All of my decals have arrived...

[Seann Anderson]

As a graphic design professional that specializes in motorsports design, I like to do my own decals when I can't find a particular set. As you can tell, I'm a big Geoff Bodine fan. I started out as a big Alan Kulwicki fan, then when he passed away, I cheered for Geoff (who bought the team) until he retired from racing. I've also included some cars that I liked quite a bit. I have a joker tattoo sleeve on my left arm, so creating a Kenny Irwin "Showdown at Charlotte" Joker car from, 98 or 99 was a must. I had a friend who REALLY liked Wally Dallenbach, so as you can see, I've got his Bud Moore Hayes Modems car along with the #75 Galaxy Motorsports (Powerslide) cars to do. The Red Dog car will also be a fun build.

[Jim N]

Incredible set of decals.

[Shambles]

Hi Seann. Very Cool decals! Nice to meet a fellow graphic designer that's into model cars and NASCAR. I've been retired for about 6 years but still dabble with my model car website and I've done some custom decals for a few cars and dioramas.

Edited August 27, 2019 by Shambles

[MarkJ]

Ok, when you say they have arrived, where did they come from, if you made them? I'm a little confused. Do you do the art work and send it some where to have the decals made  for you?  I do my own decals too, but I have to print  them myself, so the quality is not that great. Please explain. Thank you.

[Shambles]

I'd be interested in knowing which of the decal sheets you designed and printed. I'm back into it and could probably use a few pointers. Here's the ones I did today:

[Seann Anderson]

To answer all of your questions.

I'm going on 18 years now as a professional graphic designer. Several of those years I've focused solely on motorsports design/marketing, so this is all natural to me. I've attached a small handful of the dirt super late models I've done recently.

I designed all of the sheets myself in Adobe Illustrator, 99% are vector assets. All of them were easy to put together, it just took some time. Kenny Irwin's Joker car was the most time consuming. I had to scan in the packaging of the die-cast car for the face. After some editing in Photoshop, it was up to my standards. I'm a huge Joker fan, (my left arm has a joker themed tattoo sleeve), so I'm pretty excited to start building the car.

My printing vendor is Phase 2 Sign Supply (1-800-352-3409) from Pine Level, NC. I've done business for nearly as long as I've been a designer. It's printed on a 3mil 3M wrap vinyl, non-laminated. It can be a little thick, but home printed decals has its limitations. Especially when it comes to fluorescents.

Shambles, those look fine. It reads well and looks great on the cars. I've found that home printed decals look outstanding on white cars, but other colors are a toss-up.

I attached the Dallenbach and the Irwin cars. I made the cut-lines on the Dallenbach car red so you can see how I tell the printer what needs to be cut.

I hope this answers your questions? 

-Seann

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 27, 2019 by Seann Anderson

[Shambles]

Impressive work, Seann. Thanks for the reply. You're correct about the home made decals not being opaque enough to use on dark substrates. MicroMark has a decal printer that will print full color plus white ink, but at $800, it's not in my budget.

https://www.micromark.com/Ghost-White-Toner-and-HP-Printer-Bundle

I retired in 2013 after owning a small ad agency for twenty years. Besides doing a lot of logo and print design for clients, we also had a screen print and embroidery shop, and a vinyl graphics shop. I did freelance brand development for a couple of years after closing the agency during the great recession.

I always enjoyed learning new stuff and still do. I keep my full Adobe CC up to date and use Illustrator for the logos and decals, and Photoshop for the photos on my site and posts here and other forums.

Edited August 28, 2019 by Shambles
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[MarkJ]

3 hours ago, Shambles said:

Impressive work, Seann. Thanks for the reply. You're correct about the home made decals not being opaque enough to use on dark substrates. MicroMark has a decal printer that will print full color plus white ink, but at $800, it's not in my budget.

https://www.micromark.com/Ghost-White-Toner-and-HP-Printer-Bundle

I retired in 2013 after owning a small ad agency for twenty years. Besides doing a lot of logo and print design for clients, we also had a screen print and embroidery shop, and a vinyl graphics shop. I did freelance brand development for a couple of years after closing the agency during the great recession.

I always enjoyed learning new stuff and still do. I keep my full Adobe CC up to date and use Illustrator for the logos and decals, and Photoshop for the photos on my site and posts here and other forums.

John, you peaked my interest about the laser printer with white toner cartridge. I found that office depot has that printer on sale now for under 300 dollars. The ghost white toner is more expensive then that  though, but i'm sure some one else must sell it cheaper then what micro mark sell it for. I just wonder what I would use for decal paper with a laser printer. also you have to print the decal first with the black toner and then with the white toner and if the paper is not aligned perfectly the second time through, small contengencie decals could really get messed up. Its something that I will keep up with because I would eventually like to print my decals on clear paper and white opaque color being put down instead of using white decal paper and  an inkjet printer like I use now. Im afraid one day there will be no more inkjet printers or white decal paper.

[Seann Anderson]

Shambles, 

That's really cool to know about a fellow designer on the board. I could tell you knew what you were doing when I saw how well your logos were organized on the sheet. 

