Richard Parks' successful 737 Challenge

Signs Express (Cardiff) is proud to have played a part in promoting Richard Parks' 737 Challenge. A world first race to climb the 7 highest summits on each of the world's continents and stand on all 3 poles in 7 months. The Cardiff branch of the UK's largest signage company, Signs Express, was commissioned by the endeavour to wrap a new Audi A1 to raise awareness of the 737 Challenge. They chose the high-performance, ultra-conformable Controltac Graphic Film IJ380 from 3M's Commercial Graphics division, printed with striking graphics for the perfect finish. The fully wrapped vehicle made an appearance at the Dragons vs. Blues rugby match, televised in April 2011, and helped raise funds for the Challenge. Richard Parks made history on 12 July 2011 becoming the first ever person to climb the famous 7 summits and stand on all 3 poles (The North Pole, The South Pole and the summit of Everest) in the same calendar year. He achieved his incredible world first in 6 months, 11 days, 7 hours and 53 minutes and aims to raise £1million in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care. Grant Zehetmayr, co-owner of Signs Express (Cardiff), commented, "Having recently climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro myself and knowing how difficult that was! The 737 Challenge has been an extremely inspiring project to be involved in. As a 3M approved vehicle wrapping centre, our skilled team complete vehicle wraps on a regular basis, but never under such high profile circumstances and for such a fantastically worthwhile cause. The recently reformulated 3M film has been a dream to print and wrap with." It was a perfect mix of graphic design and implementation, according to Emma Assender, fundraising executive for the 737 Challenge. "We engaged limegreentangerine, our design partners based in Cardiff, to design an eye catching wrap and Signs Express to carry that forward into the car graphics. They have done a fantastic job, enabling the 737 Challenge team and Mon Motors Audi to carry our message out on the streets. The car looks fantastic'. Controltac Graphic Film was used to provide the eye-catching look that combines black-and-white photography with rugged rough edges and complex typography. Using vinyl wrapping film rather than traditional car graphics means the vehicle remains immaculate with its original paintwork protected from stone chips and every day wear-and-tear. This is another demonstration of how vinyl wraps can create unique, attention-grabbing and impressive results. As with all Signs Express centres, Cardiff has their own drive-in livery bay, enabling the staff to complete large jobs, such as this branding of a support vehicle, in a climate-controlled environment - creating the optimum conditions for vehicle graphics application. Based on Pentwyn Business Centre, Pentwyn, Signs Express (Cardiff), provides a complete design, manufacture and fitting service for all forms of signage including interior and exterior signs, vehicle graphics, window graphics, banners and exhibition products. Part of his epic fundraising is a competition in which supporters wanting to help Richard Parks raise £1m in aid of Marie Curie have the opportunity to win a brand new Audi A1 (without its wrapping), donated by Mon Motors Audi. More information is available at: http://www.737challenge.com/