I have been working on re branding with newer logos and such for some time. I finally approved a logo, and am picking up a truck all wrapped and pretty next week.
The logo was painstaking. I had three different people work on something until I got what I wanted. The initial design posted this spring on the SWS forum was rejected. It did look like a semi-pro football logo, also the long horizontal orientation didn't work for my applications. I specifically wanted something roundish, more simple and "geometric" than hand drawn or cartoon character like.
I bought a F250, cab and a half, 8ft bed in Houston, because there are tons of them there for cheap. 130,000 miles and a clean body for $7800. Also, my brother in Houston does graphics and large scale print media, so he designed and wrapped the truck. I just have to pick it up, after watching the Badgers stomp LSU in Houston this weekend!
Looks great Chad. I need your brothers contact info. May want to get a truck wrapped.
Chad Eneix said
Aug 30, 2014
Thanks, Doug. My brother's name is Grant Eneix. His company is Inkflo. He does design work and they specialize in large format printing. Contact info below.
Grant Eneix
1737 Stevens Dr.
Suite 240B
Houston, Tx 77043
I like version one in the previews above. I think you should line it up on your door that way. The blow up of the Dragon Icon gets cut off and looses the value because it is so 2D. I would change Roof & Exterior Cleaning to Roof & Exterior Softwashing if this is going to be your softwash truck. Then I would REALLY REALLY focus on a cool but simple Coat of Arms look to the rest of the design of your truck. Now it seems too busy with the water droplets and the diamond patterns. I think your new logo and icon are very slick and clean and need to be followed by simpler designs so that they are not overpowered.
AC
AC Lockyer said
Aug 30, 2014
Try this.
1. Entire truck as tarpon scales. (many of the boat wrap companies have this) will look like dragon scales.
2. Pull in Coat of Arms look for the door. Kinda like preview one above.
3. Instead of red flames on the hood and front of truck do blue and ice colored waterish flames.
4. Roof & Exterior Softwashing along the bed.
5. Phone number over front wheel well.
6. Web site along rocker panel between wheel wells.
7. Bullet points where you have them now.
8. Co Branding Logos after rear wheel well, like UAMCC, SWS Auth, Ask The Seal, F9 etc.
Let's see that version. I think the simplicity of the scale pattern will look awesome and not detract from the clean simplicity of your new logo.
AC
Chad Eneix said
Aug 31, 2014
AC, thanks for the advice, this was was approved and is being wrapped now. I will take all that into consideration for my next one which will be soon. We played with the "coat of arms" thing many times in many versions, and it was always too much. It doesn't scale well. If you remember when you were here, you advised I put the dragon in a water drop, which I thought was an awesome idea. Unfortunately, that was the same as a shield or coat of arms. Everything I tried distracted from the dragon logo, so I left it more simple.
I do have SWS, Ask The Seal, and UMCC behind the rear wheel. They just weren't on the proof. This is another reason I steered clear of the coat of arms or shield look for my logo. I wanted to include all these other seals or shields in much of my media, and there were too many shields and seals. I do really like the scales idea, and will have him give that a try next time. I personally stay away from flames, too cliche when your a firefighter.
Also, I didn't use SoftWashing because no one knows what that is up here. I am going to kind of "introduce" the term. I will gradually make it more prominent on my stuff. We talked about featuring SoftWashing more prominently on the next wrap, my personal and sales truck. My brother said if I want to do that on this one, he can reprint the bed panel. Also, I erred on the side of "busy" with the diamond pattern on purpose, as it is so eye catching. I do agree that the logo gets a little lost, and will try to make it mor prominent next time.
I will post anther photo of the truck on a job with the skid in it soon. I'm so glad to get it out of that trailer! It was kind of a pain, and really looked small time. Thanks again.
Chad Eneix said
Oct 9, 2014
Forgot to post pics of the truck when it was don with the skid in it. This is about a month ago.
Chad....quite a sweet looking truck you have there buddy. I really love that last picture with the before/after shots. I'd love to see that on both sides in some way though. Those before & after shots truly fit the cliché' that a picture is worth a thousand words. A 2 second look at that picture is quick for the brain to understand and hard hitting. The text on the side is nice, but the text doesn't translate for lay people that don't even really know what roof cleaning is.
If you don't mind me asking, what's the basic price for wrapping a truck, without the friends and family discount?
Tim Teed said
Oct 10, 2014
You should be able to get wrap and design without top of hood for $1800 - $2500
Chad Eneix said
Oct 10, 2014
Yea, without the hood the design looked goofy. Like it wasn't finished. My price was really cheap, because my brother owns a large format print and design business. He did the design and print, and I paid his installer directly. I priced a full wrap with design from a 3M authorized place near me and it was $3000.
If you get a full wrap and design for $1800, you are getting a extremely good deal, and I would be careful of the lowest bidder. I just say this because I know the costs of some of the stuff. A roll of the good 3M vinyl is $750 or so, it takes about 1/3 to 1/2 a roll to do a truck. Then you put laminate over that, you definitely want it laminated. Install is like $400 in labor, it takes 1 guy almost a full day. The machine that prints those things is like $20-30K, and the ink cartridges are like $300 a piece. This design was also fully custom, many places have templates that they can plug your graphics and colors in to, which saves on design costs.
