July 16, 2020

Privacy often comes at the price of a compromised view out and diminished light levels coming in. Thanks to an effective printed etch-effect installation by Sheffield based Dyson Signs for The British Business Bank, privacy has a much more open look and feel…

It’s a fact of life that business meetings, more often than not, require meeting spaces. Those spaces have to be reasonably private and yet not pen in the occupants to the extent proceedings feel claustrophobic. Human comfort is a primary design consideration influencing any office interior these days.

In order to create defined spaces for meetings, glass partitioning has become very popular. Glass partition systems effectively cloister spaces for meetings and other activities and yet maintain sight-lines into open-plan arrangements and still allow natural light to reach the inner ranges of expansive office floors. Such partitioning is flexible in that it can be moved and easily reconfigured without disruptive works and this, taken with relatively low cost, has driven its popularity.

Open aspects can come at the cost of the privacy dimension of course but there’s little, if any, appetite on the part of office users to ‘close down’ workspaces by putting walls in the way. One solution that’s gaining in popularity, thanks to the efforts of practitioners such as Sheffield Based Dyson Signs, is to use what amounts to functional decorative elements applied to office glazing using etch effect films.

The British Business Bank is a client of Dyson Sign and, though its interiors and facilities management contractors, was looking for a solution to manage the meeting spaces in one of its office locations. The need was to identify meeting rooms, establish an element of privacy while maintaining light levels, and to contribute to ambient Décor positively.

Having received the designs and developing and reworked them to suit the application, Dyson Signs’ team used Metamark Silver Etch which was printed to reflect each meeting room’s identity. The Dunlop room was treated to a larger than life wheel and tyre printed in shades of grey on the Metamark etch film. The nett effect is alive with tone and the print definition is excellent. That’s partly down the the print receptive nature of the film and also to Dyson Signs’ skills as a printer.

The applied graphic and cut elements effectively obscure the view into the meeting room without materially impeding the light entering. There’s an element of a view out remaining through the void portions of the applied graphic and the whole effect is dramatic with dominating through excessive colour. It shouts, but not too loud.

Dyson Signs has built itself a great reputation for its skills in the Décor-led applications arena and the works undertaken for The British Business Bank with Metamark Etch Effect materials are a perfect illustration as to why. The client is delighted with the works and more meeting room transformations at other facilities are now planned.