Wrap artwork, How are you doing it?

[john1]

Hey guys, Doing my first wrap here within the next few weeks.

The box truck sides are 14x7' and i am doing the artwork in Corel.

Should i set it up at 150 DPI actual size or what is best for a nice quality looking print this large. Will be printed on 3M 180cv3 with gloss lam.

Also, Is there a general rule of thumb for how much time to allow for a wrap to be designed for one flat price or is it actual hourly rates?

Customer has no idea what he wants it to look like and he said he will pay upfront for the design so i am not out of my time which is good but am stumped on how to price a wrap layout.

Thanks!

 

[J Hill Designs]

if its vector, then it dont matter how you scale it...if raster elements, just keep in mind 75-100dpi actual size and import/design accordingly

 

[john1]

Yeah, it's a mix of vector and raster work as he did mention wanting some actual raster images on it.

I just don't want to have one of those wraps that the print looks good from 100 feet but terrible from 10 lol

 

[J Hill Designs]

"good from far, but far from good"

75-100 should be fine, 150 if you are hesitant. print samples if you need to see it...

 

[MrPixelPuppy]

We receive various files for output from different designers for vehicle wraps. Definitely the best way to go is by having files created in Vector program (Corel / Illustrator) but images imported should be of good quality (100 dpi at full size)

If you are designing graphics keep in mind that large files will consume a lot of resources from your computer. Charge accordingly. I would give customer an hourly rate for design with a minium rate charge. If you dont do this customers will assume that they can keep making changes until the cows come home. If they know they are paying you for your time they will be more decisive.

PS .. never design wrap in microsoft word- had a customer that once gave me a *.doc fie for printing wrap.

Best of luck

 

[phototec]

As mentioned already, vector based wrap designs scale to any size without degradation, however if I'm working on a wrap that uses lots of bitmap objects (many photos like example below), I like to do the master layout using Photoshop and create all the text and graphic elements in Illy, and import them into PS as smart objects, so they are fully scalable and stay crispy sharp.

I also like the wrap to look good close up, and keep the PS master layout at 100 dpi, this makes for large working files. I also like to keep each design element on it's own layer, most of my wrap designs have 15-30 layers, again this is the master working file, once the wrap job is finalized and ready to print, I make a FLATTENED production file for printing only (much smaller). I keep the master wrap design as a layered file, and that makes the file easy to edit or modify for other uses or sizes.

 

[TwoNine]

As mentioned already, vector based wrap designs scale to any size without degradation, however if I'm working on a wrap that uses lots of bitmap objects (many photos like example below), I like to do the master layout using Photoshop and create all the text and graphic elements in Illy, and import them into PS as smart objects, so they are fully scalable and stay crispy sharp.

I also like the wrap to look good close up, and keep the PS master layout at 100 dpi, this makes for large working files. I also like to keep each design element on it's own layer, most of my wrap designs have 15-30 layers, again this is the master working file, once the wrap job is finalized and ready to print, I make a FLATTENED production file for printing only (much smaller). I keep the master wrap design as a layered file, and that makes the file easy to edit or modify for other uses or sizes.

+1 - Good advice IMO.....

 

[WYLDGFI]

Hey John....keep it at 100 DPI at full size. Not a problem with that resolution at all. Prints would be fantastic as long as the images have enough resolution to begin with.