Why Size and Spacing Matter in Designing High-Return Van Graphics

A large proportion of business owners designing new van graphics or thinking about how to ensure their company logo stands out will often focus on size. They might blow up vehicle lettering or van decals as big as possible to maximise the use of every inch of space on their bodywork.

While there is a lot to be said for making an impact with colour, imagery, and full-scale van graphics, concentrating on quantity over quality can also be an error. For instance, if you want to emblazon your business name and contact details on the side of a van, and this is so big it becomes distorted and impossible to read, it may not act as the mobile advertisement you’d hoped for.

To shed some light on how to ensure your commercial wrapping features memorable statement decals and artwork that deliver a message, generate interest, and optimise impressions without flooding your van bodywork with graphics that are tricky to read, we’ve put together this guide to showcase some of the fundamental design principles.

Blending Images With Text on High-Quality Van Graphics and Wraps

Let’s start with the obvious—if you have a word, logo, or phrase, you need it to be easy to see and absorb in literally a few seconds. Most consumers or business clients who engage with a firm after seeing its van graphics have passed a vehicle on the road and remembered the pertinent details in that very short space of time.

That means two things:

1. You need the font, letters, and colours to be visible from a distance without expecting a viewer to make a conscious, concerted effort to make out the words.
2. Those vehicle decals also need to be small enough to be consumed in seconds rather than spread across the horizontal length of a van, where a motorist might only remember half of the content during a time-limited interaction.

Our advice is to think about the way the eye moves naturally between vehicle graphics and lettering, using bold, bright, and attention-grabbing fonts combined with on-brand colours, patterns, or images that reinforce the message.

We’ve shared some tips before about Design and Font in Commercial Vehicle Wraps, so we won’t go back over this here, but it’s well worth mocking up some visuals for your brand wrap with your brand colours so you are confident you’ve picked a text, font, and style that anybody will be able to see and interpret without overly swirly or design-centric fonts.

Using Colour, Dimensions and White Space on Your Van to Enhance the Impact of Your Van Graphics

Next, we suggest thinking about the impression you want your target viewer to receive when they first see your van, which matters whether you’re planning on fitting decals or graphics at certain visible points or installing a full van wrap to transform a van into an advertising billboard.

There is no right or wrong answer, but the theme, personality, and style of your branding can make a big impact on the best design placements and visuals. You need these to represent your business and resonate with the viewers you’re hoping to attract.

As a few brief illustrations:

• A corporate, professional, and high-end company might keep its colour palette neutral or use simple colour accents in classic, timeless colours like deeper blues and greens, with straightforward, fuss-free lettering that tells the viewer what the service and brand are all about.
• A vibrant, innovative, and ambitious start-up or a firm looking to engage with younger audiences might choose the opposite approach, using vinyl finishes, standout colours, effects, and colours that pop and create a sense of excitement.
• A tradesperson hoping to extend awareness of their business or encourage new enquiries might compromise between the two, ensuring van graphics are bold without being overly ‘fun’ to the point that this could detract from the messaging that the company is a credible, trusted, and experienced local provider.

High-visibility signage doesn’t fit into a universal design template, and the assumption that more colour, larger images, bigger text and greater visual interest will deliver isn’t always correct, especially if you have a more conservative brand and want that to be reflected in your van graphics.

Instead, use a custom design that makes tactical use of white spaces to balance out brighter splashes of colour or partial wraps and decals that draw the eye without appearing chaotic can work incredibly well.

Deciding on the Best Placements for Van Graphics to Promote Your Business

We’ve mentioned the key need to have signage that represents your business, and links back to your brand and persona. Still, it’s also important to consider the practicalities – the activities your viewer will most likely be carrying out when they see your van or one of your fleet vehicles, and what that implies in terms of the places on your van where decals will prove most effective.

The norm is to concentrate on rear and front panels for vehicles that travel hundreds of miles a week. That’s because those parts of a van are easiest for other motorists to see when driving in traffic, when most will spend far more time looking out of the windscreen or in their rear view mirror than they might looking out of a passenger window.

However, the reverse applies to businesses that make localised deliveries or provide services in a residential location. When a van is parked and stationary, the side panels are the largest and most visible, and therefore, the best place to install prominent decals that pedestrians, passersby, and motorists will notice.

As a final note, it’s also vital that you design your van decals according to the make and model of your vehicle. This can be a big factor in how well your graphics work and the returns you can expect to see on your advertising.

Bespoke, perfectly fitted, professional decals take this into consideration and ensure that you avoid positioning a graphic or wrap on a van with angles, contours, or door positions that will diminish rather than enhance the impacts your van graphics achieve. Get in touch with the WrapUK team for expert advice on a wrap tailored to your vehicle and your brand.