What is a car livery?
A car livery is a unique design that serves as a recognizable symbol of a driver, team, or sponsoring company. Similar to military or sports team uniforms, car liveries distinguish the different teams in a race. It also serves as a platform for advertising, as well as self-expression. While the term “livery” traditionally refers to race car team colors, it is often used to describe any themed vehicle wrap design symbolizing a brand, telling a story, or is easily recognizable. We are all familiar with the iconic racing liveries from brands like Martini, Red Bull, Marlboro, Brumos, and Gulf, just to name a few. In fact, you probably saw a few copy cat cars blending together at your last visit to the track. The car that stood out and grabbed everyone’s attention is the unique car you had never seen before. The photogenic car everyone wants share on social media. Unique designs are our specialty. KI Studios creates custom car livery designs for your brand, official team sponsor, or just to stand out from the group during road rallies. Kyle Isbell of KI Studios has been designing, printing, and installing car liveries and stripe kits since 2001, specializing in Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, and McLaren. Our efficient process will guide you through concept to reality, with a unique design and a high quality printed wrap kit, shipped to you or your local installer, anywhere in the US. We utilize the latest wide format digital print technology to provide the widest and most vibrant color gamut available, with Roland True Rich 2 Color system and 4x Flex-fire print heads precision droplet technology to maximize resolution and color accuracy.
The process:
Design
Our creative process begins with a short car livery design questionnaire that will provide us with the information needed to start your project. It will ask you to gather examples of the styles you like and don’t like, gather artwork needed, and specify options. We provide a fixed cost with a fixed amount of revisions based on your information, so there are no surprises, and all costs are transparent from the start. The design process including revisions typically takes about 5 to 7 business days. After your design is approved for print, we then create the actual print ready artwork behind the scenes. We create the artwork to scale, add bleed, overlap, and stretch compensation where needed, and format all the individual panels for print.
We produce all of our wraps in house on our 7 color Roland VG3 series wide format printer and Seal wide format laminator. We stock only the highest quality cast wrap vinyls from Avery Dennison and 3M. Optionally, we can print a small scale color proof for your approval before printing the actually wrap. Wraps are printed on bulk 54” wide panels, then laminated with your choice of matte or gloss finish. Our print process is typically 3 business days before shipping out of San Diego, California. This allows plenty of time for print drying an off-gassing before laminating for quality assurance.
Ship to your installer
Wrap kits ship rolled, anywhere in the USA. Unlike our smaller stripe kits that fit in smaller boxes, wrap kits can not be shipped internationally. Wrap installers have become easy to find in nearly any city. For information on choosing a local installer, see our article: How to choose a wrap shop.
Ready to start your custom livery design?
Provide your cars year, make, and model, along with a short description of your needs via email to [email protected]
Why KI Studios?
Over 20 years experience with wrap installation
- Wraps are designed with ease of installation in mind
- Estimated stretch compensation
- Bleed / overlap in all the right places
- Accurate vehicle design templates for even the very rare vehicles
Degrees in graphic design & strategic marketing
- Brand identity specialist
- Art and science of color theory
- Style diversity through design history
- Marketing and advertising delivery
Top quality wide format printing
- The latest wide format print technology with the Roland VG2 printer
- TR2 7 color CMYKkOG TR2 ink system provides the largest color gamut available
- More vibrant colors possible than ever before
- Neutral greys that were previously impossible
- Designed and printed with the same Roland color system library for the most accurate production
Top quality vinyl and lamination
- Avery Dennison MPI 1105 EZ RS
- 3M IJ180CV3
- Gloss or Matte lamination options
- Certified ink and vinyl combinations for maximum durability