posted
This may pertain to signs as well but this is one thing I have noticed on truck lettering exclusively.
The technology we have today has made it easier to print " Photo Quality " images and sell them as the newest hottest thing we can offer.
But the question remains, are they effective or are you just selling your customers a hyped up gimmick?
Very rarely do I see effective use of photo quality images on vehicle lettering and I'm not exactly sure it's the right medium to use them. It brings me back to Cartoons, as a kid the backgrounds were painted to look realistic but the characters were in only 2D, which gave them the contrast to stand up "off" the background. Remember when you design a lyout for a truck the background is usually 2D but the background in which we usually view the whole truck and it's ad is 3D AND already photo quality!
Not to mention the 2d cartoons characters were easier on the eye with less info to process so they became more appealing to the eye, Real life is "photo realistic" so images placed on trucks just blend in to me, and in 3-5 seconds to process the AD there is way too much to process in most of the images I see used. This does not mean that using photographs in truck lettering is a bad thing, but rather more responsibility and consideration should be applied to make sure the lettering and the image work together and appropriately to work as an effective AD in the 3-5 second time frame.
I may be biased having such a cartoon fetish but I still like a 2D graphic or image over a photo-quality digital print any day in truck lettering.
Even a nice hand painted image looks so much better than just a photo.
[ October 02, 2004, 10:18 AM: Message edited by: Bob Rochon ]
-------------------- Bob Rochon Creative Signworks Millbury, MA 508-865-7330
"Life is Like an Echo, what you put out, comes back to you." Posts: 5149 | From: Millbury, Mass. U.S. | Registered: Nov 1998
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I can see it both ways tho'. I'm doin' some work for BUSH HOG on 12x48 ft. trailers. At some point, they want pics of various pieces of equipment on the sides. I mean, I would kind'a hate to haft'a hand-paint all of the various makes and types they would choose . . .PLUS, they would like to be able to change them as newer equipment comes out, so I'm really glad for the digital graphics industry.
Also, just the way some of the old sign guys were all thinkin' vinyl was gonna wipe out hand-work so it is with the photo-vinyl.
All it did was make a lot of people say, "NO vinyl. I want it HAND-painted".
It seems a modern commodity can make it's predecessor more unique & therefore more valuable . . .
-------------------- Signs Sweet Home Alabama
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"Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a dog" Posts: 5758 | From: "Sweet Home" Alabama | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Depends on the design and the application, Bob.. as always!
A semi trailer with a photo of a fresh, hot steamin' burger or steak just speaks more than a cartoonish image of the same thing on the same vehicle. Same thing goes for a photo print of some furniture on a furniture store delivery box van.
A complete wrap on a car or SUV done in photographic quality might be over-doing it though, unless the photo prints are only used as a smaller element to compliment the main message. Say you have an SUV used as a wakeboard team tour vehicle. Completely wrapping it with photos of all the team members in action might be overwhelming but some simple lettering on the sides with a photoprint just on the rear side panel could accent the lettering very nicely.
You're right though, any time you make something too complex it loses its effectiveness. You have to know when enough is enough.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
I think I know what you mean. I've seen trailers for the 1 convenience store chain here with a huge photo of one of their subs on it & that says a lot more to me than if they put a picture of every item they have on the menu on the truck. You only have so much time to see an ad & get the message.
We've all seen the truck or sign that looks like a newspaper with way too much copy on it. Looks like the people responsible for that, (either the sign person who didn't know better or the customer who wouldn't take the sign maker's advice) have now moved into the digital printing era.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
Well said Bob (s) Just because one has the capability of processing photos doesn't mean that they need to be plastered all over a vehicle. I think that the use of photo images, especially on vehicles, lends a cheezy look. Even tho I seem crazy to some, I love the traditional look of a well-designed photo-less sign. The ones with the pix, to me, scream INSTANT SIGN SHOP. Yup, a burger pic , real flowers, or a bag o'chips is OK in a pic, but I'd rather see something else. Love.....Jill
-------------------- That is like a Mr. Potato Head with all the pieces in the wrong place. -Russ McMullin Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
Most of what I've seen starts with a crappy, boring or crowded photo. The prints themselves are usually way too fuzzy and the whole mess has absolutely no pop. Kinda reminds me of a pickup done in camo.
-------------------- George Perkins Millington,TN. goatwell@bigriver.net
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
posted
I think we need to give this technology a few more years to get the bugs out. And when they do, we will all have to upgrade our equipment.It kinda reminds me of vinyl records, 8 tracks tapes, cassette tapes, then CD's. The technology gets better with time.
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3820 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
It's much like putting high quality surgical tools in the hands of a landscaper...he may not know how to use them.
I see more and more "gimmicky" work in general, as the result of digital printing, or moreso, poor design skills applied in digital printing situations. Three-color-fade, double outline with a drop shadow lettering in some illegible font, laid over a colorful photograph of flowers, with more clip-art flourishes than one can imagine.
And to think it was supposed to be truck lettering that advertised someone's business...
I see it on billboards (black copy laid over a waving flag, and you can't read any of it), in print advertsing and even on television (a lawyer screams out his phone number, with a blue-screened image behind him of fireballs erupting and an 800 number flashing across the screen).
It an age old story: digital imaging is just another tool, much like a quill, a software program or a black marker. In the hands of a skilled designer, it can generate miracles, and in the hands of a less-skilled designer, it can make a mess.
I must say though Bob, it's refreshing to hear that comment from such a proponant of The Edge. It's a good observation.
posted
Aw, c'mon Bob. You know how it is! It's new, so it must be better! Bigger! Must be better! The latest computer gizmo! Must be better! What? No clue as to designing what's appropriate, effective, or legible? Well, hell, most of the sticky shyt that comes out of the majority of so-called sign shops is like that already, so what's the difference? Just keep repeating, NEW! BETTER! BIGGER! BETTER! Just like everything else the masses have been taught to believe that's supposed to take the place of anything worth a damn.
Ahhhhh... fresh back from a nice long vacation in the wild backcountry of Arizona and Utah; nothing like a quick rant to get the blood pressure back up to the demands of modern post-industrial life here in the good ol' USA. Hot damn!
-------------------- "A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle
Cam Bortz Finest Kind Signs Pondside Iron works 256 S. Broad St. Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379 "Award winning Signs since 1988" Posts: 3051 | From: Pawcatuck,Connecticut USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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