The Sundance Film Festival and the Super Bowl might not seem to have much in common, but they do.

The connection is a Salt Lake City-based company called Infinite Scale Design Group, which has designed "branded environments," including street banners, backdrops and other décor elements for three Sundance Film Festivals, five Super Bowls, last year's NBA All-Star Game and two NHL All-Star Games, among other large events and permanent spaces, such as the University of Utah College of Engineering and Target Field in Minneapolis. Infinite Scale's work can be seen in both the Downtown Rising and Ski Utah campaigns.

The company's Sundance banners currently hang at and near festival venues throughout Utah.

Infinite Scale, at 16 Exchange Place, is in Salt Lake City because of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

Partners Molly Mazzolini, Amy Lukas and Cameron Smith met while preparing for the Games. Lukas and Smith worked for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee as lead art directors, and Mazzolini worked for the United States Organizing Committee.

"We connected often to ensure that the look of the Games was consistently and cohesively applied," Mazzolini said. "When the Games ended, we all wanted to stay in Salt Lake, and Infinite Scale was our way to do it."

Mazzolini (from Kentucky), Lukas (from Ohio) and Smith (from Dallas) each became enamored with the Beehive State.

"After living here for three or four years, each of us individually fell in love with Utah and the quality of life here," Lukas said. "We felt like Salt Lake really gave us the opportunity to start our own business because of the cost of living and the lifestyle."

Thanks to the connections established through the Olympics, Infinite Scale got its big break when it won the right to design the banners and environment for Super Bowl XXXIX, featuring the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.

"Having the Olympics in our background, and then the Super Bowl, put us on the map," Lukas said, "and our business just took off from there."

Since then, the trio has landed many other projects, and three years ago, began designing the look of Sundance.

"We love being able to contribute here because a lot of our clients and projects are outside of Utah," Lukas said. "It's really important to us to contribute to what's going on in the community."

Infinite Scale, through its subsidiary Rescale, also provides a chance for Sundance patrons to take home a piece of the festival. Last year's banners were transformed into tote bags, script bags and backpacks to be sold at this year's festival and online at sundance.org/store. This year's banners will be made into souvenirs for next year's festival.

"We were watching the stuff we designed just get thrown in the trash," Smith said. "We thought, 'What if we re-purposed it? It was a chance to be green and save some landfill space.' "

Said Sundance merchandise coordinator Anne Peters, "People just love it. Each bag is so individual and different. They've really become collectors' items."

ndicou@sltrib.com —

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