The Framers Forum

Morning all,

I have a van for doing deliveries etc but it’s currently blank with no signage etc on it.

It seems silly to not have any livery on it as it’s ‘free advertising’

I’m looking for some inspiration before getting the work designed and done.

Does anyone have a van with signage that they are willing to share images of to give me an idea what would look good?

Thanks,

Ian

Keep it simple and easy for someone driving behind your van to read and remember. Make sure that the telephone number is in large enough letters to easily read and remember for people who see your advertising, while they are driving. Break up the telephone number in to easy to mentally process and remember groups of numbers. I prefer the local code to be displayed in brackets, with the town, or ciy relating to that code dislayed under neath the code. Leave a good amount of blank space between the lines of letters, or numbers. Blank space increases readability and any related mental processing.

Break up the actually telephone number in to two groups of three numbers, rather than one group of six numbers. If a potential customer can not mentally process the number and remember it, you may have lost a potential customer! Lots of decisions about household basic expenditure and purchases are down to the ladies, so don't ignore them! If you have any particular specialities that are worth mentioning, it's good to include them, but stick to just the minimum number of basic words. Why do politicians and presenters like sound bits of very few words? Because that's how our brains work to process and remember information. Keep it short and sweet!

If cross stitches is some thing which you frame, give it a quick and short mention. It will be relevant to some ladies and it's them that do the cross stitches. "Cross Stitches Framed" is all that your advertising needs to say and thats enough. Your business name needs to be easily readable. If they can't remember you phone number, they hope fully will remember your business name and the name of the town underneath the telepnone area code and this will enable them to look up your number from that information. Adding lots of visual graphics will not only cost you more, but it can distract from the information actually important.

I hope this will be helpful,
Mark.

Assuming...
- your van is white
- the AF1 in your profile means what I've guessed it means.

See attached image.

Name, website address, location, phone number. Job done

Oh and slogan/call to action if you can think of a suitable one. I've suggested "professional picture framing for families, artists and businesses" for the purpose of the design.

PS. Can't get the image bigger, sorry. The size is 959k on my computer but the system has minimised it to 83k. You can see it better if you increase the screen size though.

I wasn't happy with the previous strapline, I prefer this one:

art, photos, shirts, memorabilia etc.
If you've got it, we'd love to frame it!

See attached image.
It might give you some ideas anyway

Thanks for your suggestions and ideas, it’s much appreciated.
I did have something similar on my last van but fancied something a bit more fancy, but I do understand it’s all about the simplicity and easyness for the customer to read.

Thanks again

Personally I like a strong brand logo like this.

Had my van redone a while back and followed the advice of the graphics company and went for a brightly coloured bonnet wrap. Definitely gets me noticed and I’ve had a number of good jobs as a result.

Ian, as you'll see from Dovetail's example, a striking logo makes all the difference to the design, both on livery and web sites. Have you considered getting a graphic designer to design a logo for you?

Get a decent sign maker to design the van. Text only on a white van often looks very cheap these days, unless designed to perfection (phone number over two lines does not improve legibility or retention). No need for a full wrap, but folks are used to seeing more than just words and numbers...

Just my 2p worth

None of the examples above have a picture frame on them.

What do you want from your van?

Do you already have strong branding on shop front, website, social media etc. you can carry across?

Do you want people to be able to get contact details from it?

Jonathan, I take back what I said about the two lines of phone number - works just fine on the back of your van.

Richard - not a problem and no offence taken. I thought I’d put it on as an example of what could be done on a modest budget to help the OP come to a decision about what he wanted to do. I originally got a quote for a full wrap which was great but which financially made my eyes water. I decided it was all about compromise in the end.

Hi Jonathan,

The cost of your van livery may have been eye watering, but it looks the business! Very nice! You telephone number being on two lines may have been your livery designs way of creating enough space, so the the telephone number can be displayed in larger text. While I tend to be quite frugal in my presentation of many things, there are times when I am seriously impressed when I see things done right and your van looks great!

Thank you Mark - much appreciated!

When designing advertising signs you have to put yourself in the observers place. On a vehicle it needs to be
BOLD and simple as it will mostly be read in motion. Avoid to much text.

A phone number split into four groups looks disjointed and is hard to remember. Area code/space/number is easier - to me anyway.

Putting FRAMING is all very well. But it can be misinterpreted. So an actual frame graphic(preferably a fancy one) will
tell people it's not windows you do. I have to say that Dovetail Framing suggest to me a joinery business.

I have noticed that Jonathan's livery does not have the telephone number in the main part of the livery. This seems to be quite common these days. I think it much be to avoid to much clutter and text from detracting from the main part of the livery and tag line. Customers who are already interested after seeing the main part of the advertising, will soon find the telephone number if they want it, the great big graphic of a telephone is not easy to miss.