Food trucks have become a staple of the food scene everywhere. But how to design an effective food truck wrap? In this blog, we provide some useful tips to help you create mouthwatering designs for your food truck.
What Are Food Trucks?
As the name suggests, food trucks are vehicles equipped to cook, prepare, and sell food.
While the idea of selling food out of a vehicle is as old as ice cream trucks, food trucks as we know them today began to gain popularity around 2008, propelled in part by the then-nascent social media platforms.
Today, food trucks are experiencing a boom, almost doubling in number between 2013 and 2018, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Another interesting fact: California is the state with the most food trucks, with 753!
What Are Food Truck Wraps?
A food truck wrap is a large format graphic usually made of self-adhesive vinyl that covers the entire surface of a food truck.
Wraps have become the go-to way to promote food trucks, and with good reason: food truck wraps and cost-effective, spectacular, and easy to maintain.
As the state with the most food trucks in the U.S., food truck wraps are a common sight in California, and food trucks compete for the attention of potential customers with bold and imaginative designs.
A Guide to Food Truck Wraps
If you own a food truck, an eye-catching wrap is a very important part of your success. After all, in order to get clients, you have to grab their attention first.
With that in mind, here’s a quick guide with the key aspects you need to keep in mind for an effective food truck wrap.
1. Create a Memorable Design
While all types of businesses need to utilize design to promote their services or products, great design is even more important when you own a food truck.
Restaurants have hundreds of opportunities to impress their customers with design. After all, a conventional restaurant has a storefront, walls, bathrooms, and in some cases, they even take advantage of the ceiling.
For a food truck, on the other hand, a wrap is more than a chance to create a strong first impression — it’s almost a food truck’s entire identity.
A unique design helps your food truck get noticed, attracts customers, and gives your truck a distinctive look people can recognize.
Think of ways to make your design more memorable. For example, if you sell fish tacos, you can wrap your food truck to make it look like a boat. Or if you sell Italian food, your wrap can make your truck look like it’s covered in pepperoni slices.
The great news is that almost any idea can come to life thanks to the most advanced large format printing technology. As we love to say here at CR&A Custom: If you can imagine it, we can print it!
2. Think in Three Dimensions
One of the most challenging aspects of designing an effective food truck wrap is that you have to think in three dimensions at once.
When you are designing a storefront graphic, for example, you just have to worry about one surface (your storefront). With a food wrap, your design has to look good from every angle you can look at your vehicle.
Even if you have some notions of graphic design, creating designs meant to be displayed on tridimensional objects such as a food truck is a whole different ball game.
Seek the assistance of a designer with experience creating graphics for large vehicles. If you don’t know where to start, contact CR&A Custom today. Our team will be happy to help
3. Prepare Your Food Truck for Wrapping
At its most basic, a food truck wrap is a series of vinyl panels applied to the surface of a food truck.
The smoother and cleaner the surface of your truck, the easier it will be to wrap it.
Before wrapping your vehicle, identify any damage affecting the body and paint (such as rust, paint chips, peeling paint, and dings) and repair it if possible.
This is especially important if your food truck is a second-hand vehicle that has seen heavy use by previous owners.
Always wash your truck at least 24 hours before the wrapping takes place. Use mild soap and ensure all parts of the vehicle are dry before handing the vehicle to the installers.
One word of caution: make sure to avoid wax. While waxing a vehicle is often a good idea, wax creates a protective coat that interferes with the process of installing a wrap.
CR&A Custom: If You Can Imagine It, We Can Print It
Ready to create a high-impact wrap for your food truck? At CR&A Custom we are a large format printing company known for our innovative visual solutions and our commitment to quality.
Contact us today by email (info@cracustom.com), telephone (213-749-4440), social media (Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn), or through the live chat on our home page.
By CR&A Custom Inc June 16, 2022
