A 17-window install along the Pixar Animation Studios animation building in Emeryville, California — the OrangePiel reference project for what the in-house manufacturer-installer model looks like at scale.
By Michael M.
“Pixar is one of 39 named-client installs OrangePiel has executed since 2006. 17 windows, 4-day install, in-house crew, single point of accountability from PO to handoff.”
OrangePiel printed roller shades run the length of Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California — a 17-window install along the animation building, dye-sublimation printed at 1440 DPI on PVC-free fabric, manufactured in Richmond, Virginia and installed by the OrangePiel crew. The install is a reference project for what OrangePiel does at scale: single-source manufacturer plus installer, 2 to 4-week production, free ground shipping to the install location, in-house crew on site for the install, single point of accountability from PO to handoff. The Pixar install also anchors the OrangePiel hospitality + corporate workflow that has since shipped to Yahoo, Workday, Verizon, Hotel Diva, SFMOMA, IRS National Headquarters, and 30-plus other named-client installs.
Pixar specified custom-printed roller shades for the 17 windows along the animation building, with photographic imagery printed at 1440 DPI dye-sublimation. Single-panel widths to 144 inches (12 feet) — the seamless single-panel maximum on OrangePiel roller shades — let the install run window-to-window without horizontal seams interrupting the printed image. The fabric specification: PVC-free, light-filtering with controlled translucency for daytime use, AATCC 16.3 colorfastness for the south-facing window exposure, and acoustic backing on the panels positioned over interior conference and screening spaces.
Production ran in the Richmond, Virginia workroom on the 5-meter dye-sublimation press. 1440 DPI resolution on each printed shade meant the source photography needed sufficient resolution to print at full size without pixelation — Pixar supplied production-grade source files and OrangePiel proofed each shade against the source with the design team before printing. The proof approval gate kept production aligned to the brief: nothing printed before sign-off; nothing changed after sign-off without re-proofing. Production took 3 weeks from approved proof to ground shipping.
The install ran 4 days with a 4-person OrangePiel crew on site. The Pixar facilities team walked the crew through the install zone before work began — power access for the install tools, after-hours scheduling so the install did not interrupt the animation team workday, and protective floor covering for the conference-room hallways under the work zone. Each shade hung on standard roller-shade brackets factory-attached to the shade, with the bracket-to-window-frame connection coordinated with the existing window architecture.
Joint coordination across the 17-window run was the install precision detail that mattered most. The printed image continued visually across the window frames (where the shade material itself stopped at the window edge) — the Pixar facilities team and the OrangePiel crew aligned the shade-to-shade image registration so the visual continuation read as designed. Crew leveling within 1/8 inch tolerance per shade kept the printed image plumb across the run.
Pixar is one of 39 named-client installs OrangePiel has executed since 2006. See the OrangePiel installation services page for the capability statement, named-client install grid, and scoping templates for new projects.
The Pixar reference matters to specifiers asking the same question every time: can the manufacturer also handle the install at scale? Pixar Animation Studios is the answer. 17 windows, 4-day install, in-house OrangePiel crew, single point of accountability from PO to handoff. The same workflow has since shipped to Yahoo (corporate offices), Workday Global Headquarters (printed shades + acoustic panels), Verizon (regional offices), Hotel Diva in San Francisco (12-foot printed shade behind reception), SFMOMA (printed library ceiling), IRS National Headquarters (corporate office printed shades), NEMA San Francisco (printed shades + acoustic panels in residential common spaces), and 30-plus more.
Pixar Animation Studios reads on the OrangePiel client list alongside Yahoo, Workday, Verizon, Hotel Diva, SFMOMA, and the IRS National Headquarters. Specifiers can name them in their project documentation (with appropriate vendor-reference attribution) when responding to RFPs that ask for similar-scope reference projects. The OrangePiel team supplies project-specific reference letters on request from the Pixar, Yahoo, Workday, and Hotel Diva projects (subject to the client confidentiality terms in each engagement).
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