On a budget, a partial of just the back 2/3 of the sides, or the middle of the sides is the way to go. So the hood, roof, part of the front fender, and maybe some of the rear fender goes unwrapped. You could easily hit that $1800 probably quite a bit lower. This can look really good if designed right, especially if the colors are integrated with the color of the truck. There is a contractor in my town who has a partial that is 2 tone green, black, and silver on silver trucks, and they look sharp.
Troy Layman said
Oct 12, 2014
Thanks guys. I've saved this information for future knowledge.
And Chad, I'm really glad you kept the before and after images true color. So many of the before/after photo's I have seen on people's websites...well, I've worked with computer graphics for the fun of it over the years and I can tell the majority of them have been edited on the after pictures so the roof looks brighter, but they often don't know what they are doing and go overboard on the after photo's...they have obviously had the brightness and contrast adjusted to the point you can't really see the horizontal shingle lines and everything looks fake. Yours don't have that issue, so I have to give you a big thumbs up for that.
John Aloisio said
Oct 13, 2014
Troy,
a lot of before and after pics also look that way because the before is taken at a different time of day than the after and the angle of the sun is different.
This year I started taking before pics and after pics at the same time and same cloud cover. most of the time it means coming back a different day for the after pic. I usually do the before when doing the estimate.
Chad Eneix said
Oct 13, 2014
Those are actually Ray Burke from Spray Wash's pics. Thanks to Ray. We still don't do a ton of roofs up here, so I didn't have a really great before and after shot, for reasons like John just mentioned above. This was also a really striking before and after, I think Ray uses it on a lot of his literature, and I don't think I'm the only one who has used it. A lot of guys have good before and after libraries, when you get around to printing stuff. I have really good siding ones, and some excellent masonry ones.
Ron Musgraves said
Oct 15, 2014
Looks Great !!
Mark Fermoyle said
Nov 14, 2014
Looks great, Chad! LOVE the tailgate too.
AC Lockyer said
Nov 14, 2014
Chad,
How has the new look been received by the customer base???
AC
Chad Eneix said
Nov 17, 2014
AC,
Lots of good comments on the truck. Quite a few people have approached me in parking lots, and I would guess that 20% the time I go to a home improvement type store, I get a lead. I think it's the overall impression. Most of the comments have been about how eye catching it is, and if I ask someone for specifics, they usually comment on the diamond pattern, or the tailgate. I still think the dragon logo gets a little lost, and I may work on that area.
I'm not sure I didn't go to simple and "corporate" or modern with the dragon logo, and may play with it a little more. The new image has not been "out there" long, so if I'm going to mess with it at all, this winter is the time.
I am still struggling with educating my customer base on roof cleaning. It is just something no one knows about. This winter one of my goals is to try and get on a "small business spotlight" or "homeowner hints" morning news feature for the spring.
AC Lockyer said
Nov 17, 2014
Chad Eneix wrote:
AC,
Lots of good comments on the truck. Quite a few people have approached me in parking lots, and I would guess that 20% the time I go to a home improvement type store, I get a lead. I think it's the overall impression. Most of the comments have been about how eye catching it is, and if I ask someone for specifics, they usually comment on the diamond pattern, or the tailgate. I still think the dragon logo gets a little lost, and I may work on that area.
I'm not sure I didn't go to simple and "corporate" or modern with the dragon logo, and may play with it a little more. The new image has not been "out there" long, so if I'm going to mess with it at all, this winter is the time.
I am still struggling with educating my customer base on roof cleaning. It is just something no one knows about. This winter one of my goals is to try and get on a "small business spotlight" or "homeowner hints" morning news feature for the spring.
Maybe a mall kiosk during the winter shopping season would be a great place to educate thousands as they walk by????
AC
Fred Winter said
Feb 24, 2015
Love the design! Very visual and eye catching;)
Fred
Chad Haugen said
Feb 25, 2015
This looks really cool and I love the dragon and logo you have made. Great work! I am in the middle of this process and like how simple and bold your designs are.
I have been working on re branding with newer logos and such for some time. I finally approved a logo, and am picking up a truck all wrapped and pretty next week.
The logo was painstaking. I had three different people work on something until I got what I wanted. The initial design posted this spring on the SWS forum was rejected. It did look like a semi-pro football logo, also the long horizontal orientation didn't work for my applications. I specifically wanted something roundish, more simple and "geometric" than hand drawn or cartoon character like.
I bought a F250, cab and a half, 8ft bed in Houston, because there are tons of them there for cheap. 130,000 miles and a clean body for $7800. Also, my brother in Houston does graphics and large scale print media, so he designed and wrapped the truck. I just have to pick it up, after watching the Badgers stomp LSU in Houston this weekend!
Check it out!
