Elite Sign runs a Roland DG inkjet printer and inks from the same stable, as well as utilising a range of materials from Metamark
Vehicle livery is probably among the largest markets available to signs and graphics producers. For as long as commercial vehicles have turned their wheels, their owners have wanted to use them to carry advertising in addition to goods. A whole industry now supplies advertising liveries and, thanks to continuing innovation on every front, the livery market is growing and the output supplied to it evolving.
The vehicle livery market is competitive and competition’s battles fought on many fronts. Price of course is just one. Some signs and graphics producers, companies that would seem to be well equipped to produce livery work, choose not to get involved because of price pressure. Another front revolves around skills and ability. Today’s livery market appetite leans toward a product that’s more complex to produce and apply, and more problematic if it’s not done properly. Some producers avoid getting involved with wraps for example.
The market for livery though is also subject to a basic truth justifying firming pricing and very high standards of application - things are worth what people are willing to pay for them. Accordingly, well designed livery, fitted to the highest standards, comes at a price that some customers are willing and able to pay, and that a profitable producer is, accordingly, able to charge. One beneficiary is the market itself. The whole art of livery has pushed new creative boundaries and this is informing new demand for ever better output.
Elite Signs has been in business for around twenty years. The Bridgend based company operates from newly occupied premises large enough to comfortably accommodate practically anything on wheels that’s legal on British roads and, in addition to turning out an impressive array of general signing, the company has made a deep specialisation out of vehicle liveries.
Elite Signs’ Simon James is a man with a plan - a marketing plan that is, and he’s using it to create a reputation for the company that’s founded on its abilities, broadcast through social channels, word-of-mouth and other media, and which is supported by the quality of the output the company produces”
Elite Signs’ Simon James is a man with a plan - a marketing plan that is, and he’s using it to create a reputation for the company that’s founded on its abilities, broadcast through social channels, word-of-mouth and other media, and which is supported by the quality of the output the company produces. The plan is working and working well.
The company is well equipped. It runs a well maintained Roland inkjet printer, inks from the same stable, and it’s a fan of Metamark materials. The Elite Signs team also has something it can’t get direct from a supplier, and that’s a highly honed feel for its subject. It has the eye for lettering composition and layout that produce exceptionally well designed liveries that just seem to sit in exactly the right place, perfectly proportioned, however complex the vehicle. It’s also has the hands needed to deliver the practical dimension. The team’s wraps, total and otherwise, are a study in exceptional fit and finish.
Simon James and team, know their tools, and their materials. Metamark MD-X is a favoured production staple and the print quality they achieve using it and the Roland hardware is among the best. The basic form and design of Elite Signs’ liveries traces its origins to creative work on the design computer, but the magic happens on the vehicle. Simon James explains.
“No fitting template is accurate enough to perform the kind of precise cutting we need in order to drop, for example, a large field of abstract-shaped background colour on a vehicle. For that reason, we take the colour to the vehicle, in the form of printed or coloured Metamark material and we apply it. It’s then cut to the precise shape defined in our design on the vehicle itself.
“We obviously don’t want to risk a tiny scalpel cut, metal-deep, developing into a major rust problem for our customer, so we use Knifeless Tape to perform the cut. The tape is applied before the material and defines the exact path we want to cut over the curves and recesses. After the material is applied, the tape’s filament is removed and we get a perfect cut edge, exactly where we want it, on the Metamark materials.”
Being accomplished exponents of Knifeless Tape and Metamark media has enlarged the design canvas available to Simon James and the team. Partial wraps with gracefully defined cut-offs running the height of the vehicle look like the product of a factory stencilling and paint job. Similarly, panel inlays in printed MetaWrap MD-X, cut with Knifeless Tape, contrast with body colours and result in genuinely superior designs.
Elite Signs has mastered livery both as an art and as a science. Working with the whole MD-Class media portfolio from Metamark has given the company the confidence to produce mixed media livery work with materials appropriate to the panel-work being used. For example, complex contouring and detailing where partial wrap elements negotiate curved surfaces are completed in MetaWrap MD-X. On the same vehicle a flat expanse may be covered with Metamark MD5.
Elite Signs’ printing is of a standard that ensures absolutely consistent panel print colouring. This consistency is fully supported by the Metamark print media. Even to the most educated eye, the output looks nothing less than uniform and the results are turning heads.
Elite Signs has mastered livery both as an art and as a science”
Design powerfully distinguishes Elite Signs’ work from the competition that’s seen on the roads. There’s arguably an inclination in parts of the market that says, because you can print pictures and adhere them to vehicles - you should. Because you can produce lettering in volume - you must. This inclination results in livery work that only resolves its message at very close quarters. The message isn’t always the one intended.
Elite Signs’ livery work better reflects the need of businesses using livery to promote themselves and create memorable and positive impressions. Rather than explain in tedious and barely legible detail every single thing they do, a small trade business can venture out in an Elite liveried vehicle that looks like it’s one of a fleet comprising hundreds, rather than a singleton. A quality impression inspires confidence and produces business.
Elite Signs’ standards come at a price and, if the volume of customers turning up for livery work is any indication, it’s a fair one. Simon James makes it his mission to see that his customers get more than they thought would be possible. That means a better livery, designed to a much higher standard, and one that’s going to last. Simon take a consultative approach to livery design.
Elite Signs could be regarded as being among opinion leaders in livery work. With customers going to pains to track the company down in order to acquire a livery “like the one you produced for such-and-such,” the evidence supports the idea that word is spreading and reputation growing. It didn’t happen by accident. Planning and quality execution is what’s getting the job done.
