September 23, 2021 Reanne Duffy

Motorsport thrives on innovation and the competitive edge. It finds both at MTec Graphics in Magherafelt…

 

MTec Graphics, based in Magherafelt, has been around long enough to have acquired a massive range of generalist signs and  graphics production skills - and to have excelled in a particular niche, too. Barney Mitchell and the team there are motorsports enthusiasts and well known around the modified cars and racing scene - for good reason.

 

Motorsport is a driven thing, no pun intended. It operates in a sphere of tight regulation and yet finds ways to innovate so exerting that vital competitive edge which, in skilled hands, produces wins. MTec seems to have evolved along similar lines. The company’s work is recognised and prized for its high-octane creativity, always pushing that little bit harder, always coming up with something distinctive.

 

There’s a big appetite for MTec’s version of ‘creative’ in the circles in which it’s known. Daring design is welcomed - it pulls eyes away from competitors and flatters sponsors’ messages. It makes a positive contribution to the spectacle all motor formulas and series seek to deliver too. MTec leads.

 

One of the company’s recent jobs showcases a materials technology that Barney Mitchell thinks is due a renaissance. Reflective. He recalled seeing it used, often as a design accent, on British Touring Cars in the late 90s. Knowing a thing or two about modern materials though, and in particular a print receptive reflective product from Metamark, MD-RF, got the creative juices flowing.

 

MD-RF elevates the creative potential offered by reflective  technology. Digitally delivered ink is transparent and so light can pass though it to the reflective substrate it’s sat on. It then powerfully ‘lights up’ when caught in any directional source of illumination. Light-up liveries? Now there’s an idea.

 

Barney and the team applied their creative talents to the potential and delivered racing livery to a car fielded by James Boland. It promotes the interests of Which Car and does so in a particularly impressive way.

 

The expertly applied and perfectly printed graphics outline and accent the vehicle’s lines brilliantly. Swept in colour, density and tone, it sends light back to source in a way no conventional reflective material ever has, or ever could. MTec’s design exploits the ability.

 

MTec’s work is regularly featured in industry magazines and on influential websites too. Liveries with reflective elements ‘perform’ every time flash photography captures them and look sensational. The contrast is amazing. It looks as though we’re going to be seeing more of the emerging class of graphics - and is that the point?

 

Great work, MTec.