When we talk about vehicle graphics, we often focus on customized graphics: text, logos, images, etc., supplied by a wrap customer or designed by the wrapper, printed, and then applied to a vehicle. But the vast majority of vehicle wraps are basic color changes using a standard set of colored films. (Once upon a time, if a car owner wanted the color changed, they had to have it repainted. Now it is done with colored vinyl films.) These color changes can be applied to the car as a whole, or to only certain parts of the car, like the hood, roof, or side-view mirrors. To better help vehicle wrap installers demonstrate to customers how a wrap will look, Avery Dennison Graphics Solutions has launched an online Car Wrap Visualizer which generates a 3D preview of a wrap based on type of car and specific film color.

“We actually launched a prototype of the tool at SEMA in 2018,” says Abby Monnot, Senior Manager for Avery Dennison’s Global Automotive Aftermarket Segment. The SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) Show is the premier automotive specialty products trade event. “We launched it just for the show to see if it was something that our installers would be interested in having Avery Dennison develop further.” They got positive feedback and, working with Canadian IT company xix3d, the decision was made to offer it as a free tool on the Avery Dennison website. 

“I’ve been to multiple shops throughout the US and it’s hard to look at a tiny color swatch and describe to a customer what that would look like on a vehicle,” says Monnot. “There are so many different dimensions to a color nowadays that that seemed to be the gap. The installer would go through a rendering, they would mock it up on their system, or they would try to convince a car owner that this particular green or this particular blue was going to look really good on their car. So seeing that this was a main hurdle in the industry, we decided to go and put it on the website so that it could easily be accessible to those installers that are trying to help sell color changes.”