top layer - approx. 1/8" thick, assuming it's acrylic. No fasteners are visible, at least by me, anyway. Anyone know the process?

 

[SqueeGee]

Another pic. My phone will only let me post one at a time.

 

[SqueeGee]

Last one.

 

[jfiscus]

The print is printed in reverse onto the back of the clear layer, then I assume a double-sided adhesive or the black plastic has an adhesive that adheres to the back of the print. Not sure on the stand-offs.

 

[SqueeGee]

Reverse printed on media and applied to the acrylic with an optically clear face adhesive (something like a Gudy 909)? Or flat bed printed to the second surface of the acrylic? (Which would then require a flood coat of white behind or a white film?)

 

[Ultimate13]

Stand-offs

For mounting to the wall with our larger prints, we use a french cleat system. You need one at the top and then a spacer at the bottom. We attach them with a high heat glue gun. They may have just connected the 2 creating a "box" on the back with some vertical pieces. That would hide any fasteners from view.

 

[SqueeGee]

The power of Google:

http://mccallphotographics.com/acrylic-face-mounting/

This is the company that did the prints I saw and they pretty much outline the process in the link(and others on their site).

1.5" concealed wood frame and z-clip, .040 polystyrene backer, print, optically clear face adhesive, 1/8" acrylic with polished edges.

Looks pretty awesome in my opinion. Of course this company looks to be much smarter than I on pre-press processing so I'm sure that plays a big part in the quality of the end product.

BTW, here's a link to some of the images from the museum.

http://www.naturesbestphotography.com/galleries/2015wsr.php

 

[stevenjowens]

This looks nice. I've been looking for alternatives for printing large photo art. Just printing on straight vynl seems tacky, while art canvases like Neschen Pure Monet are classy, but seem somewhat muted. So far the best idea I've come up with is printing on adhesive and mounting that on some sort of board. But this approach looks very nice.