Vehicle Signage: What to get?

A white nissan navara parked in front of a building.

For small businesses, it can be hard to make advertising and branding decisions: what is too much, what is not enough? Can you subsist on social media alone, or do you need to buy signs, and magazine adverts – does anyone READ magazines anymore? Is vehicle signage necessary – and if so, what are my options?

Obviously, we’re the wrong people to ask if we think vehicle signage is worth it – of course, we do! While Auto Wrap Manchester mainly deal with aesthetic changes (window tinting, vehicle wrapping, de-chroming) a huge chunk of our business has always been signage.

What we can tell you is this: our work van has signage. And not just because we can do the signage ourselves, but because it’s basically extra advertising. Even a coffee run in your branded vehicle has the potential to bring you more business!

 

An example of vehicle signage on a pick-up truck. There are a colleciton of primary coloured + black stripes in the back half. There's a logo and contact details on the side of the car in black, and a black logo on the bonnet. The vehicle is white.
This is an example of signage. The different elements in this design (stripes, graphic logo, contact details) were all printed separately to be placed on the vehicle.

What kinds of vehicle signage are there?

At first, the kinds of signage can seem quite daunting – but that’s what we’re here for! This blog will take you through the different kinds and hopefully give you a clearer picture. If there’s anything extra you need help with, feel free to contact our customer service team

You can also call them directly on 0161 672 7376 to get an instant answer. The phone lines are manned from 9 am to 5 pm Monday-Friday.

Printed Wraps

For a printed wrap, we print any design, graphics and lettering directly onto the vinyl. We then cut and apply this vinyl to the vehicle. We print the vinyl in-house too, so no long waits for delivery! 

If this is your best option, we would recommend using our in-house graphic designer, even if you have a design ready to go. Our designer can make sure that the design is appropriate and accurate to the vehicle, so there’ll be no surprises on delivery! 

The benefit to printed wraps really comes when you have quite an intricate design – the design will look smoother and more cohesive. Long term, it guarantees that you won’t lose a letter or an element to bad weather – they can’t come off when they’re all printed on the same sheet of vinyl!

 

a small car with a bright orange and white printed wrap. the vinyl advertises the brand "move streets". it includes contact details for the company
A fully printed wrap. The design came to us from a graphic designer, which we then printed in-house and fit to the vehicle.

Signwriting and Lettering 

We can apply the separate graphic elements to your vehicle directly to the paintwork or on top of a wrap.

We print the individual pieces to your design and fit them in-house. These elements might include logos, images or contact details.

This method is more suited to simple, clean designs with fewer elements. 

For this method, we would recommend making sure the paintwork on your vehicle is of good quality. Poor quality paintwork or touch-up jobs are mostly to blame for any issues with fit as the vinyl adheres to the paint. If the paint is not properly bonded to the metal, then it is more likely to peel away over time. 

Here is an example of lettering and signwriting on vehicles.

 

A purple car with white logos and graphics/text for the company leasing/com
This is an example of graphics over a full-colour change wrap. This car had a full wrap in purple, and then we applied the clean white graphics over the top: simple but effective!

What’s the difference between full and partial wraps?

Sometimes for a printed wrap, we don’t recommend a full wrap. This can be because the design is focused on one half or one small section of the vehicle. Sometimes it might make more financial sense for the client.

We can print a wrap that, for example, covers the bottom half of the vehicle and shows all the necessary details and elements, but leaves the paint colour visible in the top half of the car. If you think a partial wrap is right for your business, then let us know. Our team can work with you to advise the best possible course of action!

A van for the company Bearded Man Adventures. It's a very busy design, with images, text, graphics and a partial wrap.
This is an example of a more complicated design. The image on the side of the vehicle and the back doors is a partial wrap. The rest is graphics we printed and applied to the vehicle, using some strips of coloured vinyl to make the pieces stand out.

Fleet Vehicle Signage

We also offer fleet signage, where you can get multiple vehicles all done in whatever livery you need. More than one vehicle does come at a discounted rate. If you’re interested in multi-vehicle signage, speak to our customer service team who can put together a quote for you.

You can read more about fleet signage 

Request a quote

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