May 21, 2021 Reanne Duffy

This isn’t just an exceptional wrap. It’s a technically accomplished wrap design…

 

Our regular readers will remember a wonderful wrapped car we reported recently and which was produced by Doncaster Based OnSigns - You can read about it here.

 

The wrap in question did a simply stunning job of radiating all of the qualities of what lots of car enthusiasts refer to as a ‘barn find.’ A barn find is, simply put, a vehicle that’s been relegated to static storage, often in a building far from weather-proof, for many years and then forgotten. In such circumstances, cars don’t so much acquire a patina, they end up looking like something that’s emerged from a paint producer’s accelerated weathering lab and will be festooned with more organic matter than you’d expect to see at the Eden Project.

 

OnSigns’ work cosmetically reproduces this ‘weathering’ in the form of a brilliantly designed and very expertly fitted wrap. It’s difficult work and the level of technical accomplishment that’s bound up in it should not be underestimated. OnSigns’ exemplary wraps even anticipate the physical effects of gravity pulling the staining liquids on the vehicle’s surface to Earth. Just to repeat, it’s brilliant.

 

OnSigns market evidently agrees with our analysis. The design and wrapping work of Andrew Atkinson and his team is really in demand. To service the deeply specialised need of customers who come looking for high-caliber design and graphics, OnSigns created a division to handle it.

 

Say hello to Shy Tot Graphics.

 

Anyone who’d dedicate the time and effort required to seek out a specialist like Shy Tot Graphics, and engage them to design, develop and apply a wrap, is certain to be happy to be labelled ‘an enthusiast.’ Where you find one enthusiast, you’ll find others of the same persuasion and on-line forums have provided a central point for the really committed to meet.

 

It’ll come as no surprise to hear that Shy Tot’s Andrew Atkinson is, himself, an enthusiast and that he’s had some very desirable cars of his own. Among the most recent was a BMW M4. Anything from BMW’s range wearing a capital ‘M’ has some serious intent behind its design but, despite that, Andrew recently traded up - to a Toyota Yaris. It is, of course, a GR.

 

The GR Yaris’s technical foundation, and practically every component in it, owe little to the formula that makes a more commonplace Yaris a popular runabout. The very muscular GR is a race bred car and its lineage traces to the World Rally Championship and the single minded technical design needed to compete. It’s among the hottest street legal drives around.

 

Andrew met another GR owner in a forum recently and the conversation veered toward personalising the already rare and highly individual car. Turning the GR into a WRC barn-find didn’t just engage the car’s owner. He wanted it.

 

So began the design process.

 

Anyone who has wrapped anything will appreciate the deeper levels of complexity that underpin the design of Shy Tots’ barn-find wraps. Simply digitising a dirty-looking painted surface and draping it over a car will not yield the result that Shy Tot achieves. For that reason, Shy Tot was set up to extend design services to wrapping companies for barn-finds and indeed other wrap graphics in addition to undertaking its own wrap work.

 

The design for the GR Yaris is based on last year’s WRC car. To that extent, the graphics represent a perfect facsimile. Layered upon that though is the myriad effects that make the wrap a ‘barn find.’

 

Prepare for some detail…

 

For starters, the graphics seek to establish that the paint is white and weathering badly. So, a dulling effect makes it look as though the paint is oxidising. Oxidised paint picks up stains readily when water flows over it after some time and the water, falling from the sky remember, finds its own route to the floor over the panels. As it does, it leaves ‘signature stains.’ These stains are perfectly interpreted, imposed on the design, and then printed and applied in Shy Tot’s wrap.

 

Water flowing off a car washes all manner of detritus with it. On the GR, the cills appear to have let the physical matter accumulate and breed. So, what we have is a slimy deposit of green matter that you could wipe away with a finger - or rather you could if it wasn’t print.

 

Graphical elements have taken a real pounding, at least that’s how the wrap design contrives to make it look. The graphics represents another paint layer and it has been broken through in places, for example where stones would have sprayed off the front wheels. Rust scabs make an appearance where the virtual damage has found steel.

 

Rust adds a key design accent to the wraps and makes a big contribution to its authenticity. Strategically located and very faithful to the real-world modes of failure paint would cause, the panel edges in particular really look the part. So does the filler flap.

 

Crazing is another paint failure type you’d expect to find somewhere on a barn find and you won’t look far to find some on the GR Yaris. It’s all over the rear bumper and again, very authentically rendered give the plastic that’s underneath it. It’s this level of detail that elevates this wrap beyond the ordinary.

 

Speaking of tiny detail, this wrap has bought a guest along for a fast lap. It’s a pulverised insect - don’t know exactly what type of insect it is but most of the anatomy is there, albeit splattered over the virtual paint and crusting over very nicely.

 

Seen from a distance the barn-find wrap makes a big impression and the immediate thing that most observers want is a closer look. They’re not disappointed. The closer you get the better Shy Tot’s work looked. Everyone wants to touch it, too - is it real, or printed.

 

It’s printed. On MetaCast MDC as it happens. MDC is Metamark’s next generation premium cast wrapping film. It knows how to handle print detail and in expert hand it’s capable of really great things. Together with its matching MGC it’s the total wrapper’s package.

 

Shy Tot Graphics knows how to ask a bit more of a wrapping film and how to get it. It’s results are nothing less than brilliant. Let’s not forget design though. It’s worth remembering that every tiny detail comprising a barn find design has a job to do and it need to be in precisely the right position after the film has landed.

 

If you fancy having a go at producing a barn find of your own but don’t have the appetite to tackle the design - give Shy Tot a call. It’s an art they’ve made their own.