WRAPS! Where do I start?

[xcracer48]

I went to a school locally over here, called the Norwegian School of Creative Studies, specializing in arts and advertising, with courses/classes for:
Film
Photography
Graphic design
Illustration
Interior design
Journalism
Macdesign (1-year)
3D and animation
Music design
Advertising and brand communication
Web and interaction design

Would have loved to spend 2 more years there studying advertising and brand communication spesifically, but the graphic design classes incorporated much of the same, but maybe 3 months worth instead of 2 years.

Yes, you can't start at the top, but if the customers wants a design like the one in the vid for their $300, and you can only supply them with something like the design on top, they will take their business elsewhere.

This is not meant as a put down on your design skills, have you never done it before nobody can expect great results, but that does not mean that customers will take their business to you, if someone else can do the job much better at the same price.

This is one of the pitfalls of this business, anyone can "become" a sign maker or car wrapper just by picking up some machines and supplies, but it takes time, dedication and skill to be great. And if your competition already has put down the time and effort, it's difficult to compete. Then the only thing you can compete on is price, by lowballing the competition.

Designwork aside, how much experience do you have with the equpment listed in your first post?

I have under a year with my machine and software. I have just been doing alot of decals, lettering, and small signs. I have been contracting design work. And like you said Sean from Jass signs (from the video you posted) is very good at what he does. And I just made an account with aurora graphics and have been messing with it a little bit.

thanks for your info Haakon

 

[Haakon]

If you already have the equipment you are off to a start already, you can pick up design tricks by watching tutorials online, and getting some good books on layout and design, like the ones mentioned over. Get in touch with some of the go kart drivers that have been asking you, get your design guy to whip up some designs and try out on the go karts as a start. Should give you a feel with both the work that has to be done, and the customer base you want to direct your business to. If you are lucky, go kart drivers are totally different to all other kind of race car drivers

 

[Tspencer74]

I usually do a gokart from design to finish in about 2 hours and charge around 350 to 400 depending on speciality films. Pretty decent money for me but to each their own. I find gokarts more profitable than those dang race cars.

 

[Vinylman]

Wow, ive seen criticism before but dang. lol

XCRACER:
Please don't take my first comments [post #5] so critically.

They ARE however valid. Goodness knows the profession we have chosen has its' share of losers and hacks, but you don't have to be one of them.

When someone who has provided their family with a comfortable living for over 30 years doing something, provides a few jaded but realist comments, don't be to quick to defend your current position with a response that the poster was being "critical".

Perhaps my comments seemed edgy, or caustic, but they are taking a realistic observation of the presented scenario.

Like ANY offered observations each person can accept what is valid and perhaps grow in knowledge and wisdom, or they can chose to ignore it or discard said information until such time as additional info crosses the radar to confirm the obvious.

There is ALWAYS a choice to make. That is what makes each of our lives such a beautiful experience.

 

[Vital Designs]

The best solution is to create a limited amount of options and don't deviate. Anything custom will kill you. Put together 8-10 designs and they get their own number and name on it and thats it. You start allowing them to become their own designers and you will spend hours with them, thus diminishing any potential profit.

 

[GAC05]

Hakkon,
those classes look like they would give someone a very well rounded base for our type of work.
Can I ask what is "Macdesign"?
I have not heard of it and a search didn't come up with anything definitive.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Haakon]

Macdesign is probably not the best wording for that class, but it basically is a class with just computer design, primarily adobe creative suite, the 3 programs you usually use in design. Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign.

You work with just these programs 35 hours a week for a year, just learning about all the features, but no design education like in graphic design classes. So your skill will be in executing a design idea/sketch given to you by a designer, into a finished product.

If you for example first take a 2 year Graphic Design study, and follow up with a year of Macdesign, you will have great skills both in designing an idea from scratch, and making it into a finished product. On screen at least. And then the signmaking skills come to play to make it a finished product for the customer to take home.

http://translate.googleusercontent....ingen/&usg=ALkJrhgmeiSCPqFQ8K-L7fKtsO77Z113ZA

 

[RobbyMac]

ABout half of our business is in racing. I can attest to the comments made earlier that it is difficult to make money in karts. While your material is minimal, the labor is much higher.