Grant Eneix
1737 Stevens Dr.
Suite 240B
Houston, Tx 77043
832-215-9992
grant@inkflo.net
www.inkflo.net
I like version one in the previews above. I think you should line it up on your door that way. The blow up of the Dragon Icon gets cut off and looses the value because it is so 2D. I would change Roof & Exterior Cleaning to Roof & Exterior Softwashing if this is going to be your softwash truck. Then I would REALLY REALLY focus on a cool but simple Coat of Arms look to the rest of the design of your truck. Now it seems too busy with the water droplets and the diamond patterns. I think your new logo and icon are very slick and clean and need to be followed by simpler designs so that they are not overpowered.
AC
1. Entire truck as tarpon scales. (many of the boat wrap companies have this) will look like dragon scales.
2. Pull in Coat of Arms look for the door. Kinda like preview one above.
3. Instead of red flames on the hood and front of truck do blue and ice colored waterish flames.
4. Roof & Exterior Softwashing along the bed.
5. Phone number over front wheel well.
6. Web site along rocker panel between wheel wells.
7. Bullet points where you have them now.
8. Co Branding Logos after rear wheel well, like UAMCC, SWS Auth, Ask The Seal, F9 etc.
Let's see that version. I think the simplicity of the scale pattern will look awesome and not detract from the clean simplicity of your new logo.
AC
I do have SWS, Ask The Seal, and UMCC behind the rear wheel. They just weren't on the proof. This is another reason I steered clear of the coat of arms or shield look for my logo. I wanted to include all these other seals or shields in much of my media, and there were too many shields and seals. I do really like the scales idea, and will have him give that a try next time. I personally stay away from flames, too cliche when your a firefighter.
Also, I didn't use SoftWashing because no one knows what that is up here. I am going to kind of "introduce" the term. I will gradually make it more prominent on my stuff. We talked about featuring SoftWashing more prominently on the next wrap, my personal and sales truck. My brother said if I want to do that on this one, he can reprint the bed panel. Also, I erred on the side of "busy" with the diamond pattern on purpose, as it is so eye catching. I do agree that the logo gets a little lost, and will try to make it mor prominent next time.
I will post anther photo of the truck on a job with the skid in it soon. I'm so glad to get it out of that trailer! It was kind of a pain, and really looked small time. Thanks again.
Forgot to post pics of the truck when it was don with the skid in it. This is about a month ago.
AC
If you don't mind me asking, what's the basic price for wrapping a truck, without the friends and family discount?
Yea, without the hood the design looked goofy. Like it wasn't finished. My price was really cheap, because my brother owns a large format print and design business. He did the design and print, and I paid his installer directly. I priced a full wrap with design from a 3M authorized place near me and it was $3000.
If you get a full wrap and design for $1800, you are getting a extremely good deal, and I would be careful of the lowest bidder. I just say this because I know the costs of some of the stuff. A roll of the good 3M vinyl is $750 or so, it takes about 1/3 to 1/2 a roll to do a truck. Then you put laminate over that, you definitely want it laminated. Install is like $400 in labor, it takes 1 guy almost a full day. The machine that prints those things is like $20-30K, and the ink cartridges are like $300 a piece. This design was also fully custom, many places have templates that they can plug your graphics and colors in to, which saves on design costs.
On a budget, a partial of just the back 2/3 of the sides, or the middle of the sides is the way to go. So the hood, roof, part of the front fender, and maybe some of the rear fender goes unwrapped. You could easily hit that $1800 probably quite a bit lower. This can look really good if designed right, especially if the colors are integrated with the color of the truck. There is a contractor in my town who has a partial that is 2 tone green, black, and silver on silver trucks, and they look sharp.
And Chad, I'm really glad you kept the before and after images true color. So many of the before/after photo's I have seen on people's websites...well, I've worked with computer graphics for the fun of it over the years and I can tell the majority of them have been edited on the after pictures so the roof looks brighter, but they often don't know what they are doing and go overboard on the after photo's...they have obviously had the brightness and contrast adjusted to the point you can't really see the horizontal shingle lines and everything looks fake. Yours don't have that issue, so I have to give you a big thumbs up for that.
Troy,
a lot of before and after pics also look that way because the before is taken at a different time of day than the after and the angle of the sun is different.
This year I started taking before pics and after pics at the same time and same cloud cover. most of the time it means coming back a different day for the after pic. I usually do the before when doing the estimate.
How has the new look been received by the customer base???
AC
AC,
Lots of good comments on the truck. Quite a few people have approached me in parking lots, and I would guess that 20% the time I go to a home improvement type store, I get a lead. I think it's the overall impression. Most of the comments have been about how eye catching it is, and if I ask someone for specifics, they usually comment on the diamond pattern, or the tailgate. I still think the dragon logo gets a little lost, and I may work on that area.
I'm not sure I didn't go to simple and "corporate" or modern with the dragon logo, and may play with it a little more. The new image has not been "out there" long, so if I'm going to mess with it at all, this winter is the time.
I am still struggling with educating my customer base on roof cleaning. It is just something no one knows about. This winter one of my goals is to try and get on a "small business spotlight" or "homeowner hints" morning news feature for the spring.
Maybe a mall kiosk during the winter shopping season would be a great place to educate thousands as they walk by????
AC
Love the design! Very visual and eye catching;)
Fred