I have written occasionally about experiential graphics, almost entirely in the context of applications such as such as wall graphics and other elements of the intersection of décor and signage. But one company in Brooklyn is taking experiential graphics to the next dimension—literally.

The Factory NYC was founded in 2013 by grad school friends Louie Hinnen and Paul Outlaw. After they graduated from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, they moved to New York City to pursue art careers. They began working for set building companies making scenes and sets for events. “After a few years of that, we decided we could probably just do it on our own,” says Hinnen. “We rented a warehouse and started making scenic fabrication for fashion photography sets, like for magazine ads, runways, and stuff like that.” Then enter social media. “With Facebook and Instagram and now TikTok and all these other crazy social media things, we grew with the experiential marketing industry,” he says.

The company is primarily a fabrication shop. “You send us a drawing of a set design and we build it,” says Hinnen. This included, initially, 2D graphics, which the company outsourced. “About four years ago, events were really taking off for us and we realized that we were spending a ton of money on printed SAV [self-adhesive vinyl] graphics and signage. So we rented another space, bought some machines, and started printing our own stuff. It was a lot of walls and things like that with graphics.”  Today, they do all their own printing in-house.