Most of the karting customers are spending a ton of $ on tires and parts throughout the year, and graphics is the last thing on the budget list it seems. Yet they all want a million dollar graphics package.
As mentioned by others, you're not going to be able to do these in one piece (especially due to the materials required to stick to this plastic) so you spend alot of time lining up graphics from one panel to the next. And there is no 'one size fits all' wrap.
Lastly, we decided to offer a full kit. Spent the time to design a package, nesting it all in a tight little package, and make it up by selling the full kits only. They still all come back wanting just pieces parts to fix the areas that got banged up in the last race.
You won't get sponsors to pay you for wrapping someone elses car. Sponsors give money to the team. The team then orders the graphics. Sponsors are involved in approvals, but rarely will be paying you directly. When they pay sponsorship, it already includes their logo on the car. In fact, that is specifically what they are paying for. But when the team gets the money, it goes towards running the team.
The higher up you go (race budgets) the better it gets, though many are still just as unorganized and frugal as the go karts and lower classes. Most times they are wrapping because it is cheaper than painting. So each job is unique, and requires labor for design & setup. This can be rewarding, though not always financially so (especially if you don't know what you are doing). Just keep in mind that the deadlines for racing is always a few days away as sponsorships are ever changing, and marketing and ad people are always coming up with the latest greatest idea at the last minute. Couple that with 'well the car doesn't get back to town until monday, then we won't have it put back together until wednesday, then it gets loaded on the truck and leaves for the next race on thursday' and you're in for a hoot.
Everyone thinks it's glamorous. I always ask 'how many calories do you think glamor has?' cuz I sure as hell can't feed my kids any of that glamor.

 

[SightLine]

I've had the same experience as many others with racing stuff. Beat you up on price in a big way, impatient, and zero loyalty. They will not hesitate in the least to go to the next guy who has a junk no-name cutter in his moms spare bedroom willing to do them up for near cost. The only ones I've had good times with have nice budgets, 48' race trailers, etc.... in other words Nascar teams, and other higher end larger vehicle stuff like pro-stock drag teams.

 

[Haakon]

I used to work at a graphics shop across country, near the capital. And the owner has some kind of sponsorship deal with a group N rally car team (national division of the WRC, run in same events).

They came with their two brand new rally cars (Subaru WRX and Mitsubishi Evo 9), costing $250.000 each in full race trim. They were delivered on a wednesday, midday, with a scetch made in MS Paint of racing design, and thumbnail jpg files of all sponsor logos, and the deadline was thurday night to get them fully wrapped in multiple colours, designing properly in illustrator and cutting all logos, stripes and accents in the plotter.

Near impossible task for a two-man small business, but it was pulled off. Racing guys seem to think that every kind of business works at their own tempo, with rally mechanic teams that can swap a 4WD transmission in 15 minutes outside in the woods..

And all the sign company got in return was a 3x5" logo each side on the front bumper, the red little blob in the picture enclosed.

I have my own business now, and cars are one of my hobbies, so I know a lot of car and racing guys locally. Same experience as others, most want huge discounts, promising to "promote" my business, only problem is that only other racing guys see their cars, they want huge discounts in order to promote... endless cycle

 

[SignManiac]

Haakon I'd like to say... that for someone from Norway, your grasp of the English language is impressive to say the least. Far better than most Americans! Your writing is very good.

 

[Haakon]

Thank you, I stayed in school! And they are pretty great over here. Mind you, I have only been 5 days to a English-speaking country in my 34 years, when we went on a school trip to London with my graphic design class. I guess the accent is pretty strong, almost like these fellow Norwegians, haha: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49CkgeQVh70&feature=related

Grammar is pretty important in our line of work also, I almost get embarrased when I see writing on a sign or on a car that is totally wrong. There are so many steps between initial design and the finished product installed, that it should be caught up somewhere along the line, even if the customer has signed a proof.

Back to the racing car customer dilemma, since I posted my last post about the Rally cars, I googled my old workplace. Haven't thought about it for a few years. The website is down, domain is parked, and checking the national business registry, the shop went bankrupt in 2009..

 

[Premier Wraps]

Haakon I'd like to say... that for someone from Norway, your grasp of the English language is impressive to say the least. Far better than most Americans! Your writing is very good.

Agree