5 Tips To Get You Started With A Vehicle Wrap Design

Customisation of your car puts a unique stamp on your car. And vehicle wrap is the most customisation tool people use to give their cars a special look. Car wrapping is completely or partially covering a vehicle with a unique vinyl film. It's intended to assist individuals in changing the appearance of their vehicle without having to spend an arm and a leg for a complete respray.

With vinyl wraps, you may transform the appearance of your vehicle by adding a new colour, pattern, or texture, such as matt or shine. Indeed, as wrapping has grown in popularity, there is now a plethora of alternatives available, enabling you to personalise your vehicle.

The beauty of vehicle wraps is that many colours, textures, and patterns are not possible to recreate with a conventional respray. Or they could, but at a price that would put the typical automobile owner out of reach.

For small companies, vehicle wraps are a highly popular design product. The side of their cars provides an excellent advertising opportunity that will be viewed by several people. It's essentially a movable billboard with advertising space that a company owner pays just once.

Numerous car wraps are constructed using huge, printed vinyl stickers on the vehicle's body. However, creating these great advertisements might be a bit challenging. Any designer considering a car wrap job should have at least an intermediate level of proficiency with typical graphic design applications and do research before diving in.

In this article, the basics of creating print-ready car wrap designs and how to distribute them to your customer are discussed. Here are five tips to get you Started with Vehicle Wrap Design:

1. Get a detailed template

You must first get a perfect template before you can begin developing anything. It is critical to base your designs on an exact template file of your client's car to develop an accurate and print-ready design. Vehicle wrap files may be vast and intricate, and some vehicle wrap printers charge up to $75/ZAR1100 per hour or $250/ZAR3800 for any repairs.

You should get the car's blueprint template files from your customer. If they do not have one, they may buy one for you from websites such as Designhill. Designhill is the creative marketplace where you can get a vehicle wrap design online.

It is the or request one from their vehicle wrap printer. Please remember that template files acquired online are not always 100% exact since each vehicle's surface may have subtle flaws.

Following that, determine which vehicle printing firm the customer uses and their requirements. Because each car wrap printing firm may have unique file needs and printing methods, it's critical to collect as much information as possible before you begin designing.

Finally, request that your customer give you high-quality photographs of their vehicle and indicate which model it is. Inquire if there are any abnormalities on the car's surface that vary from current templates.

2. Get inspired

Now that you've gathered all of the technical data, it's time to consider how to convert your client's car wrap vision into a reality! Assume they already have a logo and advertising material. You could inquire about their preferred car wrap designs.

While it is not encouraged, many customers like the use of photographs in their car wrap design. If such is the case, very high-quality photographs must be acquired and bought. You'll want to establish a budget for stock photography.

It's usually a good idea to keep the design of a car wrap basic, even more so if it's an advertisement for your client's company. Because your client's car may be travelling at 65 miles per hour on the interstate, you'll want to ensure that the brand's message can be read in seconds.

3. Begin the design process

After obtaining photographs of your client's car, you may rapidly draw up your design. While you may build the design directly in the template files, many designers choose to first Photoshop the design onto a picture of the car.

You can design a vehicle wrap online with some tools.

It will not be a perfect match for how it will appear on the actual automobile, but it will help you understand how graphics will seem when they meet at the car's corners and rounded surfaces.

Before showing your customer a Prototype, ensure that it can be readily replicated or applied to the template files. Prototypes are an excellent way to demonstrate to your client how the design will seem in real life and to get their approval for the final design.

However, it is critical to moderate their expectations correctly by demonstrating practical ideas, not merely those that look beautiful in Photoshop.

4. Customise the template by applying the design

Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop may produce vehicle wrap print files. At 99designs, we recommend that our designers send Adobe Illustrator files with car wrap handovers since certain vehicle wrap printers will only print vector files. Consider the following for this:

• Set the colour mode of your document to CMYK.
• One technique for creating a scaled design is to employ a 1:10 ratio.
• Set the document's resolution to 720 pixels per inch.
• Utilise high-resolution photographs/raster pictures when they are included in the design.
• All typefaces should be converted to outlines.
• Separate and arrange each component into distinct layers, ensuring that each graphic has its sublayer.
• Each component of the template should have bleeds of 5-10 inches. The design will need to wrap around items such as door edges, and adding more bleeds will aid in the pattern's adhesion to the automobile.

5. Submit the files

Provide your customer with either.ai or.psd files in addition to the car wrap's uncompressed .tiff file. Ascertain that they are familiar with or possess a license for any typefaces utilised in your design.

If photographs or other raster graphics were utilised in the design, submit the raw picture file so that the car wrap professionals may alter your files if necessary.

For a more thorough sample of file specs, see the file specifications for this car wrap printer. While vehicle wraps might be challenging, they can also be one of the most satisfying ways to see your ideas come to life on a large, fast-moving item.

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