Best Promotional Vehicles of 2010

FIRST PLACE

Fabricator
Arizona Designs
Maple Shade, NJ
(800) 600-1412
www.arizonadesignsinc.com

Designers
Chris Alston
Jeff Chudoff
Brian Ryan

Installers
Justin Bertsch
Jeff Chudoff
Phil Pilla

Client
Future Scholars Early Learning Center

Chudoff, Arizona Designs’ owner, said this job provided a prime example of the impact referrals and a good reputation can make: “I made a presentation to a guy who ran a hardware store. He said he wasn’t ready to order it yet, but he referred me to the owner of Future Scholars, who wanted to wrap his car. After I wrapped the Future Scholars car, and their center’s enrollment increased by 5% in the first month after the wrap, I completed the job for the hardware-store owner.”

His team designed the program using CADlink’s SignLab, Adobe Photoshop and clip art from www.istockphoto.com. The fabrication process entailed printing on Avery’s MPI 1005 Supercast Easy Apply RS air-release media with the shop’s Roland DGA Corporation VersaCamm SP-540 printer/cutter with VersaWorks RIP, and then laminating with Avery’s DOL 1360 glossy overlaminate on the shop’s Royal Sovereign RSC-1400C laminator.

SECOND PLACE

Fabricator
Sign-A-Rama @ Infamous Graphics
Albany, NY
(518) 459-7446
www.infamousgraphics.com

Designers
Leo Valenchis

(concept creation)
Dave Matthews

Installers
Dave Matthews
Leo Valenchis

Client
Capital Q Smokehouse

Albany’s Capital Q Smokehouse proudly touts its numerous awards as the BBQ joint in the Capital City area. Now, it boasts the Mobile BBQ Assault Vehicle, which serves the company’s fare at the Empire State Plaza on weekday lunch hours. The design, which Valenchis completed using Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator, employs the right mix of swine, flames and down-home-restaurant imagery to create a fitting theme to match Capital Q’s good eats.

The shop, formerly known as Infamous Graphics before it purchased a Sign*A*Rama franchise, printed the job on its Roland DGA Corporation SolJet Pro III XC-540 solvent-ink printer with Arlon’s 6000X 2-mil, air-release film. Arlon’s glossy 3220 cast laminate will keep the wrap sharp amidst New York State’s very changeable climate.

THIRD PLACE

Fabricator
Ads on Wheels
Bedford, NH
(800) 237-6694
www.adsonwheels.com

Designer
Scott Bouchard
Ads on Wheels

Installer
AB Installations
Fredericksburg, VA
(888) 579-9793
www.allstarbranding.com

Client
Smoothie King

The Covington, LA-based Smoothie megachain, which operates more than 600 locations throughout the continental U.S., wanted its tonneau cover-clad pickup truck to provide colorful brand identification that would resonate at any location. Because the vehicle sports subdued, dark-blue paint, it required a brightly colored, full wrap. Ads on Wheels’ Chris Dyson said that, although the shop uses templates, it always physically measures vehicles that will be wrapped to verify proper placement.
Ads on Wheels produced the Ford F-250’s wrap on its Mimaki JV3-160SP printer with 3M’s IJ380Cv3 Controltac with Comply adhesive. Applied with a Seal 60-in. laminator, 3M’s 8518 glossy overlaminate protects the graphics.

HONORABLE MENTION

Fabricator
Media1/Wrap This!
Longwood, FL
(407) 331-6161
www.media1signs.com

Designer
Bari Musawwir

Installers
Christian Cortez
Pete Dow

Client
Rapala Fishing Lures