Architect and designers are constantly looking to create unique and visually intriguing exterior glazing that stands out amongst the rest. While this can lead to specifying a patterned or full color glass option, there are other options available that offer more flexibility, both in visual design, and in technical performance. At the head of the pack, is direct-to-glass digital printing. Digital ceramic frit printing gives the design team ability incorporate full scale custom designs, while also controlling the opacity, allowing high levels of light transmittance while reducing solar heat gain and controlling glare. There are other options available to achieve imaging through digital printing, but using ceramic frit results in the most durable product for exterior applications.

How Direct-To-Glass Printing Stands Out

Digital printing processes include printed films, laminated interlayers, and UV printing. There is no perfect process for imaging on glass. If the image is printed on the interlayer exposure to moisture and fading from sunlight are two pitfalls to be weary of when used in an exterior application. Prior to digital ceramic printing, if you wanted to the durability of ceramic frit, there were higher costs and less flexibility in design, due to the necessity of silk screens, which come at a high cost and significantly less control over opacity. Digital ceramic printing allows for various resolutions and multiple layers of paint.

It is now possible to achieve the design flexibility of digital interlayer printing with the durability and functionality of a traditional silk screen. The finished product of a digital ceramic print can be laminated, but it does not have to be. Using ceramic frit—a mix of ground glass and pigments—the image is printed directly to the glass, and then is cured at 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which allows the ink to fuse to the glass permanently. The final product has the same characteristics of regular glass, has no special cleaning needs, and can be exposed to acid rain and sunlight without image distortion.

3 Design Ideas to Consider for Exterior Applications

By combining the durability of ceramic frit with the precision of digital printing, commercial projects can create lasting effects that stand out. Consider the following examples of how direct-to-glass printing can transform commercial exteriors.

1. Create strong branding

Business owners, developers and architects are increasingly seeing buildings as a physical expression of their artistry, culture, or organizational mission. As a result, design has become a powerful branding component.

While a consistent color scheme is a good first step for branding across a campus or building portfolio, Alice® direct-to-glass printing allows designers to enhance branding strategies with detailed imagery or logos. In this way, buildings can become billboards that draw in passersby. GGI utilizes Dip-tech® state-of-art technology to apply high-resolution designs to one or multiple spans of glass: each piece of glass sharing a unique design as demonstrated in the glazing of the Amistad High School in Connecticut, or acting as a component of one design that may span an entire elevation as with the Harlem Hospital project in New York. Commercial graphics and artwork are no longer restricted to interior applications.

2. Support biophilic design

There is plenty of evidence available that demonstrates the powerful healing benefits of a connection to the outdoors. Now many architects are applying principles of biophilic design to expanding those benefits. Biophilic design is the art and science of incorporating natural materials, light and views into the built environment. It aims to satisfy people’s innate need to affiliate with nature in modern buildings. This has productivity-boosting applications in offices and in medical centers has been proven to help the healing process by reducing patients’ stress and pain levels.

By using layered printing strategies, artists can create different views from each side of the glass or be tiled across facades and walls, adding to the illusion of nature. Together with filtered lighting, this imagery can bring a strengthened connection to nature into more facilities. The Palo Alto Medical Center is an excellent example of adding the feel of nature to what would otherwise be a sterile brick and mortar environment. The design adds the feel of an interior garden while filtering the sunlight and reducing the amount of solar heat penetrating the building.

3. Enhance the community with public art

Public art has long been a strategy to enhance and transform neighborhoods. From graffiti murals to public sculptures, public art comes in many forms. With the emergence of ceramic digital printing, a storefront or glass façade can now be seen and utilized in the same way that a painter could approach a brick wall.

For instance, GGI’s Alice direct-to-glass printing was specified to create public art for five specific Denver Metro Stations, offering a more welcoming environment to those visiting the airport, giving colorful life to what would be a very bleak landscape.

Pair Aesthetics with High Performance for Multi-Functional Glazing

Direct-to-glass printing can be applied to various glass types to achieve unique design aesthetics and performance. It can be incorporated within an insulating glass unit, utilizing a low-e coated glass for increased energy-efficiency, or an inboard lite that is fire-rated, blast resistant or impact-rated to meet specific code requirements—creating a high performing, multi-functional glazing solution with stunning aesthetics.

GGI utilized Dip-Tech’s state-of-art technology to create Alice direct-to-glass printing, pioneering this process in North America. GGI has successfully demonstrated that with the right technology and experience as a custom glass fabricator—there is no limit on the performance or aesthetic possibilities.