Signs of the Times - June 2016 - (Page 18)

V in y l A pp s By Steve Aust At Your Service A quartet of distinctive food trucks Steve Aust is ST's Senior Associate Editor. A member of its editorial staff since 2000, his work emphasizes vinyl graphics, architectural and environmental graphics, and 3-D signage. F ood trucks: they're not just for Californians anymore. What was once considered the domain of hipsters flouting the bricks-andmortar convention of restaurants has become a lunchtime and festival staple nationwide. Impactful branding is paramount to the success of a mobile-foodservice business; throngs of hungry special-event patrons are more apt to frequent a food truck bedecked with colorful, well-designed graphics. These four projects attest to how food trucks can be transformed from over-thehill delivery vans into dynamic backdrops for selling an infinite array of cuisine. If vehicle wraps are part of your shop's repertoire, please also consider entering the 10th Annual Vehicle Graphics Contest. The deadline looms on July 13; for more information, see the contest ad on page 86. n This Griffith, IN coffeehouse creates an interesting visual double-entendre: coffee is run through a grinder before it's brewed, and the typography reflects fonts often seen in posters that tout "grindhouse" movies - low-budget horror or action films. Digital Graphic Solutions (Valparaiso, IN) produced the graphics; Adam Faster devised the Ultimaster truck's wrap using Adobe Creative Cloud, and the shop produced the wrap with 3M Controltac air-release media that's printed on a Seiko (now OKI Data Corp.) ColorPainter H2-74S. 3M's Scotchcal 8518 glossy overlaminate, which was applied on an AGL 6400 laminator, will help the truck preserve its quasighoulish persona. With its nearly endless succession of warm, sunny weather, the Phoenix area provides fertile ground for food trucks - and, in turn, their wraps. Phoenix-based Arizona Color decorated the Street Treets truck, which serves desserts and cold drinks (which are practically as necessary as air in the desert). Designer Adam Wheat incorporated a cartoon rendition of an alluring Latina woman, tall glasses full of colorful concoctions and bouquets of hibiscus and other tropical flowers using Adobe Creative Suite. The shop produced the wrap on Avery Dennison Graphic Solutions' MPI 1005 Easy Apply RS airrelease media that's printed on an HP 260 latex-ink printer, and protected with Avery's DOL 1360 glossy overlaminate, which was applied on a Seal 54 EL laminator. 18 SIGNS OF THE TIMES June 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signs of the Times - June 2016

Signs of the Times - June 2016
Columns & Departments
ST Update
Technology Update
Tips for Effectively Marketing Your Signs to Millenials
Vinyl Apps
Strictly Electric
LED Update
Software Update
Technology Review - The Summa F Series F2630 Flatbed Cutter/Router
Technology Review - The Durst Rhotex 180 TR
Shop Opps
Sign Museum News
New Products
Second Generation
Undertaking Monumental Tasks
The Light of Our Lives
Cool Digital Printers
Enter ST’s Vehicle Graphics Contest
Advertising Index
Editorially Speaking

Signs of the Times - June 2016