Dome art rocks

Pacific Domes opens new doors for Dell with an ultra-creative dome solution.

Just before the peak of festival season, Pacific Domes got a request from a marketing agency for a fully printed dome. Dell, the agency’s client, envisioned a dome with printed artwork to drive its Dell Summer Rocks campaign, but Pacific Domes simply could not provide a printed dome in the short timeframe they were given, says Greg Senior, Pacific Domes, Ashland, Ore.

“The solution turned out to be a win-win situation for Pacific Domes, the client (the marketing agency) and Dell,” Senior says. “We came up with the idea of painting the artwork right onto the dome, since we had done this a couple times in the past with great results.” Pacific Domes suggested that the artist, Mike Ming, might want to do the job himself, so the agency put Pacific Domes in touch with Ming. Pacific Domes recommended paint and sent samples of the cover fabric for Ming to experiment with.

“The painting project was perfect because it fit right in with the Dell Dome theme,” Senior says. “Dell actually made a video of the artist painting the dome and put it up on their Web site. The dome cover itself served as a giant canvas — the first of several. The result was a very unique look that was creative and ‘noncorporate.’”

The setup of the dome went smoothly, Senior says, thanks to the professionalism of the marketing agency that Pacific Domes worked with. “They helped a great deal by staying in the background and letting our crew do their job,” he says.

Senior says it was also a huge benefit that the marketing agency turned a tight timeline into an opportunity for Dell. “They were open to our suggestions and accepted the circumstances that resulted from such short notice,” he says. “In fact, they completely turned a negative (not being able to get the dome printed) into a positive (turning the painting idea into a marketing opportunity)! It was a pleasure doing business with people who are flexible.”