Sub-Compact Impact

The shockingly small size of a Smart Car is usually enough to cause passersby to take a second look. So, when the owners of Feleena’s Mexican Restaurant in Ottawa, Ontario, purchased a new bright-green Smart Car for the business, they immediately felt that they were missing out on a potential advertising vehicle if they didn’t cross-purpose it and add the Feleena name to it.

A Goggle search led Feleena’s owners to local print provider K6 Media. “They wanted their vehicle to give them both visibility when parked at their location as well as out on the road,” says Tristan Hanington, K6 Media’s business development and partner. “By having a wrap on a small compact vehicle, it would give them the flexibility of having it at events and tradeshow booths, as well as simply parked right in front of their location.”

K6 met with the restaurant’s owners to better grasp its vision. Together, the teams decided to create a bright-orange wrap with a Mexican feel – the most important goal being to get the restaurant’s brand name as large as possible. Using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, K6 produced the wrap design and then provided the client with a proof utilizing an internal online-collaboration tool.

“Our clients have the ability to request changes and approve artwork electronically through the system. After the artwork is approved, we then print a 3 x 4-inch proof for the client on the exact material that will be used on their vehicle. This allows our client to get an accurate representation of what they can expect,” explains Hanington.

Final output for the bright-orange wrap was executed with the shop’s Mutoh ValueJet 1614, onto Avery MPI 1005 Supercast EZ RS vinyl, with Avery DOL 1060 gloss laminate. A Keencut Sabre 100-inch cutter was also utilized in production.

Two installers took about 3.5 hours to get the smart car wrapped. Each side panel measured approximately 10 feet x 52-inches long before install. “The smart car has tricky fender flares on both the front and back of the vehicle. At the back of the vehicle on both sides there is also what we call a ‘knuckle’ light that protrudes out from the side of the fender. This area requires patience and skill in order to do a nice job,” says Hanington.

“Another challenge that presented itself: The vehicle color was bright green, and the wrap graphics were orange. This created a challenge because the graphics needed to be very well installed in order for the original color of the vehicle to not show.”
 

K6
www.k6media.com