Now featuring 20 new gallery photos and a revised buyer's guide, this updated book shows you everything you need to know about vehicle lettering. More than 270 full-color photos take you step-by-step through ...
Transit Graphics
By Steve Aust
FIRST PLACE
Las Vegas’ desirability as an entertainment destination presumably led the NBA to select Sin City to host the 2006 NBA All-Star Game. R & R Partners’ (a marketing-communications firm) Las Vegas office hired Crush Creative to develop a wrap program to create a buzz among monorail passengers. Crush designed the wrap to be installed horizontally – each piece of 3M IJ180-10C film was 35 ft. long. No detail was overlooked – all 32 door handles were painted to match the wrap. To disguise the white basecoat, Decal Technologies (Santa Ana, CA), which installed the program, wrapped all door edges, compartments, skirts and fins. The installation team prepped the surface with 3M’s Primer 94 and helped secure the seams (there were two per side) with 3950 edge sealer. To decorate the windows, Crush Creative specified 3M’s 8171 film. The shop output all elements on its eight-color Scitex XLJet 5+.
SECOND PLACE
The visual impressions that happen due to this Las Vegas promotional campaign hopefully won’t stay behind once tourists head home. Crush Creative’s design entailed wrapping this train with 3M IJ180-10C black vinyl and then covering this base layer with IJ680-10 reflective vinyl. The shop printed each reflective piece, then individually plotter-cut and weeded them.
Crush Creative’s Steve Rosenberger said, “We had to make sure all the lines lined up correctly, left to right and car to car. One of the hardest parts was carrying the reflective vinyl to the nose and over the fins’ pocket lights. When you look at the 150-ft.-long monorail, your eyes never stop on any door or skirt edge.”
The shop output the 35-ft.-long wrap pieces on its EFI-VUTEk UltraVu 3360 solvent-ink printer and protected it with 3M’s 8518 glossy-finish overlaminate. Decal Technologies (Santa Ana, CA) handled the installation.
THIRD PLACE
The WSPD converted its mobile command post into an effective recruiting tool. Summers and Wolfe scaled up a squad car to fit the bus side using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Matthews output the graphics on its Mimaki JV5 printer, protected the print with 8518 gloss-finish overlaminate applied with a Seal laminator, and created the pattern with a Zünd cutting plotter. Installers Mike Teague and Candy McBride used vinyl squeegees, torches, RollPro vinyl rollers and “a lot of experience,” Matthews’ Kenny Bishop said.
HONORABLE MENTION
