What’s it cost to produce these printed truck door graphics?

We designed this logo for a local electrician long ago. We’ve lettered several trucks for them over the years, but we always did layered vinyl on the signs. This time, I decided to go ahead and turn the job into a digital print job and print it on our Gerber Edge II.

It is a perfect job for printing, especially considering they will probably be ordering more in the future. Converting the file from a layered vinyl job to a digital print job took only a few minutes. The rest was just production time.

The two sections of vinyl were printed with yellow and black spot colors on white. Knowing the whole piece of artwork would print and cut on a 15-in. roll of high-performance vinyl, I knew we’d save time on the installation.

There is an economy of time and effort doing repeat jobs for customers. All they have to do is call to let us know they have a new truck, and we set up a date to work on the project. Since we already have the files in the computer and we already know what they want, a job like this can go through the shop fairly quickly.

In many cases, they just drop the truck and keys off in the driveway. Later in the day, we call to let them know it is finished and the bill is on the seat.

The first trucks were white, so it made sense at the time to just apply vinyl. They didn’t need the white background—we added that on the last blue truck and again on this maroon truck.

In layered vinyl, the upper yellow panel was applied, and then the black name was added on top of it. Similarly, the yellow graphics on the claws were added to the top of the black under panel. On the Edge job, the yellow is printed first and the black is printed afterwards.

Open, prep, print and cut: 38 minutes

It took me 8 minutes to open the original file and convert it to an Edge job. Then it took 20 minutes to print and cut (on a Gerber HS15 Plus plotter). Weeding and applying the transfer tape took another 10 minutes.

Clean doors and apply: 20 minutes

It took 10 minutes for Darla and I to clean the truck doors and apply the graphics, or 20 minutes in man hours. That includes a little time for me to take the photos, too.

Finish the job: 10 minutes

Finally, I cleaned off the Stabilo pencil marks, moved the truck outside for a few photos, then made out the invoice.

Mike Jackson

Mike and Darla Jackson operate Golden Studios in Loveland, Colorado, and do a variety of sign-related projects. Mike’s website is www.goldenstudios.com. His email address is golden@goldenstudios.com. You can see more of Mike’s photos at www.tetonimages.com and www.goldenstudios.com.