Marking vehicles with designs and promotions has been going on since the first automobiles were invented in the early 20^th century. Back then, there was no digital printing on vinyl film materials like we have today. Instead, businesses had to hand-paint their designs onto their vehicles.

Milton Hershey was the first businessperson to paint an advertisement onto an automobile in 1900. It was a simple “Hershey’s Coca” brand name painted onto his vehicle, but it stood out because nobody had ever seen a mobile promotion like that before.

As automobiles became more common, more colorful and sophisticated advertisements on vehicles would emerge over the next hundred years. Hand-painted vehicle promotions grew more artistic and creative as professional illustrators and painters were hired to paint attractive images onto commercial vehicles.

Meanwhile, the Goodrich Cooperation accidentally invented vinyl chloride in 1926. Vinyl chloride is a multipurpose material that can be customized to be thin, thick, flexible, firm, colorful, or bland. Companies used vinyl chloride to make all kinds of new products over the next 50 years.

However, it wasn’t until the 1980s that vinyl chloride started being wrapped on vehicles by small businesses. But they only used it to put letters onto their cars and trucks without paint. It would take another decade for vinyl printing to be used for vehicle promotions, but only big companies could afford it.   

Fortunately, the 21^st century brought newer technologies to make vehicle wrapping better and more affordable. Thanks to piezoelectric inkjet printers, advanced digital graphic design software, and better quality vinyl film, companies could digitally print their designs onto the vinyl for a low price.

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Would you like to know more about the process of creating custom digital designs and printing them onto vehicle wrap material? Call us at 01283 569 102 to communicate with one of our vehicle wrapping experts.