Guidelines for the Carpenters Center Media Wall

The Carpenters Center is the new home of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters (NERCC). Their new building, designed by ADD Inc and built partly by members of the carpenters union, features an incredible LED media wall facing Interstate 93. The sign is a "transparent" LED sign, meaning the pixels are not directly adjacent and you can see through it from behind, and thus photos considered for this juried competition may need to be adapted for display by the art staff of the NERCC.

Why the strict specifications for the LED Display? This is an extra-special medium through which to display a photo and the screen is ultimately governed by highway laws and specifications to minimize traffic disturbance.

The LED sign is a "transparent" LED, meaning that there are horizontal lines in between the active pixels. Because of the limitations of the sign and these transparent areas, we've included some examples (below) of what to do and what not to do for the best chance of submitting a successful image.

In addition to these restrictions, please bear in mind that this sign is visible from the highway (The actual dimensions of the sign are 31.38 feet by 21.42 feet). Your images should be very clear, and not cluttered or busy. Several examples are included below to help guide you.

 

Technical Requirements

For ease of image processing, please follow these when submitting your images.

• The sign can display color or black and white images
• Photos must be portrait layout
• Images should be 601px tall and 408px wide, at 72dpi
• Bit size can be either 24 or 32
• Entrants can submit up to five photos

 

Compositional Guidelines (Subject matter and theme)

For a successful entry, please observe the following guidelines.

• Location: Photos must be from somewhere with an address in Boston.
• Theme: Photos must be related to the construction of Boston's built environment. Subject matter can include people as well as buildings and materials.
• The simpler the photos the better (avoid busy images, patterns, and color palettes).
• Avoid large areas of white in the photo composition.
• Avoid striking diagonals (the screen has horizontal lighting elements).
• Use the rule of thirds to guide your design.
• No text in photos - they will not be legible on the media wall.

 

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Examples of photography that doesn't work on the Media Wall (What NOT to do):

This composition is too dark and busy to be easily viewed from the road.	This image is the wrong orientation. It is also too cluttered to be successful on the Media Wall and lacks a strong subject.

 

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Examples of photography that has worked on the Media Wall (Observe this!):

This image is a simple composition with very good contrast and is easy to see from the road.	This image is clear and uses the rule of thirds for balanced composition.	Please note that we are not accepting TEXT on images. This image is, however, a great example of clear figure ground relationships and contrast. It is easy to see from the highway.

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