July 17, 2020

The road to exemplary quality isn’t always the easiest one. MSigns has produced a series of outstanding liveries for Goodyear that say time and effort was well invested…

Tyres are among the many technological marvels that help the world keep turning but that are really taken for granted. If it wasn’t for the invention of the Vulcanisation process in the 1800s, cars, trucks and other wheeled vehicles might be grinding their way around on steel rims. Thankfully they aren’t. Wheeled vehicles deliver a comfortable ride, they go where the driver points them and they stop when needed thanks in no small part to the tyres they wear. The Vulcanisation process which all practical applications for rubber trace to was invented and commercialised by one Charles Goodyear.

If the name rings a chord of the familiar, it ought to. Goodyear is today one of the world’s truly great international brands. It has a towering reputation and is known even in the most remote corners of the planet. It’s a brand that evokes ‘tyres’ and much more. Safety, environmental responsibility, performance and much more are all favourably reflected in the Goodyear brand and its winged logo.

The customer and market facing elements of any big brand have to shoulder a considerable responsibility for the brand’s reputation and continuity. That includes vehicle liveries used in the course of the brand’s business. Liveries are seen and seen often. They have to be ‘on brand’ and of unimpeachable quality.

MSigns is a Derby based signs and graphic producer that has earned itself a reputation for the quality and creativity bound in the works it undertakes. It’s a reputation that traces to its experience. With craft-based skills and knowledge that pre-dates the advent of computerised means of sign production, the company achieves stellar results with modern hardware and materials; results that elude those who don’t have the same elevated ‘eye’ for lettering and its relationship with layout. Signs and graphics from MSigns look ‘right,’ because they are right.

Goodyear and MSigns met recently when they were introduced by a motor racing sponsor that MSigns had completed work for. Goodyear needed livery for a fleet of fifteen powerfully branded truck-trailer rigs and delivered its brief to Mark Whetton and the team at MSigns. MSigns considered the brief and proposed a design comprising a painted base colour for the vehicles with cut and applied elements in coloured film for the design. With only minor revision, the proposal was accepted and production could proceed.

In an age when most livery work with extensive panel coverage is printed, MSigns’ work for Goodyear stands our for a few reasons. It arguably took the ‘hard yards’ route in being cut and meticulously applied - element by element. The other reason it stands out is the sheer potency of the medium and its impact. Metamark M7 was chosen for the applied elements. It’s a dyed in the mass coloured film and will not fade or dull. It delivers depth and apparent saturation that print, however expert, would struggle to equal.

Stand back and appreciate the impact the finished livery achieves for the brand it serves and promotes and it makes a point about vehicle advertising and its impact on the world in general. When its done to the standard for which a great brand holds it accountable, and when it’s produced by a company able to maintain those standards as well as its own, its future would seem to be assured.