The Big Picture - January/February 2013 - (Page 12)

graphics on the go graphics on the go Making It Your Fault By Jared Smith I f you have been producing vehicle wraps for a while, it’s likely you can recall a job or two in which the designer screwed something up: The hood didn’t ﬁt. The logo ran into the door handle. The phone number was too big on the tailgate. Do any of these scenarios sound familiar? If so, you know how frustrating this can be for the client, the installers, and the sales staﬀ. These types of errors are expensive and they can give your client the impression that your shop doesn’t know what it’s doing. What happens after the re-work? Usually a discussion occurs with the designer about what he or she “did wrong.” I would suggest, however, that many of these re-work issues – or possibly all of them – are not the designer’s fault at all. In fact, they might be your fault. Here at bluemedia, we use a process called “make it your fault.” We seek out what we all could have done better to reduce the probability that any similar errors will occur in the future. Along the way, we inevitably ﬁnd some interesting rocks previously unturned. Megapixels and inches In order for a wrap to get successfully installed, it must ﬁrst be correctly printed. And, of course, in order for that to happen, it must be correctly designed. Before all that can happen, though, various strategies, speciﬁcations, and measurements have to go right as well – some more obvious than others. I’d like to challenge you to ﬁnd a few of the not-so-obvious factors that are required to get a set of great production ﬁ les delivered to the print JARED SMITH is president of bluemedia (bluemedia.com), a leading provider of design and printing for use in vehicle, large-format, and environmental applications, in Tempe, Arizona. 12 THE BIG PICTURE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 department. Then, take a hard look at your shop’s systems and policies so that you can increase the probability for success on the ﬁrst try. In my opinion, this process begins in the sales department. The ﬁrst factors to deﬁne are year, make, and model of the vehicle to be wrapped. For this example, let’s use a simple vehicle to identify: a Nissan NCV. The client informs us that they would like us to wrap a 2012 Nissan NCV. Some shops think they have everything they need at this point, but a more experienced shop knows this is just the beginning. We next need to know which body style. In this case, we’re lucky because there are really only two: short or tall. The client informs us it’s the short version. Next, we need to know if there are side windows or not. The client informs us there are indeed side windows. Using the Nissan website, we conﬁrm that there are rear windows as well (all NCVs with side windows have rear windows). From our experience with this particular vehicle, we begin to get the picture that this is an NCV 2 – a passenger van rather than a cargo van. This makes sense – this client is a local hotel that intends to use the vehicle for airport transfers for hotel guests. (This might also mean that we won’t be doing any perforated window vinyl, since some clients don’t want passengers sitting so close to window perf – which can result in a blurred view.) The NCV 2 has rows of seating instead of a cargo bay. The last question we need answered is, “Does this vehicle have side body moldings?” The client answers, “I think so.” With this information in hand, we can begin to assess our likelihood for success. I’m conﬁdent we now know which vehicle we’re working with. The story checks out and that vehicle makes sense for its intended use. Remember, the client said he “thinks” there is body molding, but we need to ﬁnd out for sure. To help increase our chance for accuracy, we always get photos from all four vehicle sides – every time and for every vehicle-wrap order. If we have previously wrapped this exact vehicle type, we don’t require any measurements. If, however, we have not previously wrapped this vehicle >40 http://www.bluemedia.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Big Picture - January/February 2013

The Big Picture - January/February 2013
Contents
InSight
Wide Angle
UpFront
Vehicle Graphics – Making It Your Fault
Inside Output
Special Section: FOCUS
New Technology: SGIA and Graph Expo Highlights
Job Log

The Big Picture - January/February 2013