CASE STUDY
Each year, thousands of Portlanders come together to watch 40+ teams race homemade, themed soapbox cars down Mt. Tabor at the PDX Adult Soapbox Derby. This year, we decided to strap on some helmets and join in on the quirky Portland tradition.
Our design team’s goal was to create a car that embodied the essence of Infinity Images. Since we are, first and foremost, a large-format printer, and printers require (a lot of) ink to print, we decided to create a colorful explosion of “ink.” Enter Ink Slick. Don’t let the whimsical look of the imaginative cars fool you; there is an extensive list of rules that each team must follow when designing and building their car. Most notably, all soapbox cars must be human-powered (gravity racers), with a minimum of three wheels, a steering system, brakes, and a working horn. Each car creation cannot surpass $500, weigh more than 300 pounds, or exceed 5’ wide by 12’ long by 10’ tall.
The spilled CMYK “ink” posed a fun challenge. Our finishing supervisor started by creating molds in the desired shapes. She spread dry lube on a glass table, poured the paint into the molds, and left it to dry. Once dry, she used heat to bend the paint so that it could be sculpted to look like it was mid-spill. Finally, she thermoformed a clear custom bracket to suspend one of the paint cans in mid-air.
Once we nailed down a general car design, our engineers created a 1:1 scale wooden prototype and considered the essential details, like wheels, brakes, and steering. From there, our fabricators began cutting and welding steel to create the frame, and then wired the horn, headlights, and color-changing LED ground effect lights. We decided to use Dibond panels, which are lightweight and sturdy, for the car body. Then, we printed, cut, and wrapped the ink-splatter vinyl graphics around each piece. To complete the colorful vehicle, we repurposed aluminum paint cans depicting CMYK-colored “ink” splashing out of the trunk.
Come race day, the slopes of Mt. Tabor were filled with over 7,000 eager spectators and dozens of race teams. Each soapbox car participated in three heats, racing two other cars down the winding mountain. While we chose to enter the Art category, focusing on creativity as opposed to speed, we still ended up placing 7th fastest overall — a testament to our engineers’ building expertise! We didn’t take home any trophies this year, but we’re already cooking up some big ideas for 2025. Until then, long live Ink Slick!
If you’re looking for an integrated design, print, and fabrication partner, you’ve come to the right place. Hand us a napkin sketch or a full-fledged design concept. We’ll bring your project to life.
