Your van is on the road all day, parked outside customers’ homes and sitting in car parks while you buy materials. Good van signwriting turns all that time into advertising. The best van graphics are not the busiest ones. They are the ones people can read and remember in a few seconds.
Phil started out signwriting by hand, and Sign Rite Grafix has been signwriting since 1985. Here are the van signwriting ideas we come back to again and again, with practical tips for each panel. You can find out more on our van signwriting, wraps and fleets page.
What to include on your van
Before thinking about colours and pictures, decide what your van needs to say. Four things do most of the work:
- Your business name: big, clear and consistent with your logo.
- What you do: in plain words, such as Plumbing and Heating or Kitchen Fitting. Your name alone rarely tells people this.
- Your phone number: large enough to read from a car behind you.
- Your website: short and simple, without the https and www if space is tight.
If you only cover a local area, adding it can help, for example Serving Buckinghamshire. It tells people straight away that you work near them.
What to leave off
Every extra word makes the important ones smaller. Leave out:
- Long lists of every service you offer. Pick your main three at most.
- Your full postal address. Nobody writes it down from a passing van.
- Several phone numbers. One number, big, is better than three small ones.
- Long slogans that need reading twice.
- Every social media icon. If you include social media, pick the one you actually use.
If you are unsure what your main message should be, our article what am I trying to say? helps you boil it down.
Design for a moving car and a car park
Your van is read in two very different situations. In traffic, people glance at it for a second or two, often from behind or at an angle. In a car park or on a driveway, someone standing nearby has time to read more.
Design for both. Make the name, service and phone number readable at a glance, and save smaller details for places people see up close, such as near the side door. Bold, simple fonts work best. Script and thin fonts look lovely on a screen and disappear on the road.
Use the van colour and strong contrast
Your van’s paint is part of the design. A white van gives you a clean canvas for almost any colour. A coloured van can do a lot of the branding work for you, with simple lettering on top.
Contrast is what makes lettering readable. Dark letters on a light van, or light letters on a dark van, read from much further away than two similar shades. Avoid mid tones on mid tones, such as red on grey, and be careful with yellow on white, which almost vanishes at a distance.
Cut lettering, printed graphics and wraps
There are four main ways to brand a van, and they suit different budgets and goals.
| Option | What it is | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Cut vinyl lettering | Solid colour letters and shapes cut from vinyl and applied to the paintwork | Clean, simple lettering on any van colour |
| Printed graphics | Full colour designs printed on vinyl and laminated, then applied | Photos, gradients and detailed logos |
| Part wrap | Printed vinyl covering part of the van, such as the rear half or lower panels | Big impact while using the van colour for the rest |
| Full wrap | Printed or coloured vinyl covering the whole van | A complete colour change and maximum impact |
Many vans combine methods, for example a part wrap on the back half with cut vinyl lettering on the bonnet and doors.
Practical layout tips by panel
Back doors
The back doors are prime space. Drivers sit behind you in traffic for minutes at a time, so this is where your phone number and website matter most. Keep the layout simple, and avoid putting key text across the gap where the doors meet or over handles and hinges.
Sides
The sides are your biggest canvas. Put your name, service and contact details here, and keep them clear of the sliding door seam and wheel arches. The two sides are rarely identical, with a sliding door on one and a fuel cap on the other, so check the layout works on each.
Bonnet and front
People see the front in their rear view mirror, so lettering on the bonnet is sometimes reversed to read correctly in a mirror. A logo or name on the front helps when you are parked facing the road.
Rear windows
UK law sets minimum light levels for the windscreen and front side windows, so those stay clear. Rear windows are a different story. One way vision film is printed on the outside and lets the driver see out from inside, so the rear windows become part of the design. Always make sure the driver has good mirrors and a clear view behind.
Fleet consistency
If you run more than one vehicle, every van should look like it belongs to the same company. Use the same layout, colours, logo and positions across the fleet, adjusted for different van sizes. A consistent fleet looks bigger and more established, and customers start to recognise your vans everywhere they see them.
Magnetic signs for dual-use vehicles
If your van or car is also the family vehicle at weekends, magnetic signs give you branding that comes off in seconds. They need a flat steel panel to stick to, so they will not work on aluminium or plastic panels. Take them off regularly to clean underneath, and check they are secure before long motorway journeys.
Chapter 8 markings for highway work
If your vehicle stops or works on the road, for highway maintenance, utilities or roadside recovery, you will hear about Chapter 8. This is Chapter 8 of the Department for Transport’s Traffic Signs Manual, which covers safety at road works and temporary situations.
It sets out high visibility rear markings, usually upward pointing chevrons in alternating red and yellow, with the red stripes made from retroreflective material so they shine in headlights. Many contracts and local authorities insist on it, so build it into your design from the start rather than fitting it around existing graphics.
Ready to sign your van?
We design, print and fit van signwriting, part wraps, full wraps and fleet graphics in-house. See our van signwriting, wraps and fleets page or call our studio on 01296 399202 to talk about your van.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Put your brand on everything.
Your brand doesn't stop at the screen. Sign Rite Grafix puts it on your vehicle, your windows, your walls, your pop-up, wherever it needs to be seen. If you can picture it, they can make it and fit it.
FROM THE DIGITAL WORLD TO THE REAL ONE
comment on this post