Hornby at The Wonderworks

Our team were thrilled to support The Wonderworks and Hornby with the ambient graphics at this amazing space in Margate.

Previously known as the Hornby Visitor Centre, this venue offers an engaging, educational, and affordable experience for visitors of all ages, celebrating all things Hornby, Corgi, Pocher, Airfix and Scalextric. Marketed as the ‘ultimate hobby space‘ the printed graphics to create these environments had to create the wow factor and accurately match the vibrant brand colours throughout the whole venue.

This project was also shortlisted at the Sign & Wrap Awards, impressing the judges with the impact these printed graphics created.

Ensuring that brand colours are accurately translated into physical products can be a science.

Achieving a brand colour consistently is one of the most demanding challenges in printing. Even the slightest variation can weaken brand recognition, which means every step — from artwork preparation to final output — must be precise. Our team must account for the material’s surface, texture, and base colour, as these can all influence how inks are absorbed and perceived. Lighting conditions, ink formulation, and print process calibration also play a crucial role. Through careful selection of the right substrates, fine-tuning colour profiles, and running rigorous quality checks, we ensure your brand colours stay true across every application, every time.

A particular challenge was achieving a seamless application and high vibrancy of print, consistent with brand colours across the entire site. In order to overcome this, our in-house design team carefully planned up the images and artwork supplied by the client onto single drops, some of which measured 12M+ in width. There was a total width of approximately 44M+ digitally printed, grey back single covering pieces (2.5M drops), 15+ approximately, applied across a number of different surfaces (walls, MDF exhibition panels etc.).

Due to the sheer scale of each of these single piece drops, it was vital that there were no errors in print quality, no slight banding for example, and that there was consistency in colour across all parts.

Other challenges on site included planning for and working around structural obstacles, internal exhibition showcase windows and display installations, and also challenges working alongside other trades on site to ensure the venue was ready in time for their publicised opening launch.