Artefacts (Arlington, TX) creates museum-quality art prints from approximately 5,000 in-stock images that depict vintage posters and advertisements with patriotic, natural and travel themes, among others. Artefacts’ shop vehicle, a Chevrolet SSR hardtop-convertible truck, is the company’s everyday travel vehicle, as well as an advertisement wherever Artefacts owner Gary Grayson travels.
To capitalize on the advertising possibility, Artefacts hired 360 Wraps (Dallas) to create a wrap that depicts Artefacts’ colorful capabilities. Tommy Strader, 360 Wraps’ president, consulted Artefacts’ management to glean its archives for visually compelling content, and perfected the design using Adobe Photoshop CS 4 and SA Intl.’s FlexiSign 10.
360 Wraps executed the approximately 250-sq.-ft. wrap on its Mutoh ValueJet 1614 solvent-ink printer with 3M™’s Controltac™ IJ180c-10 with Comply™ v3 air-release media. Strader said his installation team, which included himself, Matt Blanchard and Jayy Esquivel, found the vehicle’s surface to be a worthy adversary.
Strader said, “The fenders stuck out very far, and they definitely made it one of the most challenging vehicles we’ve ever wrapped. You can make or break a wrap like this before you’ve even hit print. If you know how to install on something like this, it helps so much when you design, because you’ll know to avoid creating graphics that will highlight the vinyl’s stretching as it covers these extreme contours.”