Puzzles

Vector illustration

Vinyl Wrap

One of the most unique and fun projects I’ve had to date was a graphic wrap for a beautiful new Malibu boat. Joe Shetterly, along with his company Specification Products, does a lot of work to raise awareness of Autism. He wanted to grab the attention of the thousands in attendance at the upcoming Boat, Sport and Travel Show.

I have a lot of experience creating vector graphics and some experience designing for vinyl, but I have never had quite such an interesting challenge as this. Manufactures are not eager to share their schematics, for obvious reasons, so I relied heavily on whatever diagrams and dimensions I could find online and in catalogs. We eventually came up with a template that maximized the visible surface area of the boat and complimented the sleek edges of the boat itself.

FROM DAN.

Colorful puzzle pieces, a really fun motif, are commonly used to represent Autism Awareness. Joe wanted to do a dynamic take on this theme, not only bright and colorful but also with a little bit of style. The finish of the boat was silver so we played into that, creating the illusion that the silver pieces are peeling away as the boat speeds past to reveal bright and bold pieces beneath. It was a simple trick, but by no means easy. Once I had drawn a puzzle large enough to fill the space, I distorted it a bit to accentuate the motion lines of the boat and it’s other details.

FROM JOEL.

Dan was so easy to work with. At our first meeting he had great energy and it was apparent he was quite passionate for his craft. The Malibu boat graphics were a bit tricky as we did not have a wireframe of the specific model we were using because it was the first unit off the line for 2020. After a few rounds of designs, Dan did a fantastic job of taking our feedback and tweaking the design to match our style. Overall the design turned out great and the boat represented a stylistic mash-up of graffiti puzzle pieces being pulled off from the tip of the boat back toward the rear. Even though the artwork was printed on vinyl and applied to the boat as a wrap, the design was so impactful and spot on.

Sketchbook

Adobe Illustrator

4-color vinyl wrap

Piece It Together

In the end, this piece tested my skills as an illustrator and The result is extremely satisfying. The size and shape of the artwork is like a mural, but all of the creative work had to be done in the computer. It was ultimately in the hands of the vinyl installers and they did a great job.

"After a few rounds of designs, Dan did a fantastic job of taking our feedback and tweaking the design to match our style."

-Joel Cookston