Dos and Don’ts of Great Car Wrap Design
Image source: draftermarket.com
Owing to the technological advancements that allow for us to customize just about anything that we own, vehicle wrappings are becoming increasingly popular. Mostly, they have been used for marketing products, but many use them for personal ornamenting. Large vinyl sheets personalized with any image, text, colour, and design of your liking, custom made for each car –you can just about create anything.
If you, too, are thinking of getting your vehicle custom designed, you will find that there are many things to consider –choosing the right designer, the perfect design, the most suitable material for your car, the font and size to be used, the colour combinations that will make or break the entire design, and so on.
Whether you are a getting your car designed, or designing someone else’s, you can always use most of the tips we have to share with you today. So let us give you a small nudge in the right direction.
Do This
Take an Up-close Look.
This is especially true for those of us who rely on online digital printing services, where you send a picture and set dimensions of your stuff, and you get a customized object back. Do not do this with your car.
While cars may be a fixed dimension per model, simply pictures and numbers online are not enough to judge it. The person designing your car wrap needs to look at every nook and cranny – the texture of the car wrap already present, the tone of the colour without all the clumsy lighting of the photograph, any damaged or protruding parts that need to be covered.
So take a look at your client’s vehicle close and upfront, and you can better provide them with the services that they need. Here are a few helpful tips
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- Take pictures from all angles for later references. Chances are you probably will not remember what you notice during the observation.
- Measure the areas that you are designing; whether it is roof, doors or bonnet.
- Notice all the bumps and scratches
- Keep a notepad with you to record those measurements
Know the Legal Nitty-Gritty
In many parts of the world, it is legally prohibited for some professional practitioners like lawyers and doctors to publicize their practices while holding public office. In many states, painting a part of your window or any at all so the insides become opaque is illegal. These things should be kept in mind when investing in a car wrap for your vehicle –you do not want the money to have been wasted, and have your design lose its charm after having to wipe it off certain parts of your car.
The person designing your car should ideally be aware of the legal loopholes, and it does not hurt to do some research of your own as well. You can very easily look up the relevant laws by simply typing in your location and the keyword (for example, “Legal Wrapping Laws in the UK) into a search engine. Most legislation is easily accessible online in pdf format.
Get to Know Your Client
Perhaps the most crucial aspect of any service provider’s job is customer engagement and satisfaction. Getting to know your customer and doing a little bit of research on them will help you gauge the kind of services will satisfy them the most.
For example, where your customer is a doctor looking to advertise his blooming clinical practice, rest assured they would not want something too bubbly and bright; rather something a little more text-based, and sober-coloured.
We have compiled for you a few helpful tips to get the job done:
- Ask them what they do for a living. This is a relatively impersonal question, one that often does not even need to be asked sometimes, like with advertising companies coming to you with car advert wraps. Knowing their profession helps you gauge the kind of people that they are surrounded with, and the environment that they work in. This eventually helps you decide on a colour scheme that would suit them and the language of the text as well.
- Notice what they say. Or what they do not say. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they talk the words that they use, the manner in which they speak. People who are expressive and bold, often like brighter colours, whereas people who are soft-spoken and seem introverted, pick colours that have a mellower touch to them.
The crux of this is that a lot lies in a person’s personality, and it will help you decide what best suits your client. This is extremely crucial in a customization-based business.
Use the Color Wheel
Image source: lifehacker.com
Colour Theory is an actual thing, and so colour combinations need to be strategically chosen when designing just about anything; curtains, rooms, clothes and car wraps. Choosing colours that do not complement each other changes the very tone of the design. Too much saturation and it can cause an eye-sore. Too much contrast and shadowing can just turn the entire design into a mishap.
Here are some colour-picking tips:
- Pick brighter colours or high saturation, this enhances the visibility from afar.
- If the person is getting an advertisement-purpose design made, then make sure to pick texts and colours that match the logo of the brand
- Each colour carries with it certain emotions; make sure you know which one goes the best with your car wrap design.
Designing is intricate and proper care needs to be taken when picking the right colours.
Choosing the Right Text and Illustrations
When it comes to picking the letters and the designs, they have to be carefully put together, in just the right amount. The key thing to remember is that, because they are vehicles and will constantly be in motion or be seen from far, so deciding the appropriate colour and text meet those particular needs is crucial. They have to be bold and large enough to be catchy, legible, but not too bold that they become distracting and a source of an eye-sore.
Here are some tips to help you decide.
- Keep ample empty space. This space will draw attention to the key message on the car.
- Chose big letters, bold colours, and visual effects all in collaboration with each other.
- Use illustrations –the average person’s eye is more drawn to art than to words.
Don’t do this
Do not mess up the text
If there is some form of text in your design, make sure you are extra careful about it. This is because of the font style, font size, and placement matters. Here is a small checklist you should follow:
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- Font should be legible and clear up-close and just as visible from afar
- The style of the font is not as important as its readability.
- Avoid placing the writing bit of the design at the curves or nooks of the car.
- Avoid big words and long sentences
Whatever you want to be written on the car has the primary function of being widely disseminated. So a font-based design is only as effective as it is decipherable.
Do not make the design overwhelming
Do not add so many bright colours, distracting designs or big flowery fonts that just looking at the vehicle causes either a headache or an eyesore. Stick to the basics, remember the purpose of the design, and keep in mind what your client wants.
Here’s another checklist to help you out.
- Stick to a colour theme. It may be a dull and sober one, or a chic and sporty one –depends on your client.
- Remember the colour wheel. Some colours just complement each other, while others cancel each other’s effect out. Combining the wrong colours or even different shades of the same colour can make and break your design.
- Keep it simple, and effective. If it is a font-based design, an image or two would be more than enough. If it is flashy and illustrative, leave the writing out. Balance it all out.
- If the person is getting an advertisement-purpose design made, then make sure to pick texts and colours that match the logo of the brand
Bottom Line
Designing anything takes up a whole lot of creative energy, but with car wraps it is especially technical and tricky. There is a lot to keep in mind, and you may have to take a lot of help and do a lot of researching as well.
But the important thing is, as always is with any designing, that it can easily be converted into an enjoyable, refreshing project. So do not remember to have fun!
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