Custom-Made Decals!

[NukleoN]

Some of you know that I've been customizing my smart to be a mini space-shuttle, and this required buying a few decals online and then waiting for shipping. I bought a ton of decals for my last project too which was a Mars-themed motorcycle.

Sometimes the decals I want aren't available or are the wrong size/color or whatever. It's easy to find generic decals such as flags and skulls, but custom-decals are a little more difficult, and even then, a lot of the art I see isn't to my personal taste.

I'm an artist by profession, having spent 20 years in the video game business working on such games as World of Warcraft, Warcraft III, Sopranos and many others. I finally got my own own vinyl-cutter and am working on some of my own designs.

I just got the cutter set-up this morning and did two vinyl cuts. Here's a pic. This is a simple Helvetica font (same as the Space Shuttle) which I did to test my settings, which seem to be spot-on.



These decals have application tape and are ready-to-stick, but I'll have original designs coming soon. Next thing will be a fuel-door graphic and whatever else I think of.

I'm posting in case anyone needs custom-vinyl decals at good prices. Right now I have black, white and red Oracal Intermediate 651 vinyl but will get more colors if a job needs it. This vinyl is considered to be good for 5 years in an outdoor application, such as an automobile.

If you need something custom-made, just drop me a line and I'll give ye a quote, whether it's simple text or your custom-artwork. I am freelancing now so I got plenty of time to work on orders. Once I do a few of these I'll get some standard pricing going on the decal section of my website coming soon.

Here's my art website for those interested in seeing my work: www.nukleon.com/art

Thanks.

[Padawan]

Thanks a bunch, NukleoN.

Just be careful the "Vendor Police" don't get you...

[Dunerunner]

Supporting Vendor? Nukleon, please contact SMART by PM and discuss becoming a supporting vendor.

[NukleoN]

DOH sorry guys. Didn't mean to break protocol. I'll contact SMART. Thanks.

[Padawan]

That didn't take long.

[pmolink]

Yep... busted!

"Ever Vigliant" is their motto!

[Bum-bling-B]

.....I could of told you that you were going to get busted.

Just remember...."Friends don't let friends use Comic Sans MS"

Oracal 651 - good stuff. Keep your designs simple in the terms of easy to weed.

One thing you can do is a contest of some sort and give away a sticker or two. (yes, I do know just how much money you have sunk into that vinyl. ) Not sure if that would go against forum rules.

Being a graphic artist at least you know the difference of right and wrong on copyrights. BTW - have you checked out brands of the world?

[NukleoN]

OMG Comic Sans. NEVER. ;)

The Oracal 651 is good all-around stuff. I plan to make my own designs because I can copyright them and the art would be unique to me. A lot of people can make vinyl decals but not a lot of people are artists who own vinyl cutters...so that's my angle....we'll see how it goes. This cutter will do contour cuts, so that means I can print a full-color picture on the inkjet with vinyl stock, cover it with clear vinyl for protection and then cut it like a die-cut.

You're right about simple designs and easy-weeding, but I like simple, clean designs anyway so it should work out!

I am just stoked that I can make decals of anything I want since I've bought quite a few of them from other people.

[mike-in-sa]

Ive been cutting vinyl for 20 years. See some of my work in my gallery. The real future of vinyl is in digital printing, not so much in cutting any more.

[NukleoN]

Originally Posted by mike-in-sa

Ive been cutting vinyl for 20 years. See some of my work in my gallery. The real future of vinyl is in digital printing, not so much in cutting any more.

Some nice stuff there Mike! I guess if you're doing wraps, a digital print is the way to go, but if you're doing 1-color, vinyl is viable. It's cheap, easy to apply and lasts 5-7 years in outdoor apps depending on the vinyl you're using.

For my tastes, I kinda don't like a lot of crazy detail in one place (like on a door) with nothing everywhere else, but it's a matter of personal taste. I love the idea of full-wraps and the ones I've seen look great. It's a nice way to replace/improve upon a traditional paint job. Like I mentioned, I am a video-game industry artist who just happens to be getting to the vinyl-cutting game and seeing where I can go with it. I've been cutting vinyl for 1 day hehe.

So yeah for quick-customization, vinyl cuts are efficient and inexpensive. This could be as simple as a name, memorial or custom-design from user-art, company logo, etc. Sometimes the clarity of one or two colors works beautifully especially with text.

How is it you're doing the digital printing...printing on white vinyl with special ink?

Vinyl cuts are cool simply because they're customized for the user and look way better than a bumper sticker, but yeah they won't compare to digital printing if you want full-color, like sticking a painting on your car. I'll be able to contour-cut some full-color, original art on vinyl too, just not bigger than what an inkjet printer can handle (which for my purposes is perfect).

Here's one of my original pieces I thought would be fun as a full-color, laminated vinyl decal (with better cropping though) and cut around the graphic (no background).