I was on a road trip the past couple days and passed an old late eighties Ford Ranger.  This was a sweet truck when I was a young teen watching Bigfoot.  One of the things I noticed was the use of OEM graphics covering the entire body side.  I thought boy, you don’t see that anymore.  Vehicles of the eighties were pretty boring when it came to the form of the car.  So I guess some of the excitement was made up with graphics (decals) to add interest to the body side or hood.  (Click on the picture to see all of the different Ranger graphics through out the years)

Automotive graphics or stickers have kind of been absent for the past decade or two.  Although the onslaught of muscle cars have definitely brought back the “stickers” from the seventies. Cars today are typically defined by clean forms.  Even the tuner crowd which made decals popular again have diminished to “sleeper” cars.  Why would you want to call out to the cops, “here I am!”

Like all fads, could this be coming back in style? I’m not sure I want it too, but if it were to come back around I would hope things would be more interesting.  Graphics have come a long way in what they offer and the processes to make them.  Check this out for an example of what possibilities are out there….

Big Tris covered up his Mini Cooper in Black and White reflective vinyl at Acid Studios in Brooklyn.  The car looks good during the day but quite shocking at night.  These are some pretty sweet results.  Why spend all that time and money and only see it during the day.  That is what I call “Bang for your Buck.”  Sure it may be a little over the top but the concepts is there.

Why design cars for only the daylight hours.  What happens in the darkness?  What can be a brand identifier in darkness?  This is definitely an area that has been neglected and full of opportunity.  Hint, Hint

Clicky here for some more info on the MIni.