Your fleet livery is one of the most impactful marketing tools you have. When done right, it ensures your company name is seen by thousands of potential customers. But what exactly makes a vehicle livery effective? And what should you keep in mind for your next branded livery design?
To help you make the most of this powerful marketing asset, we’ve put together the top 5 things to consider for your fleet’s new livery. Whether refreshing your current design or starting from scratch, these tips will guide you towards a design that turns heads and leaves a lasting impression.
Your vehicle livery needs to be instantly recognizable. Avoid cluttered designs and too much text. The best designs are clean, simple, and bold. Think about how your branding can be communicated with a few key elements – colours, logo, and a short tagline – so it’s readable, even from a distance. Decide what your key message is and centre your design around it. Maybe it’s the services you offer? Or your emergency call out number? Your key message should take centre stage in your fleet livery design, so think carefully about what you want people to think of when they hear your company name.
Vehicle livery is an extension of your brand, so it should reflect your company’s personality and message. Use the same colour palette, fonts, and logo as your other marketing materials, whether that’s your website, business cards, or signage. This consistency builds brand recognition and trust.
Do you have specific corporate colours? If so, these should definitely feature in your vehicle livery. Having colours that customers associate with your brand will make your fleet vehicles easily identifiable and really support your corporate image. Corporate colours can be colour matched to cut vinyl, or profiled for accurate printed results – just ask our team!
Where will your vehicles be seen the most? Are they on highways, city streets, or in industrial areas? Tailor the design to your environment and audience. If your vehicles are in urban areas, for instance, you may want bright, eye-catching colours that can be recognised, whereas a fleet servicing more rural regions might call for a more understated vehicle livery design that compliments its surroundings.
If you need specific vehicle safety markings, your livery can work around these too. Emergency vehicles make the most of every inch of space with vehicle livery that includes important campaign messaging, alongside the mandatory reflective and fluorescent safety markings – shown perfectly in this example:
Your vehicle livery isn’t just about aesthetics – it needs to stand up to the elements. Make sure your design uses high-quality, durable materials that will hold up to wear and tear, from weather conditions to road debris. Lamination films and protection films offer much needed protection and added durability to both vehicle livery and bodywork and we would always recommend lamination for printed vehicle wraps.
Vehicle livery can be created in a number of ways – with fully printed graphics, CAD Cut vinyl, or a combination of the two.
Full vehicle wraps are a popular choice for bespoke vehicle livery, as they provide absolute freedom in terms of design. These are produced using printable vehicle wrap media, then applied to the vehicles as a complete wrap. Using printable wrap, you can incorporate photographic elements into your design too. Full wraps also have their advantages with preservation of the vehicle underneath, as paintwork is protected by the wrap.
CAD-Cut vinyl is used where single colour elements are required – usually for lettering and logos too. CAD-Cut vinyl is perfect for fleet liveries that do not require all of the vehicle being branded and can be used to create fantastic, attention grabbing graphics with the use of just a few colours.
You can also opt for a combination of full colour printed wrap and CAD Cut vinyl. For example, you could choose to have the sides of your vehicles wrapped with printed graphics, then use CAD Cut vinyl for things like logo and contact details on the bonnet and the rear.
Vehicle livery isn’t just about making your vehicles look good; it’s about making them work for you. With the right design, your fleet can be a powerful, moving billboard that helps boost brand visibility, recognition, and ultimately, business growth. Keep these 5 tips in mind, and your fleet will not only turn heads – it will leave a lasting impression wherever it goes.
We can transform your brief into an eye-catching, effective scheme for your full fleet. We service all kinds of fleets, including commercial and emergency services too. We’ll make sure your design is complete with key messages, corporate colours, images, logos and safety markings if required. Whatever your fleet, contact our team today to let us know what you’re looking for. Call on 0344 2098775, email sales@fleetid.co.uk, or fill in this short form.