-Seann

[Shambles]

1 hour ago, MarkJ said:

John, you peaked my interest about the laser printer with white toner cartridge. I found that office depot has that printer on sale now for under 300 dollars. The ghost white toner is more expensive then that  though, but i'm sure some one else must sell it cheaper then what micro mark sell it for. I just wonder what I would use for decal paper with a laser printer. also you have to print the decal first with the black toner and then with the white toner and if the paper is not aligned perfectly the second time through, small contengencie decals could really get messed up. Its something that I will keep up with because I would eventually like to print my decals on clear paper and white opaque color being put down instead of using white decal paper and  an inkjet printer like I use now. Im afraid one day there will be no more inkjet printers or white decal paper.

Hi Mark. Thanks for the reply. MicroMark has this paper for their laser printer: https://www.micromark.com/Clear-On-Blue-Decal-Paper-For-Laser-Printers_2

I've dealt with a lot of print color registration in various mediums, and can't see a regular ink jet printer paper handling something this small. I'll check out Office Depot's printer you mentioned. I can see a large market for these laser printers if anyone gets the price down to where it's affordable for hobby folks.

[Shambles]

1 hour ago, Seann Anderson said:

Shambles, 

That's really cool to know about a fellow designer on the board. I could tell you knew what you were doing when I saw how well your logos were organized on the sheet. 

-Seann

Yeah, cool to know a fellow designer that's into model cars too! I had a portfolio site until last year. I had been retired for several years and didn't see a need. Then, while installing Windows on my iMac so I could run one, old model car catalog app, I managed to erase my hard drive and my external Time Machine drive, so I lost a lot of my work. Oh well, I've gotten into doing my hobby sites and back into model building and collecting. I played a lot of music in my day, so here's another site I'm having fun doing: http://rockthesquares.com/

 

Edited August 28, 2019 by Shambles

[MarkJ]

47 minutes ago, Shambles said:

Hi Mark. Thanks for the reply. MicroMark has this paper for their laser printer: https://www.micromark.com/Clear-On-Blue-Decal-Paper-For-Laser-Printers_2

I've dealt with a lot of print color registration in various mediums, and can't see a regular ink jet printer paper handling something this small. I'll check out Office Depot's printer you mentioned. I can see a large market for these laser printers if anyone gets the price down to where it's affordable for hobby folks.

The only trouble with office depot is that the printer is sold out. I don't know if that means they will restock it or if it has been discontinued. I also checked staples, they show to have it sold out as well.  The price at both sites was $279.99 but neither one sells the ghost white toner. 

[Seann Anderson]

14 hours ago, Shambles said:

Yeah, cool to know a fellow designer that's into model cars too! I had a portfolio site until last year. I had been retired for several years and didn't see a need. Then, while installing Windows on my iMac so I could run one, old model car catalog app, I managed to erase my hard drive and my external Time Machine drive, so I lost a lot of my work. Oh well, I've gotten into doing my hobby sites and back into model building and collecting. I played a lot of music in my day, so here's another site I'm having fun doing: http://rockthesquares.com/

 

That’s not a bad idea about keeping a hobby site. For what little free lance I do, I could keep that content on there as well. I may have to do that now.

Edited August 29, 2019 by Seann Anderson

[Shambles]

5 hours ago, Seann Anderson said:

That’s not a bad idea about keeping a hobby site. For what little free lance I do, I could keep that content on there as well. I may have to do that now.

I had been using Adobe Muse for years but last year they announced they would not be supporting it much longer. The did the same thing with Fireworks, a great little app that was like a simplified Photoshop. Typical Adobe. Anyway, I found another easy to use web app called Sparkle, and have been using it for the past two years. If you're interested, you can download a free trial version here:

https://sparkleapp.com

They have excellent support too.

 

[Seann Anderson]

Yes, Muse was a great app. I used it frequently. That’s interesting. I’ll take a look. I’ve moved to wix. It’s drop and drag UI and mobile optimization is super easy. 

[peteski]

On 8/28/2019 at 5:06 PM, Shambles said:

Hi Mark. Thanks for the reply. MicroMark has this paper for their laser printer: https://www.micromark.com/Clear-On-Blue-Decal-Paper-For-Laser-Printers_2

I've dealt with a lot of print color registration in various mediums, and can't see a regular ink jet printer paper handling something this small. I'll check out Office Depot's printer you mentioned. I can see a large market for these laser printers if anyone gets the price down to where it's affordable for hobby folks.

Alps MicroDry printers can do all sorts of tricks as far as multiple ink layering, keeping the paper in perfect alignment.  They also print white and metallic colors in spot color mode. Perfect for making decals.  Unfortunately they have been out of production for several years, but there are still plenty of people using them (me included).  These printers aren't perfect, but are the best there is for hobbyists and cottage inductry decal manufacturers.

The consumer grade color laser printers (like Micro Mark sells at a huge markup) have very limited capabilities. They can only send the paper through the paper path once, so they can only apply the color toners in the order they are installed in the print path.

