Businesses use a variety of marketing strategies to promote their offerings. Car wraps are among the tested and popular ways to grab people’s attention. A branded car wrap serves as a powerful moving billboard for your business. Thousands of people see the car—whether it’s moving or parked at a strategic location—and quickly notice the products advertised on the wrap, often remembering its unique design.
The main objective of a commercial car wrap design is to enhance brand visibility, along with conveying the brand message and engaging potential customers.
Note that a car wrap conveys the information concisely. The purpose here is to send the message to viewers in a compelling and precise format.
Who needs car wrap design?
Car wraps are a popular form of advertisement across industries, but they’re especially common in service-based sectors like technicians, cleaners, plumbers, landscapers, and painters, who often explore car wrap designs to grab customers’ attention.
Mobile service providers like food trucks, mechanics, and pet groomers often use bold, image-heavy car wraps to grab attention. Event companies also explore car wrap design as a tool to promote events and concerts.
7 Must-Know Commercial Vehicle Wrap Design Tips
When designing a car wrap, you should approach it with a strategy. Consider your brand personality and message so that you can choose the right design elements. Here are the key tips for creating a unique car wrap design.
1. Keep it simple
Any design should look simple so viewers can get the message at a glance. That is also true for car wrap designs. If there are too many design elements of colors, fonts, images, symbols, etc., the wrap may be overlooked entirely. They do not have the time and attention to get the meaning by staring at the design.
Therefore, keep your company vehicle wraps as simple as you can. The design should have the company name and its logo at the top. A compelling image related to the brand gets the message across instantly. It would be good to have a brief tagline regarding your business. Then, give your contact information. Do not include more information than that in the wrap design.
While car wrap designs are colorful to catch the attention on the move, that should not result in a crowded design. There is no need to include multiple colors, images, or other design elements, which can create visual clutter. One big image is usually sufficient to get the potential customers’ attention.
A simple wrap design with a single image and a few words is clean. It looks professional and leaves a great impression of the brand. Avoid clutter and a noisy background in the design so that your brand message is instantly noticed.
2. Design the wrap for the entire vehicle
A part of the car or any other vehicle covered with a wrap is not going to serve the purpose fully. People will notice your car wrap only from one side, meaning you have lost the opportunity to grab most of the target audience’s attention.
Instead, think of covering the entire area of the car with the wrap design. That is the way to make your brand message easily viewable from all sides. So, cover both sides, front, and back with the wrap. Ensure the wrap is covered on every vehicle’s curve, space, and angle.
It is advisable to measure your car thoroughly first so that the wrap covers it perfectly. That is especially true if you opt for a full wrap so that the wrapping does not distort the images that are part of the design.
3. Make it legible from a distance
A car is mostly on the move. That means people should be able to read the message printed on the wrap from a fair distance. They should quickly get the message at a glance, as the car will be out of sight.
Therefore, the brand name, tagline, and other messages must be in bold letters that people can read without straining their eyes. The brand name should be in large letters, followed by smaller letters for the tagline and other messages.
But what is considered a reasonable viewing distance? Typically, a distance of 6-16 car lengths (about 100-300 feet) is ideal for legibility on highways. That is the distance from where a message on the wrap can be read without effort.
4. Create an exciting design
A run-of-the-mill design fails to take a brand message effectively across its target customers. Therefore, ensure that your car wrap is an exciting design and not just a simple one that looks familiar to people. Aim for a bold yet minimal design that stands out and catches attention.
For instance, your car wrap can be an oversized graphic that surprises viewers. Such an overwhelming experience will also make the design memorable.
5. Use unique imagery
Visuals are the first elements that draw our attention. You can explore this power of visuals in your car wrap design. Use high-quality, exclusive images to avoid visual fatigue and help your design stand out. When your target customers have seen those images elsewhere, they tend to ignore them and get no meaning out of them. But they are immediately drawn to a unique and exciting image.
Therefore, avoid using stock photography in a commercial vehicle wrap design. Such images can ruin your brand image, and viewers may perceive your brand as lacking quality.
So, if your budget allows, hire an experienced photographer to have exclusive images of your brand’s products or services specifically for vehicle wrap advertisements.
6. Ensure design consistency
Design consistency matters a lot when marketing a brand to its target audience. This means the brand’s visuals should look almost the same across all platforms. When customers see the same visuals, they have confidence in the brand. They can grasp the car wrap design’s message quickly.
Therefore, use almost the same colors, fonts, and visuals your brand already uses in advertising and marketing campaigns. Using your logo, fonts, colors, etc., you can reinforce your brand message and identity to build trust.
Note that a car wrap design is mostly viewed when moving. That is why the viewer must instantly recognize the design or advertisement. Due to the consistency of design, they can recall the same visuals they saw elsewhere.
Avoid experimenting much with color schemes or design elements when designing your car wrap. Consistency builds brand recognition — make a note of it.
7: Add contact details
After people are impressed with your business car wrap design, they would like to enquire more about your business. So, provide them with your contact details in the appropriate and visible place in the design. Contact details should include your business phone number, website address, office location, and social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter.
The contact information should be clearly visible from a distance. So, in big numbers and letters, give your company’s phone number, website address, etc.. Also, do not forget to add QR codes, which are an easier way to get the details. QR codes are crucial, especially when the vehicle is stationary, allowing viewers to engage instantly.
These are the major tips to follow when designing a car wrap or hiring a car wrap service. Whatever design you choose to wrap your car with, it should be unique to attract people’s attention.
To explore numerous creative car wrap design ideas, consider launching a design contest on Designhill — the world’s leading creative marketplace. Write a great design brief for your car, van, or other vehicle. Several designers will come up with unique car wrap design ideas to win your contest. You can choose the best car wrap from various submissions.
Wrapping Up
Car wrap design is a powerful marketing tool used by businesses worldwide to instantly draw viewers’ attention to your brand, even when the vehicle is moving. But it should be a simple design with creative use of colors, fonts, and images. Cover the entire vehicle with the wrap to get it noticed from a distance.