Earlier this year, when the intern at Big Ink in Eagan, Minnesota, joked about wrapping his Toyota Prius to promote the shop’s “Eco-Green” campaign, company president Tom Trunta took him very seriously. So much so that not long after the intern mentioned the idea, the company hired design firm ImageHaus to draft ideas for not one, but four Prius wraps.

“Sales people were already making trips,” Trunta says, “So we offered them a car that has a much smaller [environmental] impact.” Trunta also figured that the exposure at some of the Twin Cities’ big summer events, including the Republican National Convention and the state fair, would be worth the wraps.

Image Haus created the design in 10 days and then handed the files off to Trunta and crew, which output the graphics in less than two hours on Big Ink’s EFI Vutek 3360 onto 3M Controltac 180-C media using EFI Vutek UltraVu ink.

“We had never wrapped a Prius before,” Trunta says. “Anytime you’re doing a new vehicle, there’s a learning curve.” Each car took two installers about six hours to install. In total, the cars required about 180 square feet of media. The Prius fleet was wrapped during the first week of August and remained wrapped through the month. The intern’s car remained wrapped through September.

Another feature of the Big Ink green campaign: Trunta says the shop has instituted a take-back program for its clients, designed to keep thousands of pounds of media out of landfills.

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