In case you missed the June issue of Sign and Digital Graphics Magazine, Splinter took down the Vendor’s Choice Award from Mimaki in the 2009 Auto Art Contest. We submitted two sets of vehicle wraps to the auto art contest, one commercial vehicle and one set of team racing graphics. While the Cruz Tequila vehicle wrap made the publication as a vendor’s choice winner, the set of Mini Cooper Racing Graphics for RSR Motorsports took home an honorable mention and is featured in the slide show here (slides 40 and 46).

A great honor to take home the Vendor’s Choice Award, it marks the second time Splinter Creative has been recognized for its outstanding vehicle wraps in the trade publication (the Scion won Best Graphics in the December 2008 issue (page 28)). We’re certainly ready for the next competition, and figured until then, we’ll lay on the shameless self promotion pretty thick

Let me know your thoughts on the vehicle designs in the comments below…  Think they rock? Could have done better? You would’ve liked to see…

Tommy: Let’s think about this for a sec, Ted, why would somebody put a guarantee on a box? Hmmm, very interesting.
Ted Nelson, Customer: Go on, I’m listening.
Tommy: Here’s the way I see it, Ted. Guy puts a fancy guarantee on a box ’cause he wants you to feel all warm and toasty inside.
Ted Nelson, Customer: Yeah, makes a man feel good.
Tommy: ‘Course it does. Why shouldn’t it? Ya figure you put that little box under your pillow at night, the Guarantee Fairy might come by and leave a quarter, am I right, Ted?
[chuckles until he sees that Ted is not laughing too]
Ted Nelson, Customer: [impatiently] What’s your point?
Tommy: The point is, how do you know the fairy isn’t a crazy glue sniffer? “Building model airplanes” says the little fairy; well, we’re not buying it. He sneaks into your house once, that’s all it takes. The next thing you know, there’s money missing off the dresser, and your daughter’s knocked up. I seen it a hundred times.
Ted Nelson, Customer: But why do they put a guarantee on the box? 
Tommy: Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That’s all it is, isn’t it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your customer’s sake, for your daughter’s sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from me. 
Ted Nelson, Customer: [pause] Okay, I’ll buy from you.

As this may be the case with some companies (guaranteeing a poor product simply to make the consumer feel all warm and fuzzy) it is most certainly not the case with 3M. In case you didn’t know, 3M is THE fabricator of the finest over laminates and adhesive vinyls in all the land. I refer to them as THE fabricator of such materials because they aren’t just slapping a guarantee on a box. They warranty their products to the fullest extent to make sure each and every client is completely satisfied with their materials.

For example, about 9 months back we wrapped 2 SUV’s for a local client. The wrap designs turned out absolutely killer, the quality of printing was phenomenal and the installation was flawless. Needless to say, a few months went by and the client began to see a few issues with the vehicle graphics peeling up in various crevices on both vehicles. As both sets of vehicle graphics were printed from the same roll of material, it wasn’t hard to believe that they were experiencing the same issue.

The crazy part… In the over 400 vehicles Splinter has wrapped, we’ve never seen material from 3M act this way. Luckily, our local 3M rep took the time to come down and examine the vehicles to see what was happening. The determination was made the material was faulty (when you’re producing millions of square feet of vinyl, this is going to happen once or twice) and our 3M rep gladly supplied us with a new roll of material to print on and re-wrap the vehicles. His level of service was second to none, and it saved us a few thousand dollars by not having to reproduce the graphics on our dime.

The moral of the story? You get what you pay for when it comes to a guarantee. The extra few bucks spent on 3M materials were well worth it just knowing the 3M crew has got your back. Adam, if you’re reading this, thanks for making our lives that much easier and standing by your quality products.