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Vehcile Graphics: Kings
did this one today,
spent 4hrs+ making the vector for the roof trusses ! got there in the end though, thanks for the advice that was offered !
took me about 3hrs to cut and tape everything and 3 1/2hrs to fit, is that about right ?
anyways, used 651 gold over silver, simple 2 layer stuff i guess, took a little longer to fit cos it got windy, so after dry applying, yes, i dry applied 😀 the base layers, i then wet applied the upper layers in smaller sections to make them more managable on my own,
customer chose fonts and design from a load of samples i made and showed him, his choice to mix the fonts a little, but i reckon it works ok,
and yes i know the bonnet decal is about 1/2 inch out of left/right centre !
crit ?
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Hi Hugh
Thanks for taking the time to post your work mate… it looks good!Constructive criticism: I would have lost the white altogether.
By using it, you have doubled the work for yourself on most aspects and the result blurs the clarity of the design. (Wee test) squint your eyes at your work, if it all merges its not working.
Overall it’s still clean and tidy so you did well there as many starting out go for big or very busy.
Side panels are out of line though mate… centre them in depth on each panel. Left hand panel although aligned with right creates a bottom heavy feel to it.The time spent on all this was too long… worst part was design time, but all this will come with experience and use of software.
A tip, read up on kerning with text, it’s a great thing to know a bit about and helps you heaps in design. “Never stretch to fit anything, when designing”
Again, thank you for posting your work mate, much appreciated!
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I agree with Rob here Hugh. and I would have lost the white too.
The job took a while, but fits in the 33% rule. (4hrs for design, 3hrs to cut and tape and 3 1/2hrs to fit) that is not to say that you couldn’t do it a bit faster with experience.
Well done tho,
Cheers
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Excellent work Hugh – You and your customer should be pleased with that. 😀
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Thankyou !
the design was actually longer than 4hrs, that was just the roof vector ! it was the first time i’d tried to really ‘design’ somehthing from scratch and it was a continually evolving design, starting from a simple A shape, to getting it to look 3D, to then chopping a bit out where it would met the top bar, etc, and then copy / pasting it, starting again cos i found a better way, and so on, i learnt quite alot from it though, i guess the rest took less than an hour, that was just a case of searching fonts i thought would suit the job, and suggesting a few banner templates and name layouts, then half hour with the customer, at least he knew what he wanted when he saw it, quick decisions !
i applied the rear doors on friday while he was out, basically so he could see it when he got home and be sure it was the way to go, a bit unorthadox i guess but he’s a local guy so it’s not like it cost me much more to do it that way !
i agree with the kerning, but to be honest, while i understand the principle, i wasn’t too sure how to exactly do it with the software.
the white is actually silver, due to using silver as the lighter part of the roof construction, and as the name on the banner, the customer wanted it to surround the letters, it was a bit of a freak really, as i dragged the text over the bonnet he saw it highlighted white, and decided he’d like that ! he wanted white but i suggested silver as it looks less in yer face as white does, so that bits my fault ! i think it looks clearer in the flesh than the photo’s, my camera hasnt been the same since drowned it in coffee !
re being too low in the panel, that again was my fault, without thinking, i’d put a large box around the graphic when cutting, with a view to using it as a registration point during application, i’d made the box too big and in a mad moment lined it up with the top of the panel, therefore placing the graphic where it is now,as i applied it dry, scary moments !… it was too late by the time i realised what i’d done so had to do the others the same,
over all, i’m quite happy with it, i learnt alot, both during design and application, so will hopefully be more aware of the probs/faults next time round,
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The van is fine but, like Robert, I would mention the length of time it took.
I need to charge £30 per hour to cover all overheads and make a reasonable profit so my labour cost would be £315, a guess at materials would be £30 cost so £60 retail and that adds up to £375 plus VAT, which I would struggle to get for a similar van.
Of course, allowances need to be made. You can’t really charge the customer for your learning time, so you will have received a benefit there which will stand you in good stead forever, and that has a value.
At the end of the day if the customer is happy and you are satisfied with what you received, both in money and experience, then you have been onto a winner.
However, I think the target you should be aiming for is to get something like that done in about five hours, making £150 labour plus £60 materials giving a total of £210 plus VAT, which sounds about right and is what I would need to be charging to remain competitive in my local market.
Keep up the good work.
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Nice one Hugh…looks good, however couple of things I would add…
1: You have finally found a t-shirt (if you look carefully at one of the photos)
2: The shirt is pink 😳:lol1:
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Dave, the shirt matches my race car ! except i’m driving around in the cop car at the mo !!
john,
you’re all right regards the time, i dont have my exact workings to hand, but as he was a friend i knocked some of my estimated labour off, which i guess is seen as a sweetner even though it just makes an adjustment for me being slow ! i think my original estimate was about £360, i’m sure then he got ‘mates rates’ which was £15ph not £25 (i still mark up the vinyl a fair chunk though !) i charged him £250, materials were about £35 -£40, so £210 over 11-12hrs, is still about £18 per hour for my time, the experience is more valuabe so prob not a bad result i feel,i think normally it would have been less time, what killed this job a little was the fact that the vector took so long to draw, but as we’ve said, that wil be overcome with experience, very often a traced image (proves popular round here for some reason !) or modified clip art type stuff
is used so time is far less on the design side,i guess cutting and taping is dictated by how fast the cutter goes, how fast go, and how many cups of tea or phone calls i stop for !
application is getting quicker, i seem to be developing ways that i’m comfortable with, some wet, some dry, the end result is the important thing tho ! hey ?
ps, his mate turned up and now got 4 vans to do for him !!
