Custom Vehicle Graphics to spread your message.
The most cost-effective and double-use form of advertising is definitely Vehicle Graphics.
If you’ve got a company vehicle and travel to and from work sites, you could be spreading the love effortlessly.
I mean, you are driving around anyway, might as well cash in on the exposure of just being out and about.
There are a few best practices when it comes to decals. Below is a brief list of suggestions and price ranges based on our years of experience.
1. Match Your Brand.
Use your company mark and supporting graphics to showcase your company style. The way you present your vehicle should be seen as an extension of the company image. There are instances where a funky car color can really throw off the brand styling. In these cases, utilize a single color, or adapt your color palette to work with the paint job. When doing full vehicle wraps, the design can be totally controlled and customized.
2. Pick the right product:
There are a handful of quality product types in use today.
- The most affordable by far is Custom Door Magnets. They have a printing cost usually between $30-50 per magnet depending on size.
A skilled designer could come up with a solid design in about an hour. So door magnets are cheap and let you turn any car into a company car in seconds. However, if not carefully designed, they can be cheap looking and may fall off or be torn off while driving or in parking lots. - The second tier is vinyl decals. Production costs to cut, peel and install can be upwards of $300 depending on how intricate the design is.
You should get a rendering and some custom vector graphics for half a work day. Maybe 3-4 hours of detailed work in Photoshop and Illustrator. Then they get prepped for print. Custom vinyl vehicle decals are the industry standard for putting custom graphics onto a car, van or truck. They fit tight, can be crafted to beautifully accent any brand, and work with the paint color to capture the right style. These can be overdone for sure; if you want to list everything you can do and put your phone number in 10 places, you can do this. But please don’t. Side doors and the rear bumper are the standard placement options. - For the serious brand, the highest level is to wrap or “skin” the vehicle with a complete or partial graphical covering. This can look amazing and totally turn heads while driving by or just showing off in the parking lot. In this case, the vehicle becomes a driving billboard. As such, the time needed to design one of these is completely dependent on what graphics go into it. A good billboard could be designed in maybe 8 hours. That should include some rounds of changes. Think about the most successful vehicle designs and look to come up with something that sets the standard, and pushes the bar on creativity. Because of how big this product will print out, it’s important to consider the installation costs along with the print and materials cost. A serious truck or van skin goes for around $4k+. You can get partials and/or single panels for a fraction.
This product is typically sold and installed by the square foot.
3. Pick the right designer, printer, and installer.
We’ve worked with all the best print and sign shops in town. They all use the same products, and they all compete for price. Shop your product around, and look for two primary characteristics in your salesmen. First, their price should seem fair or good. Second, their etiquette and professionalism in conversation and in operations must be to your liking. I personally strive to offer the highest level of dialog with any one I deal with. So I know quite well that people with no patience or those with poor communication skills can be a real bother in the introductory phases. Most designers have their favorite shops, and know who offers the best quality in whatever the product. I use different vendors based on their specialty. So when a client goes through us, they get the power of our experience and industry knowledge.
Conclusion.
Not sure if you want to tag up your vehicle with an array of graphics and branding? I don’t blame you. It is quite nice to drive in an unmarked car and avoid unwanted attention. Some companies should not brand their cars—it can send the wrong signal, like you’re trying too hard to sell yourself. But this is the opposite of what someone serious about spreading their company’s name should be doing. If you plan to leverage your vehicle, consider making a few phone calls and doing some tire kicking to see what it takes to design and produce something that really represents your brand.
We love this kind of work—it can be fun and very creative. The end product should give you an uplifted feeling of pride when cruising around.
Contact us for a free consultation on how the process works. The time needed to design any of these is entirely up to the brand.