Earlier this month, I took a trip to Go Graphics to learn about translating a 2D graphic into a real vehicle wrap.
Note: the content of this article assumes that you’ve already got a vehicle and the correct information that you intend you place on it (i.e. Commercial vehicle to promote carpentry services).
For previous clients, my process around designing vehicle-wraps has been to:
But, since my interest has grown in the area of race-car liveries and commercial vehicle wraps, I’ve always wanted to know what I haven’t been doing correctly. So I thought to up-skill and make the job easier for the printers I work with.
If you’ve ever designed for a commercial printer before, you might actually be alright – designing billboards and bus stop posters will give you a technical knowledge of resolution and printing capabilities, but unfortunately that’s where the similarities end.
Some vehicles are blocky in shape, and some have lines that run the entire length of the body. These are all elements that reflect light at different angles and might look flat in some light angles, but very extruded in another.
When you create a design around the vehicle’s shape, you’ll inherently make it look better than just pasting flat graphics across it. The reason being that our eyes can easily see when multiple lines cross over at conflicting angles, not to mention that the graphics will look cheaper.
In short: line-alignment = visually complementary.
So, what exactly are your restrictions?
When designing for commercial vehicles, I’ve always prioritised legibility across the vehicle.
If you’re someone that’s into motorsport, you might notice that angles are common on race car graphics. Graphics and words that are angled aggressively down towards the front on a vehicle have an effect of making the car look faster, but are often also guided by sponsor requirements.
You might also notice that body lines on all vehicles are angled down towards the front, and if you design a graphic to be perfectly level, it will look like it’s angled up towards the front.
Once you have created your 2D graphics, the next hurdle to get your head around is applying them to a 3D object with contours of its own. Elements that reflect light might look flat from one angle, but very extruded from another – This is where your templates come in handy. Templates don’t just show the panel edges, they also come with contour-lines that help you layout your shapes.
There are a bunch of resources online where you can find templates for almost any vehicle, specifically for the purpose of designing graphics onto it. Here are some of the websites that I have previously used:
PXLSRS
YELLOW IMAGES
CREATIVE MARKET
WRAP WIZARDS
PRO VEHICLE OUTLINES
SIGN ELEMENTS
Sometimes, you might find that the car that you’re working on doesn’t have a template available. In which case, it’s up to you to get creative with images and your pen tool in illustrator.
After the template comes a mockup on a flat-view of the vehicle – Front view, side view and rear to give the best ideas. Vehicles are made of multiple panels, and each one has to be wrapped separately. If your designs have lines/shapes on them that need to line up over multiple panels, the template won’t be the final design step.
Mocking up your design on photos of your actual vehicle will ensure that the printer can see where the lines meet during the sticker application.
It’s fair to say that the magic really happens during printing and application. When a printer has solid references to your final vision, they will know where to make adjustments to the final artwork. The team at Go Graphics have applied graphics to so many vehicles so they know what they’re doing. When I asked them how they would know where to stretch a printed shape to compliment a car’s body-line, they simply told me that it comes down to practice.
This might not be the ideal conclusion to an educational post, but to learn the discipline of wrapping a vehicle, you will need to learn complementary skills to graphic design.