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Hugh, WELL DONE MATE
I’ve been doing this a few years now and still would not be able to draw that truss, they do say you have to speculate to accumulate, in my opinon time and money spent on some things will repay you in more than just profit at that moment in time.
Hats off to you for showing your work, I like many remain as a shadow and read this kind of post and absorb the first class advice given, then try to apply it to my own everyday work, you can take a well earned pat on the back this post has been very usefull in many ways.
Q. do you sign you work, I do and it works for me.
Russ
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Someone has just paid for your on the job trianing. Its the only way to learn and even better when you get a cheque at the end!
You will know how and where you can save time and therefore make more profit from your work.
Nothing wrong with your design mate.
Just bear in mind when designing give the client something he will be happy with but takes the hassle out of the job for you. Also it doesn’t matter if you have two or three styles and turn them out time and again. (this will get shot down but we are in business to make money)
We do work for some of the biggest design agencies in the UK and you will be amazed how the regurgitate the same stuff time and again and charge royally for the pleasure. These guys drive around in porsches ferraris, mercs and bm’s what do they know -keep the client happy without too much hassle for production.
Best part of any job is to come, the payment!
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thanks for all the comments,
cheers Russ, i didnt sign the van, i meant to ! the guy has actually phoned since and suggested i do as he’s run out of the half dozen cards i gave him !
just doing a recovery truck now, design at mo, the guy wants it a certain way, which i’m not overly happy with, but i cant change his mind ! grrr ! i’ll not make a fuss tho as he’s my brothers boss and is has three more trucks coming in the next two months !
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just a quick note for the guy who pm’d me regards how i got the outline on the Kings van,
(afraid i’m not yet a paid up member, so i can’t reply on the pm, need an email if ya want me to reply !)
the ‘outline’ around the lettering is done (in corel 12 anyways) buy adding a contour around the original text, breaking apart the contour layers, and then cutting the two seperately, i find by doing it as a complete layer underneath the top text, you have less bother than you would if trying to line up an outline colour, just lay the larger decal down first, then the smaller on top,
sorry i’ve forgot your name tween reading the pm and writing this, feel free to pm again with some way i can reply to you and i’ll be more than happy to help you if you use corel 12, if you use a different design software, it would be prudent to ask a question on the board, they’re a friendly bunch really and i’m sure people with the same software would be happy to help too !
H
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Hugh, overall I would say you had done a good job and the fact that you have posted your work shows you are keen to learn.
Not really much to add as I think most of the important points have already been made.
Don’t worry to much about the time element, you will get quicker at design, prepping and applying with experience.
My only real criticism would be that if I had applied something in the wrong place I would have taken it off and done it again rather than decide to make the rest the same.
As for applying one colour on top of another you have done it the easiest way by making a silhouette shape and applying over the top, as will as the registration problems you have avoided as the vinyl shrinks you wont get bits of van appearing where the two vinyl edges meet. -
cheers martin !
i actually saw the guy on weds eve as he was helping me to move some furniture, e’d noticed, yet i hadnt, that on one side the ‘carpentry contracts’ was ever so slightly out of line, knowing the amount of time i had take to get this van just so, hetook great delight in winding me up and pointing it out everytime we walked down the side of the van, i told him i’d replace it this weekend but he won’t hear of it, reckons the fun factor (at my expense) is worth far more to him and a new decal that’s got text realigned by about 5mm !! -
Hugh if it is out of line and looks like it is out of line I would replace it, doesn’t matter how far out it is if it is noticable.
The reason I say that is because although the owner is happy with it and can have a joke with you about it others may see it as you not being very good at your job. Its alright if people talk to the owner and he explains that you were going to replace it but he wanted it left as it was but what about the folk that dont speak to him. -
sorry Hugh do we have a pic of the out of line one? are sure he’s not just winding you up?
Lynn
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look carefully at the text under the banner in the second pic, once you know it’s there you can spot it,
i had to put that bit in seperatly as the colours were reversed from the main banner, i obviously lined it up with the wrong point, i’m going over later this coming week so i’ll cut a new one and take it with me ! no one else has actually noticed it, he just thought that after all the time i spent levelling the main decals, that he’d have fun and find a bubble something to rib me over !
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Hugh as I said I would only replace it if it was noticable after all your customer may be happy with it but he isn’t going to speak to everyone that sees the van, at the end of the day its your reputation not his.
If you have cut another logo and you decide to leave it you can always apply it to a bit of board and have it as an example of your work in your new workshop. I’ve got peoples logos all over the place as it welps to show potential customers what you can do and some of the companys you work for. -
funny you should say that martin, except a desk and chair, the workshop is almost complete now, everything i need in there,
I keep looking at the walls and wondering if i shoulda painted the plaster board, but recently i’ve been thinking more along the lines of what you just said, I’ll cover the main wall with correx and stick spare graphics / decals on as examples of work, already made a space for a portfolio wall with rough prices !
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ooooops…. 😮
just checked out the vector graphics for this job, discovered that it’s the banner that’s outta true, not the text under it,
i reckon i was concentrating so much on getting the roof trusses looking right that i didnt notice that i hadnt squared up the graphic after dragging it off the van photo, therefore wasnt cut square on the paper, after weeding the banner i added the base layer of the text, aligning it with the edge of the backing paper, guess i only looked at the left right spacing and measured up from the papers edge, when i applied to the van, i used the bottom edges of the banner to measure to. since the banner was a little offline, when i applied it square it put the text outta line,
i guess the best remedy will still be to replace the text itself as the banner actually looks ok,
oh well, won’t make this mistake again !!
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