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By ESTHER SMITH
News staff writer
February 21, 2007
Body wraps are not just for people
anymore — car bodies are being wrapped, too.
Dayna Reed, who has been designing and making signs in the Gorge area
for more than 25 years, has a new medium for his graphic design work:
vehicle wraps.
His first local wrapping job was for Andrew’s Pizza, whose
attention-grabbing delivery vehicle is covered not with paint but the
same type of vinyl wrap that’s used on logo-emblazoned NASCAR
vehicles.
He has done many others for clients in the Portland area, he says, and
last year had the opportunity to design and wrap the Driver’s
Education car for the Hood River County School District.
“I had a great time designing the image, printing to vinyl and
applying it to the car,” he says. “Dealing with David Griffith (of
Griffith Motors, who is loaning the car to the school district) is
always a pleasure and delivering it to the school was a real surprise
to them.”
Dayna Reed holds up the 54-inch wide
sheet of printed vinyl to check placement on his van.
The vehicle wrap process is rather
time-consuming, from start to finish. Once he has finished the graphic
design, it is printed to a special vinyl made by 3M called Controltac
Graphic Marking System. The printing alone takes about eight hours.
He recently covered his own van with his SignArt logo, a job which
took him about eight hours, with the help of his friend, Michael King.
The vehicle first had to be cleaned thoroughly and any wax removed.
Then the vinyl sheets were applied in panels.
Anyone who has worked with adhesive shelf paper knows how tricky it
can be to work with.
“I curse a lot,” Reed jokes.
Above and below: Dayna Reed and Michael
King work around windows, bumpers and hinges while wrapping the
vehicle.
He uses a precision cutting tool and a
torch to warm the vinyl for stretching to fit as needed. Fortunately,
the adhesive is designed for ease of removal in case it doesn’t go on
right the first time.
“Vehicle wraps come off when wanted, leaving leased or owned vehicles
ready for resale without damage,” he says. Life expectancy of the wrap
is about 5-7 years.
The wrap can even cover windows, thanks to special perforated vinyl,
he says. He believes the vehicle wraps are an amazing way for
businesses to project their image, receiving thousands of exposures
each day.
Reed describes himself as a “one-stop shop” for small and midsize
businesses’ advertising and marketing needs, offering design services
for logos, Web sites and brochures as well as signage.
“The good thing about having a sign artist design your logo is that I
understand signs are different than print,” Reed says. “A logo that
looks good small may not translate to sign-size well. Signs are a
whole different animal.”
For his own vehicle wrap, Reed chose to go big.
“Every application is different,” he said. “I think a sign company
should be bold.”
*****
For more information about Reed’s design business visit
www.signartsigns.com or call him at (541) 386-2321. |
