I hope you enjoyed last month’s gallery of near-winners from the 2014 ST Vehicle Graphics Contest. Of course, we can’t stop there – we’re Americans, we don’t do moderation! Enjoy another gallery of high-performance wraps. The deadline for our next Vehicle Graphics Contest will occur in August, and look for our inaugural Vehicle Wraps Survey in the May issue, as well as on www.signweb.com.
Absolute Perfection
Don’t weep too heavily for Absolute Perfection’s (Sykesville, MD) not winning an award for its wrap for Wish List Depot, a Reisterstown, MD organization that provides school supplies for impoverished children. The shop won First Place in the Food Trucks category for its wrap for Mesob On Wheels, a mobile food vendor that serves Ethiopian cuisine.
Still, this fun, kid-friendly job deserves attention; it playfully presents images of materials kids need daily for class projects. It persuades without preaching. It incorporates more than 50 images designer Brandon Antol developed using Adobe® Photoshop® and Illustrator® software. The shop produced the wrap using 3M™’s Controltac™ with Comply air-release media, which was printed on an HP DesignJet L25500 latex-ink printer. Applied with a SEAL 54 laminator, the 3M Scotchcal 8518 glossy overlaminate will keep the crayons and cartoons vibrantly colored for years.
Accu-Tex
Accu-Tex Signs’ (Erlanger, KY) truck and trailer wraps for Operation Troop Aid, an organization that sends care packages to U.S. military personnel stationed overseas, immediately conjure the Battle Hymn of the Republic. According to Accu-Tex graphic designer Jason Aylor, the shop carefully designed the wraps – the shop used Adobe Creative Suite and FlexiSign Pro software – to showcase all branches of the military with a collage of pictures that honors the men and women who defend our freedom.
Accu-Tex used 3M Controltac with Comply air-release media that was printed on a Mutoh ValueJet 1624 solvent-ink printer. To maintain the colors and the bald eagle standing guard, they applied a 3M Scotchcal 8518 glossy topcoat with a Ledco pressure laminator. Installers Mickey Allphin, Cindy Gosney and Alicia Sallee installed the wraps with Lidco squeegees.
bluemedia
In public-health circles, much discussion has taken place recently regarding food deserts – neighborhoods, typically impoverished, where quality, fresh food is rarely available. With financial support from numerous corporate and public-service sponsors, the Discovery Triangle Development Corp. and the Phoenix’s Valley Metro, the city’s public-transit provider, developed the Fresh Express, a bus that’s been transformed into a supersized produce cart for some Phoenix neighborhoods not well served by grocery stores. The bus makes regularly scheduled stops at apartment complexes, schools and senior-citizen centers.
Valley Metro hired bluemedia (Tempe, AZ), which also served as a Fresh Express sponsor, to produce its supersized wrap. Using an HP Scitex TurboJet 8300, the shop produced the graphics with 3M IJ-46, a 4-mil film designed expressly for transit-vehicle wraps. The shop protected the print with 3M Scotchcal 8519 luster-finish overlaminate.
Dr. Wraps Vehicle Skins
Fashion-conscious women usually prefer to not purchase their clothes at big-box retailers. Enter mobile clothing emporiums such as the Classy and Sassy Boutique. Dr. Wraps Vehicle Skins (Canton, OH) delivered a short-bus wrap that’s pert, pink and playful. Valerie LeMonte (trusting such a wrap to a man could result in disaster) devised the program using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator software, as well as FlexiSign Pro. The shop printed the graphics with 3M Controltac with Comply air-release media for the bus’ body, and on 50%-perforated Clear Focus Imaging film for the window graphics. To keep the estrogen-centric wrap pink, Dr. Wraps applied 3M Scotchcal 8518 and CurvaLam topcoats with a Royal Sovereign RSC-1400C laminator. Installers Debbie Hailstone and Mike Greavu applied the graphics with propane torches and 3M and Avery squeegees.