summerprophet, post: 332901, member: 8874 wrote: John,
I would suggest working with your vinyl guys and come up with a design.Purely from a stylistic standpoint, you with many text heights, text types, and not following the bodylines of the vehicle, you end up with a discontinuous appearance to the vehicle. Frankly it looks like you had your company name done, then decided to add your phone number at a later date,.... then later added your email address..... and so on and so on.
By nature, surveyors are more left brained than right brained, I would suggest you seek out the artsy creative types for your vehicle endeavor.
(And your proposed logo is killing me...... I could only support it if you were my direct competition)
I know what you mean about the logo that is why it's been stuck on the 'drawing board'. I can't get it right. I like the idea of it though.
I am my vinyl guy. I have a vinyl machine. It's a lot cheaper. I just have to get it right. It's a work in progress.
Scott Ellis, post: 332887, member: 7154 wrote: Okay now that we got your phone number fixed lets address the email address, I can tell its @jmgl.com but it also looks likes @imgl.com and it might be easier to read if you can make a [email protected]
I changed my email address. Good call.
John Giles, post: 332904, member: 57 wrote: I know what you mean about the logo that is why it's been stuck on the 'drawing board'. I can't get it right. I like the idea of it though.
Don't get me wrong, once I read what the logo referred to, I was caught with how creative it was. However, to the layperson, it is completely lost upon them, and even the statement "...footsteps of others" means NOTHING to the general public, and would leave them confused.
I like the logo, but is more something to hang in your office, rather than have on your vehicle or business cards. From first glance, it looks like a child scrawled out your letters.
If you are doing your own vinyl, here are a few BASIC commercial design tips.
A maximum of 2 text heights.
Keep a single font, EXCEPT in the case of a company logo, you can use a difference font for the company name, but it is preferable to tie in the name with the rest of the design, by matching fonts. For example "ACME widgets", could have a larger different font for "ACME", and widgets could be the same font as any additional information.
For fonts, stick with the classics for professionalism. Helvetica, Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman, etcetera. AVOID rounded edges or playful fonts, unless you are marketing to children or for recreation. And for the love of god, don't ever, Ever, EVER use the Papyrus font, doing so means your designer is lost in the 1980's.
When in doubt, look at hugely successful businesses, and match their font types. (GAP, Mcdonalds, FedEx)
For vehicles, take the body lines into consideration, particularly when running text on or near crease lines.
Thanks for the advice. I took things into consideration and came up with this. One font type. But I put a slant on the font. I'm not sure if I want the TS on there or not.
I personally like the TS. If you don't use it, I might have to ask your permission to steal the idea and put it on my truck 🙂
John Giles, post: 332923, member: 57 wrote: Thanks for the advice. I took things into consideration and came up with this.
I think we have a winner.
MD Surveyor, post: 332925, member: 10081 wrote: I personally like the TS. If you don't use it, I might have to ask your permission to steal the idea and put it on my truck 🙂
I can send it to you. What format do you want it in?
I can send it to you. What format do you want it in?
I would appreciate that. I am not sure what format would be best. I have no experience with cutting vinyl but I have a good friend who makes signs and letters vehicles for a living. I assume I could provide him any image file.
MD Surveyor, post: 332930, member: 10081 wrote: I would appreciate that. I am not sure what format would be best. I have no experience with cutting vinyl but I have a good friend who makes signs and letters vehicles for a living. I assume I could provide him any image file.
I also have a CAD file with complete TS, tripod, prism, prism pole and bipod in 3D. I drew them a while back. If you would like that file also you could alter the angles and scope and make it point any direction you wanted.
I'll send you a SBD file the total station. It's the format of vinyl cutting software I used to make it. Your friend can download the program for free. I put a link to it in a previous post. I have it ready for the cutter. He should be able to work with that.
I can send a DFX of it and it will open in autocad as a 2d drawing.
the total station SBD file may not be ready for the cutter. It needs cleaned up a little bit. But it's not to far from ready.
