Like magnolias in Mississippi, Maile is a favorite native plant of Hawaii. Its fragrant leaves are traditionally used for leis and other decorations. When a hospital in Honolulu began work on a new Cardiac Care unit, it was decided that Maile leaves should be incorporated into the design.
This Cardiac Unit uses a "garden and rock" theme to meet the mission of the hospital which emphasizes the creation of a healing environment. With original Hawaiian artwork, bamboo, and custom digital borders, the designer was able to set the desired peaceful, healing tone.
The custom digital borders contain realistic representations of Maile leaves spiraling across a bamboo background. This border perfectly unites the garden and rock theme. However, the designer did not initially seek to create a custom border nor did she intend to use digital printing.
The technology behind custom digital borders is at least five years old. However, the use of digital printing is just beginning to penetrate the marketplace. Many designers have yet to explore the possibilities provided by digital printing. Digital borders give designers the freedom to choose borders completely customized to coordinate with the room design. Logos, photography and fine art images can be used to create a border that is printed in as many colors that are needed to maximize the visual impact. In addition, images can spread as wide as needed because long repeats are easy.
For the hospital in Honolulu, the designer first looked among standard product to find a border that had leaves similar to Maile leaves. A border that almost worked was found, but it was not quite right and it did not contain true Maile leaves. The designer decided to create a custom border using our services.
The sales representative and designer began this custom project with the intention of creating a silkscreen-printed border. The designer obtained silk replicas of Maile leaves and the sales representative then sent these leaves to Rainbow Creations. We began working to create a new border design that combined the Maile leaves with a bamboo patterened background.
After the design team saw a strike off sample of the border, they requested an image with greater depth. To produce greater depth with silk screen printing, at least one additional color must be used. This requires the use of an additional screen which means additional cost. Steve Thomas, with Rainbow Creations, considered the needs of this project and had an idea. "As we talked about this project, I began to understand that the designer required a more realistic representation. I suggested that we try producing the border digitally. Not only were we able to achieve the realistic image that the designer required, the digital border ended up being less expensive since there were no screen set up costs involved."
After the Maile leaf bamboo border was approved, the designer decided that she would like a second border using Anthurium leaves. To create this border, the designer simply laid out the anthurium leaves in a manner similar to the way she envisioned the border then took a digital picture. This photo was used in the actual development of the second digital border.
As this designer learned, digital borders offer a highly desirable level of control over design, color and cost. Using digital photography, scanning and simple sketches, a designer can now co-create a digital border with Rainbow Creations.
