Best Signshop Vehicles of 2010

FIRST PLACE

Fabricator
Neon Wraps LLC
Toledo, OH
(419) 410-4338
www.neonwraps.net

Designer
Brooke Albring
 

Installer
Steve Campbell

Creating an understated vehicle wrap for a shop named Neon Wraps would’ve made as much sense as watching Fantasia on a black-and-white TV. Hopefully, it’s a harbinger for a sales outlook as brilliant as the decorated Camaro.

Albring designed this project using Adobe’s Creative Suite 4, and Campbell produced the wrap on the shop’s Mimaki JV3-160SP printer with RasterLink RIP using 3M’s Controltac with Comply IJ380cv3 air-release media. Its topcoat comprises 3M’s 8580 glossy overlaminate, which Neon Wraps bonded to the film with a Royal Sovereign RSC-1400C laminator. The shop, which is a 3M Preferred Graphics Installer, applied the resplendent wrap with 3M PA-1 Blue and Oshee felt squeegees, as well as 3M’s edge sealer and Primer 94 tape-adhesion compound.

SECOND PLACE

Fabricator
Signworks of Oregon
Salem, OR
(503) 391-6105
www.signworksoforegon.com

Designers/Installers
John Eichelberger
Jeff Hayes
Scott Lucas
Shane Zuiderweg

This entry probably received the most chuckles from the judges. According to Lucas, the shop developed the design with no clip art or stock graphics using Adobe Illustrator and Roland DGA Corporation’s VersaWorks. He quipped, “Our beloved city has been invaded by extraterrestrial designers of dubious merit!”
The shop printed the graphics on its Roland SolJet Pro III XC-540V six-color printer with Eco-Sol Max inks. For the truck body’s wrap, the shop used 3M’s Controltac with Comply 180Cv3 film. For the robot eyes and their projecting beams, Signworks applied 3M’s Scotchlite IJ680CR-10 reflective striping film. The rear-window graphics comprise Oracal’s 3676 perforated film. 3M’s 8518 glossy overlaminate protects the truck’s graphics from alien forces, while Oraguard 290 secures the window’s curb appeal. To install the otherworldly project, the shop used felt Golden squeegees, a propane torch, and X-Acto and Olfa blades.

THIRD PLACE

Fabricator
SkinzWraps
Dallas
(214) 741-4529
www.skinzwraps.com

Designer
Tyson Summers

Using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, Summers created this design with “drastic, contrasting colors” for SkinzWraps employee Trevor Pockrus’ “Zombie car.” Pockrus said, “We push the boundaries of printing and design for our customers. When wrapping our own vehicles, we go further.”
SkinzWraps printed the wrap on the shop’s Epson Stylus Pro GS 6000 solvent-ink printer with Avery’s MPI 1005 Supercast Easy Apply RS media. Avery’s DOL 1060 glossy topcoat, applied with a Seal wide-format laminator, helps maintain the fierce design’s attraction. Installers affixed the ghastly creation with Avery and Lidco squeegees and propane-torch heat.

HONORABLE MENTION

Fabricator
Dr. Wraps Vehicle Skins
Canton, OH
(330) 452-2600
www.drwraps.com

Designer
Rich Hailstone

Installers
Rich Hailstone
Debbie Hailstone
Mike Greavu