Food trucks have grown in popularity over the previous decade, with a market size in the United States quadrupling from around $500 million in 2010 to $1.1 billion in 2020. Food trucks have been constructed by restaurateurs around the nation for both speciality and popular meals spanning all sorts of cuisine. How can you make your mobile eatery stand out in a sea of competitors?
Food truck graphics are an important aspect of your vehicle’s appearance and may help you take your business to the next level. You may cover your truck in branded, eye-catching graphics that draw people in with the aid of a high-quality vehicle wrap. Of course, you’ll need a fantastic design to do this.
6 Design Suggestions for Your Food Truck
It might be difficult to create a food truck wrap design that stands out, complements your logo, and delivers important information. We’ve split things down a little and compiled a list of our best food truck wrap design ideas and methods.
Be large and be seen
Food trucks often appear in public places where they can be seen from afar, such as festivals and city streets. Designs with huge lettering and pictures are considerably easier to see from a distance. Furthermore, most of a sign’s readability is determined by various aspects of its text, including its height, colour, and font.
Large writing is, of course, easier to see, particularly if it’s on the truck’s roof. After all, people may need to read the name through a huge crowd. Using 3D writing atop the vehicle is one approach to dramatically improve your exposure in this area. Large letters are usually a nice choice in a more conventional 2D design. Consider using a large, strong typeface, and simple to read. Many individuals, particularly those with limited eyesight, may find small, elaborate designs difficult to read.
Your food truck’s text isn’t the only thing that must be resized. Whether they be drawings or photographs, images must be viewed widely. It’s nice to show off your menu, but don’t overcrowd the truck with photos of every item. Choose a handful to showcase in high-resolution photography.
Colour may also affect how readable your writing is from a distance. High contrast allows readers to distinguish your content from the backdrop and makes it more legible for persons with limited eyesight. High-contrast pairings include blue on white, white on black, and black on yellow. See the Outdoor Advertising Association of America’s (OAAA) handbook for further information. According to the OAAA, strong colour contrast designs boost outdoor advertising memory by 38%. Therefore, it’s worth paying attention to.
View it from all perspectives
Consider how people will see your vehicle.
While you may spend most of your time in one location, you must consider how your vehicle will seem in different settings. Will consumers still have a favourable impression of your brand while travelling on the highway? The time spent driving affords excellent advertising chances. According to some estimates, vehicle wraps may generate between 30,000 and 70,000 impressions per day. While that figure is probably for wraps on the road all day, your vehicle will still attract attention in between installations, so it must look decent.
The most important consideration is that things like opening the doors or the service window should not detract from the appearance of your vehicle. Your design isn’t functioning as effectively for you as it may be if it produces unexpected images or obscures important information like your logo or content. Whether you’re open for business or closed for the day, all of these aspects should be visible and clear. Consider all possible combinations while creating your design.
Be colourful
Bright colours may help your food truck stand out against the backdrop, whether you’re parked on a busy street or at a festival or fair. They must, of course, complement your cuisine and brand.
Keep in mind that the colour of a food truck wrap might affect how people perceive your cuisine. A bright green truck, for example, may conjure up notions of freshness and plant-based cuisine, but a neon hue would be joyful and vivid for something nostalgic. Colours should complement whatever concept your business has.
Bold colours are vital, and part of being bold is being deliberate in your colour selections. Use a limited palette of colours to avoid overwhelming the viewer. Too many colours might clash and don’t complement your brand’s identity well. Instead, choose a few hues that go well together and complement your entire style. You may make your food truck into a great showcase of your brand’s image if you select your colours carefully.
Consider the emotions of the customer
Colour psychology is used in marketing to detect and appeal to people’s emotional responses to various hues. Red, for example, is a popular hue among customers because it is strong and conveys a feeling of urgency. Therefore, many restaurants use it. Yellow, on the other hand, is generally seen as cheerful and innovative, yet it is also seen as cheap by others. Learn about colour theory and discover whether you can use it to your advantage when choosing colours for your brand and visuals.
Consider the factors that may have an impact on a customer’s emotions.
Look for additional variables that might impact the consumers’ emotions than colour. After all, marketing is about getting people to feel a certain way. Are you parked outside a stadium, where you want people to experience your classic-recipe hot dog truck’s all-American vibes? Are you targeting the farmer’s market audience, who appreciate the freshness and locally sourced ingredients? Make an effort to include such features in your designs.
Red-and-white stripes or a pattern resembling baseball stitching are examples of all-American designs. You may use tempting, clean visuals and green hues to appeal to folks who like fresh food. To provoke particular thoughts and good connections with your meal, use the things that your consumers appreciate.
