By signcraft
Posted on Monday, June 13th, 2022
“The first thing I think on any sign layout is ‘What do I need to read first?’” says Bob. “Nothing else matters until I answer that question. It’s especially critical on vehicles.”
For almost 40 years, Bob shared his approach to sign design in SignCraft magazine, along with thousands of photos of his work. In 1998, SignCraft published his book, Trucks! on one of his favorite topics: vehicle lettering.
Thirty or forty years ago, small businesses like those you see below rarely had a “logo” designed. Most had just a few trucks that provided the bulk of their advertising, along with a Yellow Pages ad in the phone directory. Logos and branding were the territory of large corporations.
“I tried to create something for them that would be a memorable design and was practical to produce,” says Bob. “These trucks were their primary advertising, so most didn’t even need camera-ready art for other purposes except sometimes for hats or shirts. We weren’t selling design—we sold well-designed signs.”
As you scroll through these vehicle graphics, note Bob’s use of contrast—stiff with loose, bold with thin, tall with wide, dark with light. It’s the best way to add visual appeal and avoid boredom. In sign layout, equality means visual monotony.
“There is a time and place for just basic truck lettering,” says Bob, “but often the customer is overlooking the advertising value that a truck can provide. It takes some skill to do creative, effective truck lettering, but it is a marketable skill. What your customers see is what they will expect from you. So if you do generic, basic truck lettering, that’s all people are going to come to you for. If you have more to offer, you can build your business on that—and have less competition, too.”
Let’s follow Bob through a dozen of his truck lettering projects as he tells us how he approached each of the designs:
“I applied gold vinyl over gold Mylar film,” Bob says, “to create a look similar to glass gold lettering with a matte center. It’s a little bit of visual tom foolery just for fun. The big script dominates the design, and the little overlapping oval carries the rest of the company name.”
“I’ve done a lot of simple logos, but this one worked really well. The roofs to make the M and the colors work well together. Being white, ‘Mulhern’ has the greatest color reflectivity which emphasizes it and brings it to the front of the layout. It’s also in a very legible letter style. ‘Brian’ in tan is a step back, and being script takes a little longer to read so it doesn’t compete with ‘Mulhern.’”
“This goes back to the ’70s. I used black for the bold company name and added the gray panels behind it to create a sense of depth. It makes a design, instead of the lettering just floating on the door.”
“This customer was well known locally for their excavating services. I used a big graphic of the machine to show what they do, right beside the bold ‘Peckler’ which in white has the most contrast in the layout. The maroon panel increases that contrast even more and connects the name and the machine. ‘Ray’ is in a script which will read a little slower, allowing ‘Peckler’ to get read first. After the graphic and ‘Peckler,’ the phone number reads next.”
“I used three panels here, probably to cover old graphics. ‘Tom’s’ is the largest lettering, but the script makes it a bit harder to read so that ‘Excavating’ in white on the bright red panel would likely be read first. The blend on ‘Tom’s’ is rare for me, but it was most likely done just to add interest.”
“This company did a lot of concrete replacement, so I added the little graphic of the smiling guy with the jackhammer on the letter I. The gray convex outlines create ‘Mila’ and the script overlays it to create a nice unit. Concrete needed to be strong so I let it overrun the door. The colors on the ‘Free Estimate’ copy block match the door lettering.”
“This client wanted to update their logo, which was somewhat stiff and traditional. I went the opposite direction with a big, loose script. For the graphic, I superimposed a tree silhouette over the ‘H’ and let the script overlap the logo rather than spacing them apart. This logo was done 30 years ago and is still in use today on their buildings and fleet.”
“The trees quickly show their product to the viewer. In white on the red panel, ‘Gardens’ is the easiest copy to read, so the viewer quickly gets what this company is about. I tucked the panel behind the trees and used a racy script for ‘Graff.’ This design is still used today, decades later.”
“This company had seen some of the work we were doing at Van Bruggen Signs and came to us for a replacement for their 30-year-old logo. The owner wanted a script that resembled his mother’s handwriting, which used a swashy ‘D’. I stylized it and made a bolder version for the name. They wanted a graphic of a tree from above, so this is what I came up with. The line goes the length of the truck.
“This was done at a time when many people wanted low-key graphics for their personal truck. They didn’t want to fill the door up on the truck they used for personal use as well as for work. Interestingly, the look got popular. Customers told me that they had good comments on these less-is-more graphics. The large amount of negative space around the lettering adds impact.”
“This is another example of ‘soft sell’ graphics. I did this about 30 years ago for a customer who was one of the first lowrider people I ran across. He wanted a hand-lettered script just on the tailgate. He was looking for a classy, special look for the lettering that didn’t take away from his shiny black, lowered truck with flames on the front. This lettering worked because most readers would be a sitting behind the truck at the red light.”
“Later we did a sign for the front of his shop. The script worked here, too, because ‘Auto Restoration’ remained dominant in red on white.”
