After waiting over a year to get the go-ahead to wrap my car, and exhausting the search to find a template for an Acura TL (2001), I decided to go ahead, make my own template and start the project. I took photos of the car and measured a lot. Then I measured more. Eventually, Vic our production manager measured again. . .
In case you don’t know, making your own design is the hardest thing for an artist. You are basically designing part of your soul. It is much easier to sit back and access a client’s needs than to display a part of yourself for the world to see.
I knew that we needed something unique; something that would draw attention (in a good way), and not be too flashy, or cliche. Since we also use this car for day to day trips, errands, and even vacation, it needed to be something that we could both feel comfortable driving; even though it is officially, my car.
Photography is another one of my skills, so I came to the idea of using a picture of a bubble floating in the air. It was either my daughter or a grand daughter who blew the bubble and I took the picture. Later I realized that it is also a self portrait, since I am reflected in the bubble while taking the picture. I looked at a lot of bubbles and even glass balls to find the one which had a good color, and had high enough resolution to work with.
I researched how to make a special kind of pattern in photoshop. I’m sure the forum must be waiting to see how it all turned out. The pattern had to show how the wind would react to a cloud of bubbles as I drove through it. Fewer bubbles on the front nose of the car and then denser as we drive through the cloud. I also needed to make it look as though we had several different size bubbles - going in different directions to keep the pattern interesting. I made 3 layers - one that had fewer, then a layer of thicker, and finally on top, another layer to make it look 2 - 3 times as thick. All of the layers were transparent, so that I could play with the background color and also show the depth of bubble layers. On the very top, i added random, various sizes as you would see if you were really looking into a cloud of bubbles.
Huge bubbles became the text boxes, so that the design would be consistent . . I love working in photoshop, but also need to maintain a file that is high res enough to use in illustrator. How to decide on text was a challenge. I didn’t want to steal a slogan from another car I had seen, but, in reality, that was the message I wanted to share. It became a family project - to brainstorm on our way to the Alameda County Fair last summer. . . Soon after, I mentioned it to a business coach I know, and he said it should be; “Blow up your sales!” Well, my husband thought that it might cause people to think that I was a unibomber, or something like that. All of a sudden he said, “how about “Expand your sales!” . . . and it was so. . .
Once the design was made, I noticed that my picture was actually in each of the bubbles. . . Geez. . .
Please enjoy the video. It will show you a time line of the process. . . .
[embed]https://youtu.be/UsUWUhXVJJo[/embed]
Lynn Koellermeier
Design & Business Development
925 446-6477
sales@signaturedsign.com
www.signaturedsign.us
Signature d'Sign Wraps an Acura TL with Bubbles in Concord, CA
SYNOPSIS: I knew that we needed something unique; something that would draw attention (in a good way), and not be too flashy, or cliche. Since we also use this car for day to day trips, errands, and even vacation, it needed to be something that we could both feel comfortable driving; even though it is officially, my car.
BY: ,
After waiting over a year to get the go-ahead to wrap my car, and exhausting the search to find a template for an Acura TL (2001), I decided to go ahead, make my own template and start the project. I took photos of the car and measured a lot. Then I measured more. Eventually, Vic our production manager measured again. . .
In case you don’t know, making your own design is the hardest thing for an artist. You are basically designing part of your soul. It is much easier to sit back and access a client’s needs than to display a part of yourself for the world to see.
I knew that we needed something unique; something that would draw attention (in a good way), and not be too flashy, or cliche. Since we also use this car for day to day trips, errands, and even vacation, it needed to be something that we could both feel comfortable driving; even though it is officially, my car.
Photography is another one of my skills, so I came to the idea of using a picture of a bubble floating in the air. It was either my daughter or a grand daughter who blew the bubble and I took the picture. Later I realized that it is also a self portrait, since I am reflected in the bubble while taking the picture. I looked at a lot of bubbles and even glass balls to find the one which had a good color, and had high enough resolution to work with.
I researched how to make a special kind of pattern in photoshop. I’m sure the forum must be waiting to see how it all turned out. The pattern had to show how the wind would react to a cloud of bubbles as I drove through it. Fewer bubbles on the front nose of the car and then denser as we drive through the cloud. I also needed to make it look as though we had several different size bubbles - going in different directions to keep the pattern interesting. I made 3 layers - one that had fewer, then a layer of thicker, and finally on top, another layer to make it look 2 - 3 times as thick. All of the layers were transparent, so that I could play with the background color and also show the depth of bubble layers. On the very top, i added random, various sizes as you would see if you were really looking into a cloud of bubbles.
Huge bubbles became the text boxes, so that the design would be consistent . . I love working in photoshop, but also need to maintain a file that is high res enough to use in illustrator. How to decide on text was a challenge. I didn’t want to steal a slogan from another car I had seen, but, in reality, that was the message I wanted to share. It became a family project - to brainstorm on our way to the Alameda County Fair last summer. . . Soon after, I mentioned it to a business coach I know, and he said it should be; “Blow up your sales!” Well, my husband thought that it might cause people to think that I was a unibomber, or something like that. All of a sudden he said, “how about “Expand your sales!” . . . and it was so. . .
Once the design was made, I noticed that my picture was actually in each of the bubbles. . . Geez. . .
Please enjoy the video. It will show you a time line of the process. . . .
[embed]https://youtu.be/UsUWUhXVJJo[/embed]
Lynn Koellermeier
Design & Business Development
925 446-6477
sales@signaturedsign.com
www.signaturedsign.us
