andygeekboy

Vehicle Signage Do's and Don't

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Hi All, 

 

I was going to take a crack at cutting some signage for my truck, are there any particular do's and don'ts?

Something like:

  • no goofy comic sans fonts
  • only easy to read fonts
  • only 'opposite colors'
  • at least 3 forms of contact
    • Telephone Number
    • Email Address
    • Website
  • at least 2" high letters

 

If my truck is ' Red Rock Metallic ' what would be a good 'opposing color' to make the lettering stand out?

Last question

Is matte or shiny preferred for vehicle signage?

 

 

Thanks

Edited by andygeekboy
added a bit

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I don't think there are hard and fast rules but generally you want whatever you decide to put on there to be legible from as far away as possible. Goofy frilly font's generally don't end up being very legible. I once did my business vehicle with heavy drop shadow behind the text. I layered it because it was easy and found that from about 50 feet it looked blurry and was hard to read. The next time I did the vehicle I used the "knock out" style of drop shadow which keeps a defined clear area around the text rather than layering it on top of each other. A little harder to build and keep everything perfect but 100% easier to read. 

My suggestion for coming up with contrasting colors is to do a mock-up with a good pic of your vehicle and add your design on top of it in your program of choice just like you would do with a client and that will let you experiment with colors that sound good. Once you place them on the mock you may decide they don't look like you thought they would. Some vinyl colors are tough to match up in a graphics program but you can get close enough to get a general feel for the finished effect. 

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For a red truck I'd suggest white, silver, or grey. Black on red sounds good, but it's not easy to read from a distance unless you have pretty large letters, even then, a white outline would make it pop a lot more.

Something else to keep in mind would be color blindness. Red/Green is a common one so you wouldn't want to use Green on your red truck, aside from that color combo being hard to read in general, there would be some people that wouldn't be able to see it at all.

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White is by far the best contrasting color out there. One thing I hate is when people put so much information on the truck you can't figure out what they do or how to get a hold of them unless the truck is stationary and you are standing there to read it all. KISS

One thing I have found in the short time I have had my machine is that there are a few things I would like to change about my truck lettering now that I know my way around the program a whole lot better. One of these days I may just peel it off and start over. 

There is a local slate guy that has a nice blue truck and had a very nice decal/paint job on it. The work is immaculate but unless you know him and what he does there is no way you can get it from his truck unless he's stopped and you are beside him. It's a total waste of money if you ask me.

 

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I saw a white truck the other day and the layout of the vinyl looked good but you couldn't read anything. It was red lettering with a with a fairly thick black outline that left the center of letters completely black and the logo was a blob with a couple white spots. Once I got within 10 feet I could tell what it said but it wasn't comfortable to read at all. You best bet is to cut some letters out of the colors you are considering and put them on the truck for comparison.

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54 minutes ago, signyouup said:

I saw a white truck the other day and the layout of the vinyl looked good but you couldn't read anything. It was red lettering with a with a fairly thick black outline that left the center of letters completely black and the logo was a blob with a couple white spots. Once I got within 10 feet I could tell what it said but it wasn't comfortable to read at all. You best bet is to cut some letters out of the colors you are considering and put them on the truck for comparison.

any vehicle signage should be readable as it passes and intersection - which is a couple of seconds - too many new people try to get to fancy and lose the reason for the signage - to get a message across in a short amount of time

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On 8/22/2016 at 4:44 PM, Wildgoose said:

 . . .I used the "knock out" style of drop shadow . . .

I'm trying to think of this. Is this where the shadow is on the inside?

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So, follow up question.

 

If I go ahead and put some lettering on the truck and decide I don't like it, how difficult is it to take off?

Is there some special goo gone type spray?

 

Thanks

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It will pull back up easy for quite a while. Probably won't need the adhesive cleaner either. I use the orange peel adhesive remover sold on USCutter. There are others but it seems to perform about as good as anything I have found and the smell is better than the aerosol spray types. Just be sure you do a thorough cleaning afterword so your next graphic will stick. 

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Here is a chart having to do with the most contrasting color combinations. the higher the number, the easier to read.

arthur-passini-color-wayfinding-01.png

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5 hours ago, jayhoover2703 said:

Here is a chart having to do with the most contrasting color combinations. the higher the number, the easier to read.

arthur-passini-color-wayfinding-01.png

That's nice. Don't quite understand why black on white is only 91. How can you get better contrast than that? 

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4 hours ago, Wildgoose said:

That's nice. Don't quite understand why black on white is only 91. How can you get better contrast than that? 

I was wondering the same things.   If that's the sliding scale then there has to be some color combo that's 100.   

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Same here since black on white is the best contrast but yellow on red is the most readable.  Anybody know what LR(%) stands for?

 

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55 minutes ago, FrznFire07 said:

Same here since black on white is the best contrast but yellow on red is the most readable.  Anybody know what LR(%) stands for?

 

I'm guessing percentage of light reflected.

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8 minutes ago, Command said:

I'm guessing percentage of light reflected.

oh that actually makes a lot of sense, incl why black and white wouldn't be total values since some light is always absorbed.  hmmmm, interesting, thanks!!

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I am a little late to the party, but I definitely suggest white, or a white/silver - white/chrome combo. 

I know this red is brighter than your truck, but it will give you an idea.

IMG_13031.jpg

Screenshot_20160924-095328.png

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Some states/cities have requirements for commercial vehicle lettering.  NY is 3" minimum for physical address on contrasting colors.

Phone and website is plenty for contact info IMO. 

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