Boat Lettering / Graphics Company Needed

[bobfnbw]

You have you used to do your vinyl graphics ?
There are so many companies to choose from....
I would like a gold lettering, (imitation of course) and would want to see exactly how it would look prior to plunking down 300 bucks for it.

Thanks,
Bob

[MarkJ]

We do our previews in Photoshop or Microsoft Paint.

The vinal letters stick real well. And lettering company can do them. Just take a file in on that USB drive in PDF or word format.

[Solitude]

I had mine made of dark blue 12 inch letters for 35$. It was nothing fancy but the company sent the file back and forth for me to approve. Very easy to put on! Clean the area. Spray it with a little water mixed with 1 drop of dish soap.Line it up with some light pencil marks. Move the decal around until positioned. Tape in place.Use a plastic scraper to get the bubbles out. Wait! Presto. done

[Pblais]

Unless you want real design services, they all make them using the same process and equipment. It's not like one company has a better process for making the transfers. Installing multiple colors does take some practice.

I used someone local that does design work as I didn't have the tools to make the design the way I wanted it. I needed it to fit on the transom around the drop down swim platform and that took some critical measurements. If you just need something you can define clearly then shopping around and installing it yourself is not that hard.

[Waterborn]

I have a vinyl cutter and do boat numbers/ names for a lot of local people.
The best thing you can do is go to dafont.com
You can type your boat name etc. into the search window and browse through hundreds of fonts which shows exactly what your name will look like. But plan to spend a while there because it is a lot of fun.

PS- I work cheap, as it is just a sideline for me, so I can always throw them in the mail.

Cheers.

[bobfnbw]

Thanks for the link to dafont.
Found a good font on that site in several minutes.. its pretty fast that way.

[Gudgeon]

I used North Graphics in San Diego went back and forth a number of times. We did the gold letters they are holdiing up well.

[Vasco]

Any sign making shop can do it now. They all have the good software and large vinyl cutter. No need to go to a boat name place. Much cheaper at the sign shop too.

[CarlF]

I used this place four years ago and was very happy with the results:

Boat-Lettering.com Vinyl Boat Lettering, Boat Names & Graphics

I agree that almost any sign shop has the equipment but these guys seem to do a lot with gold (which actually is thin gold). They also have many boat examples on their site so I could say "I want it sorta like this". Finally, they had a great eye for spacing and size. In my case, they suggested all caps but made the initial caps larger. They emailed proofs.

Price seemed reasonable although the gold adds a lot to the cost. But the gold hasn't faded at all - four years later it still looks new.

No relation to the company.

Carl

[Diane Stryker]

We used Island Boat Lettering out of NY - at their booth at least year's sailboat show. We had picked out a name (finally) and two possible fonts - they helped us with a graphic on the home port. We took it home that day and installed the lettering ourselves. They were great to work with - we were able to see everything on the computer first - and the lettering looks great! (I'm sure they have more fonts than shown on their web site - they had both of the ones we picked out.)

[04 Marine]

300 bucks is highway robbery!

I do metal art with a CNC cutter which is the same process used for lettering except that lettering is easier. A roll of vinyl is a $20.00 adventure, $30.00 if it's gold or silver foil. Most of what I do is weather vanes and wall art, such as airplanes and boats...some wildlife. I use my vinyl cutter to create masks for powdercoating.

What you want is a 10 minute job. Send me the lettering and style that you want I'll type it in on the computer. A key stroke or two will make that a .dxf file that you can take to anybody with a vinyl cutter and make your lettering. Use the remaining $200 or more dollars to buy someting really nice for the wife or the boat depending on how lucky you feel.

[ksalt]

We got our lettering online from www.lettersunlimited.com 5 years ago. They use 3m and Avery vinyl (same as everyone else) and can do any font you want. They charge $3.75/letter for 12" lettering in premium 7year vinyl. Our lettering still looks great after 5 years.

[bobfnbw]

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions.

After doing a bit of research, I wonder if vinyl lettering is the way to go.
Currently we have the old name painted on... Maybe that is the better way?
It seems that the most you can get from vinyl lettering is maybe 8-10 years?
I guess I could just redo it then.. but since I have to repaint the stern anyway...
ah to many choices.
confused.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by bobfnbw

After doing a bit of research, I wonder if vinyl lettering is the way to go.
confused.

How could you be confused??????????????????????????????

EVERYONE here has recommended vinyl.

And you needed to do other research? To find out we're all leading you up the garden path?

LOL

Bob... Earth to Bob?



Get what ever you would like

[bobfnbw]

Well Mark, its easy to be confused this since depending on the site I look at, and the cost, it can last anywhere from 1-8 years...
Paint will last a lot longer I would guess... but then I don't have the steady hand to do it and don't want to pay a ton of money for a custom job.

When looking at the boat lettering in my marina, I see some good work, but a lot of only ok to pretty bad.
I want a quality name on our transom.