John,
I'll throw another idea for a tweak for your consideration. It has to do with the colors/psychology.
If you want to attract attention, you may want to do colors related to WV such as the blue/gold of the Univ. of WV. The colors would attract the eye-attention of alumni, fans etc to the vehicle. The colors draw attention of the brain more than the wording.
So if you changed the black to WV blue and the "Land Surveying" to WV gold, it may draw positive attention.
There have studies done that fast food signs are more recognizable as a red/yellow scheme. Black colors are reserved for luxury products. Blue invokes trust so financial and business enterprises use blue a lot such as Geico, Allstate, Visa etc
Actually Visa uses a WV color scheme.
It is a very typical marketing gimmick here to use the purple/yellow of LSU or the black/gold of the Saints. Colors can not be trademarked.
You can easily find the official RGB values on line from the university.
No graphics on any of our survey vehicles. We'd often work in a metropolis, and every municipality insisted you buy a business license even if you were an out of towner. 40+- business license application fees plus annual renewal fees would have meant thousands of dollars a year in added costs, not to mention the weeks of delay for processing. So we operated on the down low and never got caught. Of course we had business licenses for our office locations, but obtaining a business license for a three day job in Podunk City? Ridiculous.
Well I don't know if I can improve on the above advice. I didn't like the first one. I very much liked the second one. I think simpler is more professional looking. I don't think I like the GILES splayed across the whole side of the truck. Just feels to egotistical to me.
I absolutely love the logo the more I looked at it. I can see how at first it looks like just some blobby lines. I hope you can perfect it a bit. Maybe something above it that blends into legs might help? I don't know.
Great advice on the changing of the email address. the simpler and easier-to-remember the better.
Good luck John, and I echo the thanks for the maps. I got mine.
I like the last design, but it reminds me of our local police department cars.
They were not smart enough to use a vinyl sticker. So every time they get in a fender bender, they will have to pay a body shop to custom paint the decals.
Disclaimer: I've got horrible eyesight (corrected around 20/40 at best) and I keep misreading your email as john@jmgis.com!
On the other hand, I love how large you've made the phone number. That's a big peeve with me when I see an interesting company and I can't read the phone number on a sign.
Melita
mkennedy, post: 332950, member: 7183 wrote: Disclaimer: I've got horrible eyesight (corrected around 20/40 at best) and I keep misreading your email as john@jmgis.com!
On the other hand, I love how large you've made the phone number. That's a big peeve with me when I see an interesting company and I can't read the phone number on a sign.
Melita
I agree I am still having a hard time with the email as well. Add a space between @ and J, I think it would help. Maybe go up a size on the font and use uppercase letters. I would also make the area code the same size as the other numbers in the phone number or go up one size. Unless its the only area code in the area. My city I think we at least five area codes. I am not a big fan of the slant text however it seems alot of guys on here like the slant text.
imaudigger, post: 332948, member: 7286 wrote: I like the last design, but it reminds me of our local police department cars.
They were not smart enough to use a vinyl sticker. So every time they get in a fender bender, they will have to pay a body shop to custom paint the decals.
I'll have to make sure I don't make something similar to a police vehicle. I doubt they would like it.
Our police department has black vehicles. But I'm going to pay more attention next time I see one and look at the signs. Our state police is blue and gold.
I didn't mean it actually looked like a police car...just reminded me of our local police.
Same model SUV...large black lettering.
While I don't think it's bad it is a little over the top for my middle-America sensibility. Might work well for your part of the world and the a client you're aiming at.
Steve
Are surveyors full of opinions and willing to share them..........or what? Three pages already.
heck yeah thats what I was hoping for. I think I got it now. I'm going with the last one I posted.
I tried the colors like Robert hill suggested and it looks good but I'm worried about the loud factor (the first one I posted was loud too) and my brothers construction company colors are blue and gold. He'd throw a fit if i used his colors. 🙂