In February 2006, Guinness World Records awarded Boeing’s Everett facility with the honor of having “the largest digital graphic.” Produced by 3M and designed by SuperGraphics, the mural measures over 929 m² (10,000 ft²) and is distributed across the six bay doors of Boeing’s Everett facility in Washington state. Let’s look at just how large this mural is and the history behind it.
Celebrating people and planes
In 2006 Boeing’s Everett factory building got a new look with a mural applied to all six of its factory doors. Each door has a height of 82 feet (25 meters) and a width of 300 to 350 feet (91 to 107 meters). Being one of the more common American “units of measurement” when it comes to big things, we can tell you that the width of each door is about the same length as a National Football League field!
Guinness World Records described the 2006 mural as follows:
“The mural gives the building an exciting look, one that attracts the eye of anyone. It’s a way to celebrate the people that are inside the factory and their passion for airplanes.”
Indeed, this 2006 mural began on the left with a woman with her arms stretched out against a blue sky. Moving further to the right, the second, third, and fourth panels had images of aircraft windows and doors on them. The fifth door had a close-up front view of a 777, while the sixth and final door had what appeared to be the angular winglet of a Boeing 747. “Each mural is distinct, but they carry through a common theme with lines rising and falling across all six,” Guinness notes in its description of the record.
Going high tech to get the job done
While it would have been quite impressive to have a team of expert artists hand-painting each door, this was not the case. Instead, Boeing and its partners went with something a little more high-tech.
To get artwork onto these six large doors, Boeing and its partners applied “pressure-sensitive, adhesive-backed, digital graphics” to the factory building- which was already recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest building in the world by volume.
The doors were carefully measured by Boeing and SuperGraphics- the company printing and applying all the decals. Seattle-based SuperGraphics then used a state-of-the-art design system and electrostatic grand format inkjet and screen-printing technologies to create Boeing’s mural. Guinness notes that the pressure-sensitive graphic film and other products were provided by 3M, which pioneered the use of graphic films to wrap vehicles and buildings with promotional messages.
Updated in 2014
You may have driven by the Everett facility more recently and, as a result, noticed that our above photos and descriptions of the mural look nothing like what it is today. That’s because Boeing updated the mural in 2014.
In August of 2014, Puget Sound Business Journal wrote an article titled “Boeing’s waving woman waves goodbye: World’s largest digital mural being replaced.” Written while Boeing and its partners were in the process of putting up the new artwork, only one of the doors seemed to have its new look at the time. While news and precise dates are scarce on when the new look was completed, we would have to imagine it was completed within a few weeks of the article’s publishing.
Greg Root, president of GM Nameplate/Supergraphics, told Puget Sound Business Journal that “[f]or the most part, it’s celebrating each one of the planes,” adding that employees voted on the designs for this update.
Now that some eight years have passed since this update, we can see clearly that, from left to right, these doors feature the 777, 747, 737, and 787.
Have you seen these big doors and their artwork for yourself? Let us know by leaving a comment!
Read Next
About The Author
