Vehicle wraps aren’t the sole domain of food trucks and building contractors. Given their comparatively low cost for such a durable advertising solution, they provide valuable marketing. Motley Zoo, a Redmond, WA-based organization that houses abandoned or rescued animals in foster homes until they’re adopted, contacted Wicked Wraps (Lynnwood, WA) to wrap a new Toyota Highlander that it planned to use as a pickup vehicle. Interestingly, Motley Zoo was awarded the vehicle in Toyota’s “100 Cars for Good” campaign, which bestowed new rides to various charitable organizations nationwide. To supplement the gift, Wicked Wraps donated labor and installation on the project and only charged Motley Zoo for the material.
“Wrapping a new car is always a dream,” said Katherine Becher, who runs the shop with her husband, Wade. “All we needed was to wipe it down with isopropyl alcohol and a sparing application of [adhesion promoter] 3M Primer 94.”
After having used Photoshop CS6 to polish the customer-provided logo, Wicked Wraps laid out the graphics with Bad Wrap’s vehicle template. Prior to printing, they took measurements to ensure sufficient bleed and accurate text placement – Becher said the template couldn’t line up the front bumper and the side fenders. The customer had a clear vision of the end result, and was adamant about incorporating zebra stripes into the design – with a twist.
“She wanted them to be more subtle than the traditional, black-and-white pattern,” Becher said. “We created the stripes in various shades of gray, which made the colors dark enough for the logo to pop.”
Wicked Wraps produced the wrap on Avery’s MPI 1005 EZ Apply RS air-release media. They printed the project on the shop’s HP L26500 latex-ink printer – proofed with Caldera’s Visual RIP software – with Designjet 792 inks. Avery DOL 1360 glossy overlaminate will help Motley Zoo’s wrap withstand the Pacific Northwest’s volatile climate. Installation entailed Yellotools squeegees and knife blades, Geek Wraps vehicle-wrap magnets and Knifeless Tech Systems’ Finish Line tape.
“The most challenging part of the job was aligning the bumper with both front fenders without making the bumper wrap two separate pieces,” she said. “This was the first wrap we produce with the Caldera RIP, and we were very pleased with the quality of grays we could produce after creating custom color profiles for each media we print on.”
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