Don’t forget the essentials
What more do you need except a menu and a logo? Information about how to contact us. Ascertain that your visitors are aware of your location. Many food trucks utilize social media to keep their clients up to date on their whereabouts. If that’s the case, make sure your social media tags and conventional information like your website and phone number are shown on your vehicle. If your truck is an extension of a permanent restaurant, you may also wish to offer an address.
Make it reminiscent
You have a higher chance of converting your consumers into repeat customers or enhancing their remember of you if you can produce a design that jumps out in their thoughts. Don’t be scared to give your design some individuality. Use a distinctive mascot, an interesting new concept, or a daring food trailer wrap idea to your advantage if you have one.
What are the requirements for my wrap design?
A food truck design has a few components that you’ll need to consider if you want it to look its finest.
Here are some of the elements:
Colour: We’ve previously discussed colour, but remember that a food truck has to stand out in busy or bright surroundings, such as festivals. Colours that are bright or striking may get the job done while also increasing your truck’s visibility.
While the physical construction of your vehicle will influence its appearance, many food trucks adopt the aesthetic of the cuisine they serve. A coffee truck may use a cursive script logo, an awning, and pastel colours to complement the ambience, but a late-night pizza truck would use strong colours, loud lighting, and in-your-face writing. Allow your menu to impact your style; it may also help people remember you since they’ll have more reason to know what you’re like.
Logo: A recognized logo that matches the style and feel of your business can go a long way toward ensuring that customers remember you. To enhance exposure, it should be large; many food truck operators position their logo full-size on the side of the vehicle that does not have a serving window. You’ll also want to put it in a few other places around the car, such as above the window and on the rear doors. If you also run a permanent restaurant, make sure your truck and restaurant logos are identical to boost brand recognition and give consumers a better notion of what you offer, presuming they’ve visited one of your service sites.
Contact information: Though it doesn’t have to be as huge as your logo, it’s still an important aspect of your identity. After all, if customers like your meal, they’ll want to know where they can find you in the future. You may include your website and phone number and any social media accounts you have. If social media is your major means of informing followers of your whereabouts, you may want to add a callout telling them to follow you for updates.
Lights: If you are driving at night, you’ll want to consider your vehicle’s lights. Coloured underfloor lights or neon rope lights look great on certain edgy vehicles. Light-up writing, string lights, or awning lights may be used in other designs. Consider how your lighting affects your overall design. Is it more conventional or more daring and colourful? Are any components of your design lost if they aren’t properly lit? Consider how your design will seem in this environment.
Patterns: Some food trucks may incorporate patterns in part or all of their design, such as a wood print below the serving window to resemble a counter or light shadows of the food item you sell in the wrap’s backdrop. Consider patterns that will suit your decor, enhance the atmosphere, or offer consumers a better notion of the quality of your cuisine.
Consider how you’re going to organise your components. Make your logo and the utilization of brand colours a priority. Of course, your menu items may be smaller yet still stand out. Because you don’t have as much room on a truck as in a restaurant, make the most of your design real estate and concentrate on the most important information.
Menu: While it may be tempting to include a broad range of products on your menu, you should concentrate on just a few of your greatest meals. Don’t make folks feel overwhelmed by giving them too many options. Some food trucks may vary their menus to provide a variety of dishes without overcrowding the menu. Remember that it should complement your entire motif when it comes to your display. A handmade blackboard sign would appear out of place in an edgy and contemporary design, but it might work nicely in a quaint café or deli truck.
If you want a unified design, all of the features of your vehicle must function together.
Which wrap should I use?
When we speak about food truck graphics, we usually mean complete wraps. They wrap the car in a weather-resistant vinyl coating from nose to bumper. They also protect the paintwork of your car from pebbles and scratches.
Full wraps have an evident benefit in terms of advertising. You may use every square inch of the vehicle for your design, which means more space for diverse features and better visibility. You may add whatever you need, plus a little more. It also enables you to match the colour of your food truck designs. The colour-matching capabilities of a complete wrap may make it easy and precise to match numerous trucks to one other or match the colours of a permanent restaurant.
Another option is to employ a partial wrap. These wrappers are less expensive and useful if you just need something for a short time. It might be an excellent choice if you know you’ll want to rename or update your vehicle in the future. Partially wrapped vehicles include a band across the centre or simply the upper half. They’ll assist you in loading the essentials into your truck, but they won’t provide as much advertising space. You’ll also need to make sure the colours are compatible with the paint, either matching or harmonizing them.
