Wrap Industry… Your Thoughts?

[Joe Diaz]

And that…. Is the real point. Suppliers are really only doing their jobs. To them it’s more worth while to try to sell products that require you to buy even more products to use. They are looking to sell high dollar and high volume.

Their goal is to sell you a printer, a higher dollar product. But you can’t use the printer without ink, you can’t do wraps without wrap vinyl, you can’t protect that vinyl without laminate, you can’t render large images quickly without faster computers, you can’t design wraps without their fills. You can’t be certified without taking their courses. You can’t form the material to the curves of the vehicle without their torches. You need their cleaning supplies to prep the vehicle…

None of this is bad (with maybe the exceptions of the fills LOL). It creates jobs and furthers sign related technology, which allows us to do things we weren’t able to do 10 years ago. This is all good. The problem is when they make promises or sell a system that might not necessarily help all of their customers. Most of our company’s suppliers are pretty good about making sure a product will actually help us before trying to sell it to us. We are lucky. But other shops around the world might not be so lucky.

I see a lot of guys jumping into the wrap game, and it looks like they don’t have a clue what’s going on. Back to the design part of this debate: It seems like they have skipped very important steps, don’t apply even the most basic design rules and rely too heavily on the products software and fills that the suppliers are selling and not enough on what actually makes a wrap or any other advertisement valuable. And then on top of that they don’t have a grasp on how to charge for it. It’s not the suppliers and manufactures jobs to make sure that their customers know all the ins and outs of the business. But we need to know that you do.

 

[Rick]

I'm suprised at this poll, I figured there were more people doing wraps all the time or weekly. I think I would need more than 1 wrap a month to justify all the equipment and material stock.

 

[OldPaint]

Your paint job, looks good and I think it accomplishes everything that an impactful message should. But the EXACT same thing can be accomplished now with a computer, Illustrator, and an inkjet printer in a partial or full wrap.
AND YOU MISSED MY POINT, WHICH WAS...
this is an example of brush work for full impact.
you may not like it but the owner did and i got $1400 for it. cost of materials, was maybe $20!!!!
and the time frame for what i did, and a wrap of the same EXACT work, ARE ABOUT THE SAME.....
ANNNNNNNNNDDDDD... my material/equipment cost was
$20............so at a $1400 PRICE I GOT PAID, only $20 of it was ALL MINE TO KEEP!
its called profitablity.... ))))))))))))

 

[ProWraps™]

OP, im sorry but damn, you sure do know how to make a thread completely unreadable.

please make this man a PAINT ONLY forum so we can stop hearing horribly typed ))))))))))))))))) messages about the good ole days. jesus christ im tired of it.

as far as my opinion on this thread since i own a wrap company.. we are a young company. we are doing about 6 wraps this month. design is key. we waste more time getting it perfect than we probably should. but again we are young, and we refuse to put out crap. the one thing i didnt see mentioned here is that wraps are no different than any other sign project in the sense that client REALLY have the ability to screw up their own project. i dont want to hear all the "if your a good designer, you should be able to keep them from doing that" crap. im sorry, if they say put a PINK LINE over a GREEN PANEL PERIOD, sometimes you have to do what they want. this can create a terrible wrap. you win some and you lose some.

i dont think wraps are going anywhere. im in a large market. and i would say less than .000001% of vehicles are wrapped. and when you see one, it stands out like a sore thumb. the nature of the product, a mobile sign, is just too good and too effective for it to get phased out. but i am concerned about any laws that may be coming. the illuminated wrap thing, wont last. there is a law that says you cant have anything on your vehicle that is distracting or dangerous to other drivers. so time will tell.

 

[andy]

How does wrap pricing work then?

From the sounds of it to do wrap work properly you need to spend a small fortune on equipment, consumables and all the associated "bits and bobs"- software etc.

How can you create a good ROI when the market prices vary so much? Is it simply a case that some people are wrapping at a loss or do some people "get by" with inappropriate equipment and consumables?

For all the effort and expertise required for good wrapping work I'm a bit surprised that prices are as low as they are?!

 

[BobM]

Wow
As a "new guy" who has been watching what we do to vehicles for 40 odd years I want to paste A.C.E. stickers (The A.C.E principle, Gary Steele, Truck Lettering), on the 10% to 15% of the best lettering/graphic jobs I see on the highways.
1. A = Attracting attention, 2. C = Conveying information, 3. E = Enhancing vehicle appearance.
Back in the 70's I was on the spray gun side of a Centari/Spray-Lat/City Scape job on a Bookmobile for the Providence Public Library. 16 colors layed out on 12' X 32' sides and 12' X 8' front and back areas, it was something to behold. Designed in a contest by a Rhode Island School of Design student and executed by a 60 something year old brush guy, it took a month to complete. Eddie McLeod, (the sign painter) came in every afternoon and cut away the next areas to be painted, I sprayed them, and the next day we would tape and mask/spray-lath the area and cut out the next color.
Initally, it got a lot of attention, but after a short time it just faded into the background. Thinking back on "Eddie's" coments, it was more art than message media. So much of what I see is either GLITZ or NAME RANK & SERIAL NUMBER. Most of the wraps I see don't leave me with a memory of who I just saw or what they offer. Either they hurt your eyes with "bright" or are so cluttered it takes 5 minutes to sort it out.
If the warp business doesn't start adhearing to the fundimental principles of design, no amount of execution with modern technogly will make wraps or simple lettering jobs a success.
I have a lot to learn, I think I know what looks good (although I don't know why sometimes, but I'm learning), I haven't always achieved that goal of the A.C.E. Principle, but I'm working hard at it. Maybe wraps just scatter my brain cells, but I suspect very few achieve the buyers end. They just don't know it.