Vehicle wraps are one of the most powerful tools in branding and advertising—but only when they’re done right. A poorly designed wrap can waste money, confuse customers, or worse, damage a company’s professional image. Here are the most common design mistakes we see in wraps—and how to avoid them.
1. Too Much Information
The Mistake: Treating a wrap like a brochure by packing it with text, bullet points, or long descriptions.
Why It Hurts: Drivers have only a few seconds to take in your message. If they’re overloaded with details, they’ll read nothing.
How to Avoid It: Keep messaging short and direct. Prioritize a strong logo, a tagline, and contact info. Less is more when it comes to mobile advertising.
2. Poor Font Choices
The Mistake: Using fonts that are too thin, decorative, or hard to read at a distance.
Why It Hurts: Even the best design fails if the audience can’t quickly read the text on a moving vehicle.
How to Avoid It: Stick to clean, bold sans serif fonts for body text (Helvetica, Gotham, Montserrat). Save decorative fonts for small accents or secondary branding elements.
3. Low-Resolution Images
The Mistake: Importing web graphics, screenshots, or small JPGs into a full-size wrap design.
Why It Hurts: When enlarged, these images look blurry or pixelated, instantly cheapening the final wrap.
How to Avoid It: Always design with vector logos (EPS, AI, PDF) and high-resolution images (large-format JPG/PNG at 72 DPI full size). Never use graphics pulled from websites.
4. Bad Contrast and Color Choices
The Mistake: Light text on light backgrounds, or color combos that look “cool” but aren’t readable.
Why It Hurts: Poor contrast kills readability. Even great branding won’t matter if nobody can see it.
How to Avoid It: Follow color psychology and readability basics—dark text on light backgrounds, light on dark, and strong contrasts. Always test your design at full scale before printing.
5. Ignoring the Vehicle’s Shape
The Mistake: Designing flat artwork without considering doors, windows, handles, and curves.
Why It Hurts: Text and logos can get cut off, distorted, or hidden—ruining the design’s impact.
How to Avoid It: Always design on the correct vehicle template. Pay attention to panel breaks and door lines. Place key text and logos in unobstructed areas.
6. Cluttered Layouts
The Mistake: Adding every possible graphic, image, and design element.
Why It Hurts: Clutter confuses the eye, dilutes the message, and makes the wrap look unprofessional.
How to Avoid It: Focus on hierarchy: logo first, key message second, contact info third. White space is your friend—it gives your design room to breathe.
7. Forgetting the Call to Action
The Mistake: Beautiful wraps with no phone number, website, or social handle.
Why It Hurts: If viewers don’t know how to reach you, the wrap fails as an advertising tool.
How to Avoid It: Always include clear contact information that’s visible at a glance. A website or phone number is non-negotiable.
The Bottom Line
Vehicle wraps are mobile billboards—meant to be simple, bold, and memorable. Avoiding these common design mistakes ensures your wraps don’t just look great, but also deliver results for your clients.
At GrafixDepot, we help shops and designers create wrap designs that balance creativity with clarity—so every vehicle works as a powerful marketing tool.
✅ Pro Tip: Before final approval, step back and look at your wrap design from 20 feet away. If you can’t read it quickly, neither will anyone else on the road.