Are you bored with your car’s look? There are people who bought their vehicles because of the exterior. They likely did check out what’s under the hood, did some research into the vehicle’s safety stats, and took it for a test drive to make sure it handled well, but the entire reason they were interested in that vehicle was how it looked. Others may buy a limited color option or have their vehicle painted a custom color so it really stands out.
But for some, their car doesn’t look any different from hundreds of others on the road. If you’re tired of your car being a bit boring, you don’t have to pay for a custom paint job. Instead, you can have it wrapped. A vehicle wrap is much more affordable, and you can actually do way more with it. It’s not just a paint job—you can add graphics, photos, and other design elements to your car, truly customizing it and making it unique.
If you’re ready to say goodbye to your car’s boring look, here are a few tips for designing your unique vehicle wrap.
#1 – Take Your Time
You likely don’t have any sort of deadline for having your vehicle wrapped. Even if you’re a business owner and want to wrap your car, truck, or van for advertising purposes, you may not have a specific date for the project. This means you can take your time to get the design exactly right. If you rush through it, you may find that the design doesn’t look quite like you expected it to. The colors or graphics may not be quite right, and within a few weeks, you may hate it.
While it’s easy enough to have an old vehicle wrap removed and a new one put on, it does cost money. Why spend money to have your car wrapped twice when you can spend a little more time on the design and make it perfect? There’s no need to rush.
#2 – Call in a Friend
You may have an amazing idea for your vehicle’s wrap, but you may find that translating that idea onto paper (or a digital canvas, as is more likely) isn’t exactly your strong point. That’s okay, and it doesn’t mean your vision will never become reality. Instead, it means you may need to reach out to a friend or relative who is more artistically talented. They may be able to sketch out your idea exactly as you imagined it. In some cases, they may even be able to make it better.
If you don’t know someone who can help, that’s okay, too. In fact, if you’ve come to TNT Signs for your vehicle wrap, we have a design team who will work closely with you to create the perfect wrap. You can send over your own design, or we can talk about what you want and create a mockup for you to approve. The entire process is collaborative, and you have final approval over everything.
#3 – What’s Your Goal?
Before you start designing your new vehicle wrap, take a few minutes to think why you want to wrap your car. Knowing what your end goal is will help keep your design moving in the right direction. If you want to show off your personality and make your car stand out, how do you want to do that? It could include using your own artwork in your wrap design, or maybe it includes using graphics that match your interests. If you just want to make your car stand out, a unique color may be enough. Remember, sometimes less really is more.
If your goal is to use your vehicle to advertise a business, you’ll want to think about how you’re currently marketing that business. How will your car wrap fit in with the rest of your marketing? What colors do you use in your logo and other graphics? Will you want to use the wrap to advertise specific products that could change, or do you want something that’s more timeless and won’t need to be updated for years? While the second option may sound more budget-friendly, there are times when changing up a vehicle wrap every six months is a viable marketing strategy.
#4 – Know the Laws
It may sound odd, but some cities and states do have laws that affect vehicle wraps. Specifically, these laws generally address mobile advertising, so if you’re wrapping a vehicle for your business, you’ll need to understand how these laws work. If your city has laws banning advertising on cars or personal vehicles, you may not be able to wrap it. Even if the city doesn’t have such laws, if you live in a neighborhood with a homeowner’s association, there may be regulations there that will affect you. In some cases, wrapping your personal vehicle with anything related to your business makes it into a commercial vehicle. You may have to re-register it as such to avoid fines and other issues.
Because laws related to car wraps, commercial vehicles, and mobile advertising can vary greatly from location to location, it’s always best to contact a local legal expert for advice. The last thing you want is to have your vehicle wrapped only to be told you have to remove it or face legal penalties. By fully understanding the regulations around car wraps in your area, you can create a design that complies with them.
#5 – Get Some Inspiration
If you’ve never designed a vehicle wrap before, you may not know where to start. If you’ve been staring at a blank piece of paper or at your monitor for hours without coming up with anything, it’s time to go online. You can do a search for vehicle wraps and see what other people have done. You won’t want to directly copy any of these wraps, especially if you’re creating a wrap for a business vehicle, but you can get some ideas. Pay just as much attention to wraps you find ugly as you do to ones that look amazing, too. Knowing what doesn’t work is just as important as seeing what does.
#6 – Only Use High-Resolution Images
Some people design the perfect vehicle wrap only to discover it won’t print correctly. Often, the problem is with the images they want to use. If these images aren’t high-resolution, they will look horrible when printed large enough to use in a vehicle wrap. If you’re creating graphics or taking photos to use in a wrap, remember that the higher the resolution, the better. Otherwise, while they may look great on your computer monitor, once they’re scaled up for the wrap, they may look very pixelated.
One way of determining how your graphics will look is to scale them up to 100 percent in your image viewing software. If the image looks really small at full size, it’s probably too small to enlarge. On the other hand, if 100 percent is so big you can’t see the full picture or graphic on your screen, it’s much more likely to work on your wrap.
#7 – Don’t Go Overboard
As mentioned earlier, less can be more, and that’s often the case with a vehicle wrap. Adding too many graphics, images, colors, and fonts can make your vehicle look like a mess. Yes, it will be memorable, but people will remember it for how ugly it looks.
It’s important that your personal vehicle look good, but it’s even more important that your business vehicle’s wrap looks professional. You’re relying on this wrap to bring in more customers, so it needs to be memorable for all the right reasons. Your business name and contact information needs to be clearly identifiable and easy to read. Potential customers should take one look at the vehicle and know what you do, what your company name is, and how they can contact you. If there are so many colors, fonts, and graphics vying for attention, they likely won’t be able to do that.
#8 – Work with a Pro
Ready to design an amazing vehicle wrap for your personal car or your company van? Regardless of why you want to wrap your vehicle, you want to know that you’re spending your money on a wrap that will be durable, look amazing, and be professionally installed. Otherwise, you’re likely going to have to replace the whole thing within a few months.
TNT Signs & Graphics has years of experience in the vehicle wrap industry. Our design team will assist you in creating an amazing design for the wrap; then our printers will fabricate the wrap on high-quality vinyl. Once it’s printed, our installation team takes over. You bring your vehicle in at the scheduled time, and we will have it wrapped quickly and professionally. You won’t find any wrinkles or air pockets in the vinyl, nor will the paint underneath it be damaged in any way. When you want the wrap removed, your vehicle will be exactly as it was before the vinyl was installed.
Want to know more? Give us a call at 707-528-8523 to learn more about the vinyl wrap process, get answers to any questions you may have, or start the process.
