Cutting plotters and coloured materials add up to great things in creative hands…

Lots of trades rely on vehicles to move crew, material and tools from one job to another and the value of advertising on those vehicles is long-proven and well known. When on site, a trade vehicle can also do a useful job of promoting its owner, much the same way a site board might. To do that job and do it well, the vehicle question had better look its best and be wearing a well designed and expertly fitted livery.

Sophie Jefferies at Cheltenham-based Smuj Creative is a vehicle livery designer of some repute and her company’s work is out there promoting some very successful businesses. Leading edge design isn’t the only thing that distinguishes Smuj Creative’s work though. Add to great design, the fact that Smuj Creative’s work is almost exclusively produced using a cutting plotter and coloured vinyl.

Sophie makes no secret of her preference for coloured material and says such materials are possessed of a vibrancy that’d be difficult to equal with print. Her work does much to support that idea. It’s usually simplicity reduced to practice and highly legible. Customers must love it. They return time and again.

Harvey and Sons, Cheltenham-based window cleaners are among Smuj Creative’s serial customers. The latest van came with an idea of what Harvey was looking for and Smuj took that and refined it down to great looking aesthetics that could be produced in practical terms. It’s a flash of colour, practically a banner, across the side of the vehicle, with the requisite lettering tastefully arranged. 

As we’ve established, it’s not printed.

Sophie and team used Metamark MM-CC Colour Change Material for the flawlessly applied ‘banner’ and Metamark M7 applied to the banner’s surface for the lettered element. Does it work? Yes. Brilliantly. It’s an instant classic that won’t age a day in design terms and, as site advertisements go, it’s everything the customer wanted and more.

Coloured materials do ‘pop’ there’s no question of that and, despite the rise of digital, the belief widely held is that core-colour isn’t going away any time soon. Results speak for themselves and the works Smuj Creative routinely produces using cut and applied Metamark materials are evidence enough that coloured vinyl is here to stay.