SignArt - Frequently Asked Questions

Is all vinyl not just the same? Should digital prints for vehicles be laminated?

Will it be OK to power wash my van?

Can you show me what the sign/graphics will look like first?

Can I provide my own logo or artwork?

Why are your signs/vehicle graphics more expensive than XYZ?

Do you accept credit cards?

Are all vinyls not just the same? Definately not, there are different vinyls for different purposes. Vinyls are generally graded into three main types, Monomeric, Polymeric and Cast. Monomeric is the cheapest vinyl and although it sometimes rated with a 3 to 5 year lifespan outdoors, this is more for colour fading than for durability. It will shrink quite a bit with exposure to strong sunlight and temperature changes. On top of that, the adhesive is usually acryllic (water-based) which is waterproof to an extent when dry in as much as emulsion paint is waterproof when dry but you wouldn’t want to paint your front door with it. Momomeric was designed for short term indoor applications and should never be used for vehicle graphics but unfortunately some sign companies use nothing else as its very low cost allows them to give lower quotes in order to get work. To the unsuspecting customer it will look well when the graphics are new but after a few months the vinyl will shrink leaving ‘glue lines’ around the edges, pop-out and crack where it has been applied over ridges or letters simply curl up and gradually peel off. Polymeric is a higher grade of vinyl often graded as 5 to 7 year and has permanent solvent based adhesive. It is well suited for most vehicle graphics though not for applying over tight ridges where it will likely pop-out and crack. Cast vinyl is the highest grade available and the most expensive. It has a typical lifespan rating of 7 to 10 years and is suitable for applying over tight ridges, rivets or stretching to akward shapes. The most common use for cast vinyl is vehicle wraps as it can stretch into recesses without popping out again.

Examples of jobs we’ve seen where the wrong vinyls have been used.

Should Digital prints for vehicles be laminated? At SignArt we have the latest in digital printing technology and while prints are rated by the manufacturers as ‘outdoor durable’, this is true for some basic applications but when it comes to vehicle graphics they should ALWAYS be laminated. It is important too that the laminate used is th ecorrect laminate to suit the printed vinyl. A clear laminate film on printed vehicle graphics provides much greater protection against abrasion from dirt, dust, washing and the weather and the UV properties of a good laminate provides better protection against fading. For the nominal extra cost, the life expectancy is typically tripled. As well as the added protection, a laminate usually enhances the look of the graphics by bringing out the depth of colour and gloss. The van in the photo to the right belongs to a customer who understandably went to another sign company to get his van wrapped at a much lower price than we quoted. The customer thought the job looked well when he got it back, and it did (it was our design, by the way), it wasn’t until several months later when the images started to disappear that he discovered why the job was so cheap, the prints hadn’t been laminated. We later got the job of wrapping the customers whole fleet of lorries and vans and the customer is pleased in having confidence that the graphics will last for many years instead.

Will it be OK to power wash my van? Yes, of course, it will be absolutely fine, in fact, one of our customers has been using a high pressure steam washer fior years without any damage to their vinyl graphics whatsoever. We only use top quality vinyl on vehicles and we even power wash our own or take it through those drive-through, spinning brush washes with out any damage, the laminate on our prints protects against the abrasion.

Can you show me what the sign/graphics will look like first? Yes. We will give you a price estimate first and after an order is made we will work on a design for your approval. We don't however, do peculative design work without an order in the hope of getting the job. As I'm sure you'll agree from looking around our website, that we put a lot of thought, skill and effort into out design work and if we were to do 'free design' for everyone who is shopping around then we would need to charge a lot more to make up for the unpaid time. Sorry if that doesn't suit you but we professional, qualified designers and are not here to supply designs that can be taken to cheap sign shops that can't design.

Can I provide my own logo or artwork? Yes, of course. For vinyl graphics, files should be supplied in a vector format such as an Adobe Illustrator (*.ai), CorelDraw (*.cdr) or Postcript *.EPS) file with all text converted to graphics/curves. We can vectorise bitmaps n for you but there is usually a small charge for this depending on the complexity and quality of the original image. If it's for printed graphics, a high resolution bitmap file such as JPEG (*.jpg), TIFF (.tif) or Photoshop file will do fine, and should be at least 300dpi at 1/4 size of finished print. Web images are rarely good enough quality. If you're not sure, feel free to ask us for advice. We can accept files from all common design programs and even Microsoft Office. MS Word, Powerpointd and Excel are not design programs and output from them is usually no use for anything other than an A4 page but if that's all you have we can use them as a rough visual guide to re-draw from. Remember to tell us the names of any special fonts you are using because if we don't have those actual fonts installed on our computers then what we see will be completely different than what you see on your computer. Often it's quicker and easier for us if we receive notes on a sheet of paper or just plain text in an email accompanied with any photos.

Why are your signs/vehicle graphics more expensive than XYZ? It may be better to question why XYZ is so cheap? We do try our best to suit most budgets but We always use quality materials that are properly suited for each job and take time and proper care to do each job well. We could of course, give low quotes if we were to use much cheaper materials that aren't suited to the job and rush everything through with a 'do rightly' attitude, but that's not how we do things here. Quite frankly, there are plenty of sign companies doing that already and have nothing else to offer other than a cheap job.

Do you accept credit cards? Yes, we can accept all major credit and debit cards. We can even take secure online payments.