Wallpapers and murals: decorative elements that can also be showpieces.

The premises at swissQprint headquarters are airy and brightly designed. One of the owners explains: “There are many white walls, and it was obvious that we would use digital printing technology to decorate them.” His idea: “Let’s bring Switzerland to our company home.” The in-house marketing services team was commissioned to execute this creative project in cooperation with a designer and a photographer.

28-month shooting phase

Photographer Paolo Vaccariello took to the field time and again to photograph rock formations, mountain ranges and landscapes. For more than two years, the weather app was the first and last one he checked every day. On occasion, he would leave home at the drop of a hat, often at an ungodly hour. Or he would camp out for days in the mountains to capture nature’s spectacular moods.

“Sometimes, after hours of waiting, a window of glory would open up only to close again just minutes later,” he reports. Mindful that the pictures would later be enlarged to 9×3 metres, only the very best equipment came into question: a Phase One camera was his loyal companion while travelling around Switzerland. Its 60 megapixels delivered the resolution necessary for end use as swissQprint would be outputting the images in fine art mode at 1080×1080 dpi print resolution.

Selection and composition

At the finish, a total of 4280 photos were “in the can”, which Paolo then whittled down to a final selection of 350 for the project team to pored over. “Not an easy task, given the great choice,” remembers designer Anita Schwank. She assisted in selecting and combining the images to achieve the best possible spatial effect. Of help here were visualisations of the wallpapers, some of which would completely cover certain walls, others just partially. At the same time, Anita Schwank put together trios of individual images to complement the wallpaper, or as standalone design elements in specific rooms.

Wallpapers decorate communal spaces, corridors and offices at swissQprint headquarters.

Producing the picture trios

For these picture trios, a joiner produced MDF panels with black oiled edges in three different formats. Each panel was printed on a Nyala LED at swissQprint and then returned to the joiner, who added a rear substructure to make it project out from the wall. Equipped with assembly jigs and detailed plans, the joinery team finally mounted the pictures at their designated spots.

Producing the wallpapers

A swissQprint application specialist prepared the XXL images in-house and then printed them on high-grade wallpaper rolls. Careful preparation was crucial so that the paperhanger could apply the widths precisely butted together. The experienced expert explains: “If the transitions were just 0.5 millimetres off, we’d have to make adjustments.” But that wasn’t necessary here. He enthuses further: “Everything was made ready superbly; I got very precise plans.” These had been prepared with just a few clicks by the application engineer, using the RIP assembly guide. High-quality wallpaper with glass fibre reinforcement was used: dimensionally stable and ideal for UV direct printing. The paperhanger confirms that it is also easy to clean, leaving no residue. But what impressed him most was the uniformity of the edge to edge printing – and this coming from someone who, after many years of wallpapering for museums, has doubtless seen plenty of impressive things already.

Meticulously matched picture trios printed on MDF panels complement full-surface murals.

The stunning result

swissQprint staff are just as enthusiastic as the project team and the craftsmen. “The result is stunning,” says an astonished employee. The CEO is also more than satisfied: “Not only can we show guests arriving here something of Switzerland, we can also present a concrete project idea.” Direct printing on wood, wallpaper and other interior design elements is just one of many applications covered by swissQprint large format printers.