Design

Best Service Vehicles of 2015

Putting a customer’s promotion to work

Published

9 years ago

October 22, 2015

Steve Aust Signs of the Times November 2015 Issue

FIRST PLACE
Fabricator
Digital Graphic Solutions
Valparaiso, IN
(219) 465-7600
www.digitalgraphicsolutions.com

Designers
Dustin Nikolich
Andrea Tepavcevich

Installer
Tim Leininger

Client
Sandpaper

Grumman utility trucks possess an inexplicable ability to engage the public. Perhaps it’s because many people maintain fond memories of the Mister Softee or Good Humor trucks that patrolled the streets of their childhood. This will be readily apparent when we reach the Food Trucks category. For this project, Sandpaper, a Valparaiso-based, vintage-furniture and home-refinishing-product purveyor, enlisted Digital Graphic Solutions to transform its delivery van into a marketing machine. One judge noted it adeptly mimicked graphics on Etsy, a website that offers unique home furnishings, jewelry and décor.
After the completion of a months-long design process executed using Adobe Creative Cloud software and an iMac Retina Core i7 workstation, the shop produced the wrap using 3M™’s Controltac™ IJ180-10Cv3 air-release media imprinted on a Seiko H2-74S solvent-ink printer with 3M GX inks; and Caldera’s V10 RIP and X-Rite iPro2, Pantone PMS color profiles. Digital Graphic Solutions finished the wrap by cutting the material on a Summa S160T machine, and protecting it from Indiana’s volatile climate with 3M Scotchcal™ 8518 gloss-finish overlaminate, which was applied using an AGL 4000 laminator. Leininger applied the wrap with a BernzOMatic TS4000 torch, a Roller Pro vinyl applicator, Olfa knives and Apewrap
wrap gloves.

SECOND PLACE
Fabricator/Installer
Wraps for Less
Orlando, FL
(407) 447-9045
www.wrapsforless.com

Designer
Dan Antonelli
Graphic D-Signs
Washington, NJ
(908) 835-9000
www.graphicd-signs.com

Client
Cool-Way Air Conditioning & Heating

Antonelli transitioned his truck-lettering business into a design-only enterprise more than a decade ago. However, his knowledge about how to optimize text and graphic placement serves him well. Moreover, he’s effectively mined a niche – HVAC providers, who perform a necessary service
(practically essential for survival in Florida) and operate in a highly competitive market where their vehicles must double as calling cards.
Many of Antonelli’s designs incorporate throwback imagery and typography, which likely evoke nostalgia for an era when excellent customer service was an expectation, rather than a wish, and provide an air of reliability that couples with aesthetic appeal. After having drawn the mascot by hand, he completed the program using Adobe Creative Suite 6 software.
Wraps for Less produced the wrap with 3M Controltac air-release media imprinted with a Mimaki JV33 solvent-ink printer and cut on a Summa machine. The shop helped the wrap keep its cool with a Scotchcal 8519 luster-finish topcoat applied with a Seal 54 EL laminator. Its installers used Red Dot knives to cut certain graphics sections away, as well as Knifeless Tech Systems’ knifeless tape – which contains embedded filaments that eliminate the need for blades — Geek Wraps felt squeegees and BernzOMatic TS8000 torches.

THIRD PLACE
Fabricator/Installer
Signquick
Seabrook, TX
(281) 474-1313
www.signquick.com

Designer
Dan Antonelli
Graphic D-Signs

Client
Clear the Air Heating and Air Conditioning

You certainly don’t mess with Texas’ heat; as in Florida, being an HVAC provider provides ample opportunities for work, but requires the signature marketing an excellent wrap provides. A jovial-looking, thermometer-wielding, corpulent cartoon with a wind-turbine stomach is certain to grab the eyes of gridlocked Houston drivers. For this project, Antonelli used a design process similar to the Cool-Way car.
Signquick printed the graphics with 3M Controltac with Comply air-release media on its Roland SolJet Pro3 XC-540 eco-solvent-ink printer. The jolly “blowhard” will be protected with a gloss-finish topcoat applied using a Royal Sovereign RSC-5500H roll laminator.

HONORABLE MENTION
Fabricator/Installer
SignZoo
Sarasota, FL
(800) 239-8115
www.signzoo.com

Designer
Dan Antonelli
Graphic D-Signs

Client
Leslie Heating & Cooling

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