July 16, 2020

If the customer says, “I’ll leave it to you,” when design’s discussed, great things can happen…

Sun Signs is based in Kendal, itself located on the southern edge of the Lake District National Park. Anyone even moderately inclined toward an outdoor life would find proximity to such a wonderful part of the world a distraction to say the least. There’s a lifetime’s exploration waiting just outside the front door. It doesn’t seem to have got in the way of progress at Sun Signs though.

Sun Signs is what it might be fashionable to call a full service sign design and production company. It’s been around since the early 80s at the very advent of the modern sign industry, and it has fully embraced technology’s advance to the point where it’s now among the best equipped sign design and production companies in Cumbria and the surrounds.

Anyone finding their way to Sun Signs’ front door needing to put a business or brand on the map is in for a bit of a treat. The company can offer its customers, in addition to all the experience it has, flatbed digital printing, routing, vinyl graphics capability and more - without the job leaving the premises. Impressive.

Wilsons Mint Cake has been distributed around the Lakeland towns for longer than living memory and originally by pony and trap. Today, there’s a huge demand for the product and now it finds its way to the shops in a van. The Job of branding the van, having it reflect brand, locality and heritage fell to Sun Signs. When questioned as to the design needed, the client’s response was immediate:

“We’ll leave that to you.”

As it happens, the remit was in safe hands, Liam Clark and his team at Sun Signs are no strangers to livery design, production or application. They’re not short of ideas either and so were able to get visuals in front of the customer in next to no time. The winning proposal is what you might call a van with a view. It celebrates the region’s greatest assets, it’s stunning views, and it covers the entire vehicle with them. Superimposed, seemingly in the mid-distance is the client’s branding.

The work is an absolute credit to the Sun Signs team. A lot of vehicles with text in pictorial elements loose legibility. Not this one. It’s brilliant. The view isn’t impinged, the text is wonderfully readable and the printing and application are clearly top notch. It’s not, after all, a wrap that gives the application team an easy time.

Sun Signs reached for the MetaWrap MD-X, the AirScape variant, which was laminated with MetaGuard MD-X for the job. The print quality is exemplary. The application flawless. The impact achieved can only be described as head-turning.

You won’t see it in the print, but there’s a green streak running thorough Sun Signs’ work too. Sun Signs has systems and processes in place to achieve significantly improved yields from the materials and resources it consumes. Good to know, in that context, that the material it used for the Wilson’s livery was manufactured but a few junctions up the M6 and so has commendably few road miles under its wheels too.

In livery terms The Wilsons van ticks every box. It reflects the brand’s locality and it’s evocative too. The ‘Lakes have endured the ages and thanks to Sun Signs’ work, the Wilsons’ brand will be remembered and favourably associated with its home in the Lake District Park as well.