Cincinnati-based Creative 3D has developed a patent-pending process for the three-dimensionalization of printed vehicle wraps. The first taker was a division of Mentos based in nearby Erlanger, Kentucky, which just unveiled a roaming fleet of seven Saturn Sky roadsters on which logo-bedecked panels jut out from the sides of the blue vehicles.
Can Canadian marketers tap into the new technology? Yes, Creative 3D president Mark Reyland tells MiC. ‘In fact, we’re in talks with two Canadian companies (we can’t name yet) who have asked to license the technology and be trained on how to create and install the appliqués.’ Alternately, he says his company can create 3D wraps for north-of-the-border clients and have them installed up here by Interstate Graphics, of Rosholt, Wisconsin, which handled the Mentos account.
Virtually any image can be made into a 3D appliqué and applied to a vehicle without physically altering it, says Reyland. The appliqués are made from formed plastic with injected foam, painted in high-grade automotive paints, clear-coated and added to 2D vinyl wraps.
