Vehicle Wrap Project of the Day: Show Us Dwyane Wade’s Way

Throughout the month of May, ST will feature a new vehicle-wrap project every day on Signweb.com. Enjoy!

Since exploding onto the NBA scene 11 years ago, Dwyane Wade, point guard for the NBA’s defending champion Miami Heat, has redefined excellence at the position where’s he’s earned 10 All-Star selections and three league championships. Wade has also garnered well-deserved accolades for his many philanthropic endeavors.

He’s partnered with Li-Ning, a Chinese athletic-shoe and apparel maker, to create Brand Wade, a Li-Ning division that markets the Way of Wade basketball shoe. When Wade, who’s taken the title of Chief Brand Officer, and Li-Ning introduced an updated sneaker, the Way of Wade 2.0, they wanted to make a promotional splash – literally.

Brand Wade’s marketing agency, Los Angeles-based Zambezi, tapped Metro Signs’ vehicle-wrap division, MetroWrapz, to wrap the Venetian Lady, a 135-ft.-long luxury charter yacht with a “razzle dazzle camo” pattern – which resembles zebra stripes, and emulates the shoe design – for the shoe’s launch party. Metro Signs has been the Miami Heat’s official signage and graphics provider for 16 years, according to president Bruno Dede, so the longstanding relationship established the necessary trust for such a high-profile job.

He said boat wraps are a small, but rapidly growing, segment of the shop’s business; it recently wrapped a 36-passenger speedboat. Like most, it plies much of its wrap trade in vans and SUVs, although chic Miami presents an above-average share of luxury-car jobs.

After Zambezi and Brand Wade disclosed the wrap’s general theme, Omar Khan, MetroWrapz’ creative director, designed a simple pattern for decorating hard-to-reach areas. He said, “We created a design concept as a loose guideline, but allowed for changes on the fly that let the creative pattern evolve during installation.”

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Khan devised the stripes with Adobe Illustrator software, and imported them into GerberOmega, from which the files were sent to the plotter. Using a furnished technical drawing, they scaled the boat outline to 1:100, and dropped it into the striping pattern before cutting. He lauded Photoshop’s smart-objects feature, because it allows layered editing and can be scaled to any resolution.

Such a behemoth wrap, which featured interior and exterior graphics, required diverse materials. To complete the wrap’s hull and sides, MetroWrapz used 12 rolls of 3M™’s Scotchprint® 1080 Matte Black textured-finish wrap media; the top deck’s layer entailed 3M Controltac repositionable media with vertical seams; and, the sneaker display, tabletop graphics and cabin decorations comprised Controltac IJ-36 window-graphic vinyl and IJ-180 with a matte-finish overlaminate. The printed portions were completed on a Seiko I Infotech ColorPainter H104S printer.

Even though the wrap was only installed for one day, Dede said the shop laminated the job, as it does every other wrap, for two reasons: “First, it makes the material easier to handle, which saved on labor and helps installation. Second, when done right, a laminated print simply looks better. Choosing the right laminate finish is a make-or-break decision that is often overlooked.”

The top and front areas were decorated with 10, 52-in. x 20-ft. panels with a vertical seam. On the bottom sides, because the area was only 30 in. tall, they cut a series of 52-in.-wide, 32-in.-tall panels. The middle panel spans 58 in. x 50 ft. After cutting and weeding, this panel was applied with two cherry pickers. This piece served as the installation cornerstone; after it was done, installers aligned top and bottom panels with a snapline. Using Knifeless Tech Systems’ knifeless tape, they laid down transfer tape and wrapped the 1080 material on top of it before pulling the lines. This step prevented damage to the yacht’s gel coat.

“The way we cut the camouflage pattern of Dwyane’s face was a good example of how the design evolved,” Khan said. “Originally, it was going to be put on the bottom section, but, as we worked through the pattern, we decided it would be more appealing to decorate the bow with it, so it was moved.”

Ten wrappers labored for two, 13-hour days to complete the job. Dede said, “We were lucky to have an interior environment to wrap the boat. Had we done the installation in port, I can’t imagine how much havoc the wind would have created for the large panels.”

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As expected, tight deadlines were a challenge. The go-ahead was given only five days prior to the launch party. Khan said, “This job was unusual, because we rarely cut vinyl anymore. This is the typical way we would’ve handled a job 20 years ago. Having this experience allowed it to be a big success. I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.”