“Hot” Wheels

The folks at Firecareers.com will be burning up the road in a 38-foot, flame-broiled RV as they traverse the country throughout 2011 to promote the profession of fire fighting at colleges, schools, community centers, and firehouses. Their journey, which will culminate this fall at Ground Zero in Manhattan during a special event to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, began in the creative studio at Camarillo, California-based Eyedentity Graphics (eyedentitygfx.com).

“It was all done in Adobe creative suite – Illustrator and Photoshop,” explains designer and Eyedentity Graphics co-owner Ed Mackey. “It’s kind of rare that we actually have to scan something, but we did for this job, because all the client had were original photographs of some of the guys who are pictured on the RV.”

Working from original images meant the design process was extremely detailed and time-intensive.
“We did a bunch of Photoshop trickery to make it look like everything just worked together seamlessly,” says Mackey. “For the driver’s side, I took two different photographs from a fire in Milwaukee and merged them together in Photoshop so that it made one long photograph. And, on the passenger side, I think at least three photographs [sourced from the client] are melded together to look like a single image.”

Once the images were perfect, Mackey turned to the shop’s 64-inch Roland VersaArt RS 640 with VersaWorks RIP and Roland Eco Sol max inks. The images were output onto roughly 1000 square feet of 3M ControlTac IJ180CV3 2-mil pressure-activated film, then finished with 3M 8518 Scotchcal Gloss Overlam on the shop’s Royal Sovereign laminator.

It took three Eyedentity installers about two-and-a-half days to wrap the vehicle.

EYEDENTITY
www.eyedentitygfx.com