The Bad Wrap
Aug 5th, 2008 by Chris
At least that’s what I’ve been told.
So last week I installed my very first vehicle wrap. Technically I have wrapped some cars before, but it’s only been sections and all printed on one piece. This was the first time I actually had to design taking the curves of the vehicle in mind and stitch the pieces of vinyl together. I was also doing this by myself and with no guidance. I had an assistant that would help me position the pieces and use the heat gun while I was stretching the material around the curves, but the application was all me. Below are some shots of the finished job and some in progress.
It was very challenging, but I learned a lot from this. I have a better feel of how the vinyl works and reacts to heat among other things. And alas, the customer was not content with the result so now I have to go back and remove some of the panels and re-print/apply again. This was expected because I have zero experience doing this and I had no guidance on how to go about designing and installing this (aside from what I’ve read and seen others do on forums and trade shows). I’m sure if you look close enough you’ll notice the parts the don’t align perfectly and where cut/run-offs occur.
My biggest problem was with the customer and his attitude towards me after the job was done which was almost insulting. I can understand where he’s coming from. He did pay a significant amount of money for this and he wasn’t happy with the result, which is fine, but the conversation we had was one sided (mainly him speaking down to me) and full of baseless accusations about me not making changes that he had listed (which I did. There’s no reason for me to not make the changes) along with other design related issues he had. He acted as if he knew the amount of time and effort that goes into doing this simply because he saw me reposition text in Photoshop. As soon as I realized there was no value in the conversation I bit my tounge and listened to everything he had to say. So now I’ll go back and make changes and try to please what has turned into the pickiest customer I’ve ever been faced with.
Still, I’m very happy with the result. Personally I’m amazed that it came out the way it did. Aligning these 54″ x 68″ panels was no easy task and the install was a long and exhausting process. At the same time I had a great time doing it (even though it was hard work, I can appreciate a hard day’s work) and I feel more confident now for my next attempt.
There’s always a lesson hidden somewhere, in everything we do.
Live & Learn.
Sorry about the lengthy rant.
