Outsourcing designs ?

[tintguy31794]

Hello hello, I am in the sign making business and have been for 4 years. We do pretty well here, we are wanting to get more into wraps and the only thing holding me back is the fact that I do not consider myself a designer by any means. I have a rol vp 540 (54" printer)... I have the oracal version of the wrap and lam ... i'm horrible with numbers, but its the recommended expensive stuff.... I'm more than capable of installing anything sticky, but my shortcomings come with design...

I'm wondering if i'm not the only one in this boat and if there is anyone out there willing to "do the designing for us" generally my customers are not too picky.. What kind of money would you charge me to design my wraps and send them to me for me to print on my machines? How many changes could I request?



I don't see wraps being my complete future or anything like that, but I do see the fact that we have the capabilities so why not make extra dollars? I would expect MAYBE 1 per month and i'm sure that number would grow as time goes by... this makes it difficult to hire a in house designer... on top of not knowing if they have any experience in building designs for signs etc...

Anything on your minds would be appreciated.

 

[Jim Doggett]

My advice would be to leverage your sign-making talent. Lizard and snake skin backgrounds, flames and other trendy effects, IMO, are way (WAY) over used. A wrap, especially in this economy, needs to make phones ring, and not just excite the owner of the vehicle. As a sign-maker, you know how to do that: colors, readability; not more than three subjects .... and being seen while moving.

Less, IMO, is more.

Jim

 

[trimitbyrich]

I highly recommend the pro designer series from Aurora Graphics. They have very good tutorials for photoshop. If you become proficient with photoshop you could litterally design everything. Plan on spending many many hours trying to learn it but once you do, you will not believe what youll be able to create, it really becomes fun!

 

[Dan Antonelli]

We do a lot of design work for other shops, especially as it relates to branding, and then usually we get involved in designing the art for their clients' vehicles, etc.

 

[parkedcar]

If you are not a designer I'd highly recomend subbing it out to Dan.

 

[Service Sign Co]

Designing wraps is kind of a trendy application.
you need templates for some vehicles and lay the sections out in the flat,like sheet metal work.
If you have a decent design to begin with,you could add some background effects,but that usually takes away from the contrast.
In my opinion,customers get more recognition with traditional graphics.
Partial wraps seem to be more practical,unless the customer has an unlimited budget.
As far as Photoshop is concerned,that's where designing is headed,might as well learn it thoroughly while you still have time

 

[phototec]

Wrap Designs

I have been a graphic designer for over 25 years, started my career doing print ads for magazine, brochures and catalog work, also have been shooting commercial photography during the same time and started using Adobe Photoshop when it was just a beta version way back in 1988. I have worked as a graphic designer for both Texas Instruments and Dell creating all sorts of graphics, including trade show graphics, banners, posters, and digital photography.

After being laid-off from the big fortune five hundred companies, I have decided to freelance from home, I worked with a large local sign company for more than 20 years doing their high end graphic design work when the worked needed to be better than they can typically do in-house, full color digital graphics for wraps, etc.

I would be interested in doing wrap designs for your shop or any other shop, send me a private email and I can send you samples of some of my wrap designs, just finished a few 45' trailers, all done FULL SIZE in Photoshop at 100dpi, and printed beautifully.

After doing the up-front design work all these years, I going into the digital wrap business to offer a one stop full service business. I do the design, high-end digital photography, full-size production artwork (100% at 100dpi), and now, I just purchased a Roland SP540v printer and a Seal 54 laminator, so I can print and install the wraps.

I do have Graphtec cutter, and have been making vinyl signage for the last 5 years, however, I want to specialize in the wrap business, one thing for sure, that any wrap is only as good as the DESIGN!

It cost the same to print, laminate and install good, mediocreer or a great wrap, the difference is in the DESIGN, all the shops in my area have good printers, laminators and installers, however there is a difference when it comes to the designs, the shops that don't have a true experienceded resident graphic artist have weak amateur looking wraps, I think the old saying from the early computer days, still rings true, "Garbage in - Garbage Out".

 

[HotWraps]

A good design will always get you repeat business, don't experiment with your clients company. If you still need to sub out some design work, get in contact with my company, we can work with you.

 

[k6media]

Amen Photo... Amen.

 

[stickasteve]

I do graphic design for all wraps, signs, flyers, postcards, etc... We are a bit outside the box when it comes to desogn. If you ever need some help, and that goes for any other of you members out there, please feel free to hit us up.

Check out our website... www.stwgraphics.com all info is on there.