Unique Vinyl Project - Glow In The Dark

[Jayefkay531]

Hey All!

I have a regular customer that came with a different project of sorts. It's vinyl lettering for the back windshield of a car. The trick is that some letters will be glow in the dark, and others are not. Besides cutting white vinyl and glow in the dark vinyl, is there another way to produce this, or does anybody know a vendor that can replicate this? They're looking for one sample currently and, with approval, going to 1000 units.

Check the images to get a better idea of what I'm looking for.

Cheers!

 

[Gino]

Are they from Nigeria and have a church ??

 

[Jayefkay531]

Haha no - they're a regular customer that I know personally. I do a ton of cut vinyl for them, they're just looking to spice up one project for one of their clients.

No funny business going on here - they're not sure if it's possible and I told him it might not be cost effective, but it can be done.

 

[StarSign]

I would wonder if the letters would really "glow" at night. Unless you are in a very rural area I would think it really wouldn't be dark enough with all of the surrounding ambient light to give a true glow in the dark effect. Also don't most glow in the dark vinyls only last about an hour?

 

[Jayefkay531]

I would wonder if the letters would really "glow" at night. Unless you are in a very rural area I would think it really wouldn't be dark enough with all of the surrounding ambient light to give a true glow in the dark effect. Also don't most glow in the dark vinyls only last about an hour?

I fully agree (athough I was looking at the RTape VinylFEx that says a few hours glow). I had tried to talk him into going with reflective to make it pop when lights hit it right. Between ambient lighting and going on the back of a car windshield, there's going to be lights on it most of the time to negate the GITD effects. They're insisting on a sample though.

 

[2B]

reflective

anything that "glows" has to be charged with light before it will work.
the life expectancy is also short for this type of material.

 

[unclebun]

Yeah, I think what they really want is reflective. If they are meant for car windows, there will always be headlights on at night.

 

[Billct2]

I agree, reflective would be way simpler and effective.

 

[Jayefkay531]

I fully agree with everyone here. I'm not going to even entertain GITD anymore and just point him to reflective. Thanks all!

 

[Andy D]

Plus one for reflective, customers use some strange vernacular for signs and graphics, you have to "listen between the words".
Last month I had a lady that wanted "a stone display in their showroom wrapped with metal letters"
Turns out, they were going to have a granite slab in their showroom and the boss wanted to put their logo on it, using plotted metallic copper vinyl.

 

[iPrintStuff]

Reflective is the much better choice but GITD is worth every penny for that 10 mins that it actually glows how you want it to.

 

[Jayefkay531]

Plus one for reflective, customers use some strange vernacular for signs and graphics, you have to "listen between the words".
Last month I had a lady that wanted "a stone display in their showroom wrapped with metal letters"
Turns out, they were going to have a granite slab in their showroom and the boss wanted to put their logo on it, using plotted metallic copper vinyl.

100% read between the lines. I tried to educate them on the difference between reflective and GITD, they still said GITD. But i'm going to push hard towards reflective. Thanks!

 

[unclebun]

If the photo is what they want it to look like, then reflective is the answer. Glow in the dark vinyl does not look like that. You will hardly be able to even see it in a totally dark room. And it only lasts a very short time.

Unfortunately, you may have to get a sample of the glow in the dark vinyl to prove it to them by comparing reflective vs. glow in the dark.

 

[jfiscus]

We use Gerber GITD vinyl. With it priced as it is, I would do this all as laid up vinyl. More labor, but dang that vinyl is expensive.

 

[RICHARD SIMMONS]

In any case, does anyone know how long GITD vinyl lasts outdoors? I'll prefer reflective

 

[Jayefkay531]

In any case, does anyone know how long GITD vinyl lasts outdoors? I'll prefer reflective

Reflective is definitely the preferred method. GlowEFX says there's an hour glow. Orajet has a glow in the dark that is listed as just "strong and long lasting afterglow". I don't think there's a long timeframe for any glow in the dark.

 

[Gino]

If you know them personally, I would imagine you should be able to talk sense into their heads. However, you mentioned it's for one of THEIR clients, so you're kinda far down on the totem pole.

The picture you posted above is completely computerly manufactured and does not really show how the Glow-in-the-Dark vinyl will really appear. Perhaps giving them a sample of both would solve all of your problems of having anything bounce back on your plate..... and of course, the samples would be at their expense, since they aren't listening to reason or common sense.

Many projects/requests have passed my desk over the years and I would say about all of them are reasonable, but those that go wa-a-a-ay outside the box, need to be addressed. Those type(s) will require some extra attention, will/should hafta pay for that special attention.​

 

[fresh]

like others have said, i'd use white reflective for the YOLO part, and black reflective for the rest of the text. We've done a bunch of "ghost" decals with black reflective on black windows. It looks pretty cool.
At night, the entire thing will reflect white.