As far as graphic software, I have been using the Corel Draw suite for decades. It is similar to Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, but less expensive.

[MarkJ]

3 hours ago, peteski said:

Alps MicroDry printers can do all sorts of tricks as far as multiple ink layering, keeping the paper in perfect alignment.  They also print white and metallic colors in spot color mode. Perfect for making decals.  Unfortunately they have been out of production for several years, but there are still plenty of people using them (me included).  These printers aren't perfect, but are the best there is for hobbyists and cottage inductry decal manufacturers.

The consumer grade color laser printers (like Micro Mark sells at a huge markup) have very limited capabilities. They can only send the paper through the paper path once, so they can only apply the color toners in the order they are installed in the print path.

As far as graphic software, I have been using the Corel Draw suite for decades. It is similar to Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, but less expensive.

Thanks, Peter. I figured that micro mark deal was  a bad way to go. I hope not to many people fall for it and waste their money. Sad that somebody cant come up with a printer that can print as well as the old alps and at an affordable price.

[Shambles]

I juat looked at Alps MicroDry printers on eBay. I saw several different models but the used ones were listed for over $1,000.

[peteski]

10 hours ago, Shambles said:

I juat looked at Alps MicroDry printers on eBay. I saw several different models but the used ones were listed for over $1,000.

Unfortunately that is the reality.  The were never really cheap, but since they very discontinued, they fetch high prices on eBay.

Also a warning: these printers have very delicate print head which can get damaged. The result is thin lines of missing ink in the printout.  They are also rather delicate and unless packaged properly, can get easily damaged in shipping.  The ones offered on eBay might have defective print head, and/or be improperly packed for shipping.  I participate in Yahoo Alps group and see my share of horror stories about defective heads or shipping damage.

One source that is trustworthy is Elephant Rocket in Japan (don't mind the funny name). But their website (um, it actually is a blog) is a real pain to deal with. But when they refurb those printers for sale, they have the ability to replace the print head and recalibrate the printer properly. They also properly package the printers for shipping.  This makes the price rather high (plus shipping cost is quite high).  The prnter models you want are 5500, 5000, or 1300 and 1000. The others are ok, but lack some features.

Alps also doesn't deal well with with color gradients, but they can't be beat for solid color graphics (and of course the capability to lay down a coat of white ink under color layers makes them really handy).

Edited September 5, 2019 by peteski

[Seann Anderson]

If the printer was $2-$300 used, I’d pull the trigger, but not for $1k. One of these days, there will be a semi-household printer that can do white. 

BTW Peter, a friend of mine swears by Corel. He’s a full-time shirt designer in the motorsports industry, and is out-freakin-standing. I’d put him up against anyone in the United States ??. 

[Shambles]

Yeah, I'll have to get by making decals the old fashion way until something affordable is available.

I've never used Corel, but people who did/do seem happy with it. I stared out with Macromedia Freehand, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, etc. (and Quark for page layout and pre-press) but had to switch over to Adobe when they bought Macromedia. Now, they've stopped supporting Fireworks and Muse so I'm using Sparkle for my websites and Illustrator and Photoshop for everything else.

[peteski]

I have never had a chance to work with Adobe Illustrator, but from I have learned, Corel Draw is very similar (of course there are differences in how to accomplish the same thing in each program).  Corel Photo Paint (which is included in the Corel Suite of programs) is somewhat similar to Photoshop (a bitmap editor, with some vector functionality).  I use very old versions (10 and 12)  where 19 is the newest version, but even those older versions have more than enough functionality for my needs.

I'm not sure if there will ever be a consumer-grade (and price) printed which will come close in capabilities to what Alps MicroDry printers do.  Most home printer users really have no need for white inks or overlays.  A cheap ink jet printer is quite sufficient for them. The Alps printer was just an anomaly, and it failed to penetrate the consumer printer market.  While it is ideal for hobbyists or small cottage industry decal companies, it was very slow and cumbersome to use.

 

What might develop is same thing that is happening in 3D printing.  You design your item and a company like Shapeways (which had the expensive 3D printers) will print it out for you for a fee.  I foresee decal companies which will accept your artwork and print a decal for you (using their expensive printers which are capable of printing opaque ink decals).  Actually, there already are several custom decal  companies which will print decals (usually on ALps  printers) using your artwork.  But it is so much nicer if I can do this in my own workshop.

[Hurricane21]

Any chance you'd sell sheets of the Joker Kenny Irwin for those of us who aren't able to do our own? They look incredible.

[Xingu]

1 hour ago, Hurricane21 said:

Any chance you'd sell sheets of the Joker Kenny Irwin for those of us who aren't able to do our own? They look incredible.

Please remember that you cannot offer to buy or sell on this forum. If you feel you must break the rule, please do it via PM.

[PatW]

On 8/27/2019 at 1:11 AM, Shambles said:

I'd be interested in knowing which of the decal sheets you designed and printed. I'm back into it and could probably use a few pointers. Here's the ones I did today:

Great looking decals!