Warrington based CN Signs provides some dynamic design and livery work for some trucks that probably aren’t restricted to 56MPH…

Most people who get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle give little thought to the ‘contact-patch’ that connects them and the vehicle with the road. The contact patch is the area of each tyre that touches tarmac and there’s not much of it. It’s important though. 

The contact patch is what gets the power down, it’s what translates braking into speed reduction and it’s what resists forces that want to see the body in motion go in a straight line rather than round a corner. It’s true to say, tyres’ contact patches are at the centre trying to defy the world’s most strictly enforced laws - the laws of physics.

Giti Tire is a global manufacturer of tyres and has its Technical Centre in Hannover Germany. The company has been operating in the tyre business for over sixty years and is a world-class force in its industry with customers in more than 130 countries. Performance, every dimension of it, really matters where tyres are concerned and much technical development results from manufacturers’ involvement in motorsports. Giti Tire could be argued to have taken that to an extreme having got itself involved as a sponsor recently in the British Truck Racing Championships.

Tyres fitted to pretty much any truck have a tough job to do but a racing truck takes that to a whole new level. Racing units can make over 1000bhp and 5000Nm of torque and all of it must be translated to the effort needed to propel over 5 tonnes of vehicle forward through its tyres’ contact patches. 

Giti Tire came to Warrington UK based CN Signs looking for ideas and action that would turn a couple of truck racing’s best into potent branding statements. Giti supplied Chris Nylan with its brand guidelines and something amounting to a blank slate in the impressive shapes of a MAN TGX and a Volvo VNL with associated support truck entourage and the Series’ pace truck.

Racing vehicles have something of an obligation to sponsor, spectator and themselves to look ‘dynamic.’ Trucks, arguably, get off to a challenging start in this respect but, whatever they could be argued to be missing in racy-looking aerodynamics, they over-compensate in muscular presence. Chris Nylan’s design accentuates the effect brilliantly.

The design is based on abstract ‘camo’ reflecting the colourways comprising Giti’s powerful ID. The effect succeeds in creating the impression that the truck units have burst through the camo leaving elements of it trailing in the trucks’ wakes. The trucks’ bodywork is black and the and camo elements printed and applied.

CN Signs used Metamark MD5 for the graphic elements, laminated with the MD-Class Media’s matching protective laminate. Though not strictly a ‘contact’ sport, truck racing is close to say the least and so the livery had to be able to shrug off a bit of battle-rash and still look its brilliant best. The printed MD5’s ‘contact patch’ exceeds that of the truck’s tyres and, thanks to the product’s Apex Class Adhesive, it does its own physics-defying work hanging on to the panel work.

CN Signs’ work for Giti Tire includes the race series’ pace truck, rendered in grey and the support truck entourage. The flat-sided support truck features another example of Chris Nylan’s design expertise printed this time on Metamark MD3. Making the point that execution and quality don’t have to be compromised to achieve a result that’s only needed short term, the support truck is a rolling billboard promoting both the series and Giti Tire’s brand.

Racing is all about spectacle and excitement. The dimension that close competition adds fuels the appeal even further. Graphics play a key role in the mix too. For sponsors like Giti Tire, the appeal is obvious and the association with a key formula an important one. CN Signs has built itself an enviable reputation for leading edge competition graphics and the company’s own ‘contact patch’ is growing at an impressive rate.