July 17, 2020

Brighton is home to Recreative Signs and, thanks to that, it’s also home to some of the most inventive use of coloured vinyl resulting in deeply creative and technically accomplished output…

Metamark’s 7 Series coloured vinyl range has recently undergone substantial revision and enhancement. New colours were introduced, each the subject of meticulous research and validation. Further technical refinements were made in face-film, liner construction and adhesive formulation. The resulting product was tested and, eventually, released to the market.

Metamark’s mission is to supply its products on a basis that gives its customers high confidence in both availability and the service that ensures what’s ordered is supplied on time. To deliver against this mission, Metamark keeps some of the largest product stocks in the industry. Despite that, one of Metamark’s customers runs it a close second. Brighton based Recreative Signs keeps about sixty Metamark 7 Series colours on the shelves. One look at the company’s output is testament to the fact that Richard Earley and the Recreative team know how to use coloured materials. The work they output invites two adjectives - colourful and brilliant.

Richard recently shared a Recreative Signs’ job in his Twitter Feed that was picked up by the eyes at Metamark and which fully reflects the Recreative’s talents with coloured materials. It was a vehicle livery for a local decorator who was referred to Recreative by two of its former customers. The new customer had a van, he had a logo, all he needed was a design and the application.

The customer’s brand features a stylised swatch as the main element of its logo. Each of the elements defining the major geometry of the logo is rendered in a single dominant colour with a secondary accent in the same colour in a darker shade. It gives the logo a ‘form’ and implied dimension. Richard selected the colours needed to render the logo from the Metamark 7 Series Swatch - knowing he’d have the materials needed in his own stocks. After a basic reality check to see that the colours worked, production could commence.

Every element on the van is made from computer cut Metamark 7 Series Coloured Vinyl. With the amount of colours employed in the design the vinyl ‘lay up’ would present a challenge and with the need for inter-colour registration to achieve something approaching exact, precision would be of paramount importance. The major logo elements comprise two matched layers of Metamark 7 Series with one of the two layers cut so as to reveal the under-colour detail. The constructed elements were applied through a cut vinyl stencil to the van, its apertures being slightly oversized to hold the element in situ. No application tape was used.

With the logo on the van, the second side could be applied through the reused stencil. Lettering and the other elements of the design were then applied. A smaller stencil and logo were used for the van’s rear quarters. The completed job is a real study in the impact of colour and its brilliance. It’s not a wrap and that’s worth noting. There’s not a drop of ink involved in the design either. The colour has a quality that ink would struggle to best and it will endure thanks to the pedigree of the Metamark Coloured SignVinyl used in the production. It’s tempting to describe the work as ‘old school’ and that’s, by definition what it is. That doesn’t tell the whole story though. This job legitimises the used of cut and applied colour and demonstrates some of the advantages it still confers over more ‘modern’ means of production. It stands the closest scrutiny and it looks both stunning and bang up to date in its outlook.

Should you be interested in further exploring what dyed-in-the-mass top quality colour could do for you and whatever signing you need, a conversation with Richard at Recreative Signs in Brighton is suggested. He’s got sixty brilliant shades in stock, he knows where to get more, and he sure knows how to use them to great effect.