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5th December 1991
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Page 36, 5th December 1991 — NAILING __
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

YOUR

t R 5

/ Too many operators are spending too little time on their liveries, and the gap between the good and the bad (and the ugly) is not getting any smaller. Every year the judges of the CM/ICI Autocolor Livery Competition hope that standards will improve. But the same old mistakes popped up again this year and we'll probably see them again in 1992.

It makes for frustrating judging. When you've got to look at more than 600 slides from 200 companies it's disappointing to see that there are still operators who are prepared to spend £50,000 on a new tractive unit, but only pennies on their livery.

As usual our awards cater for the various vehicle weight categories with a separate class for passenger vehicles. Last year we expanded the competition with a prize for Best New Corporate Design; this year we've also included a Best Designer class.

Since we started the awards, 20 years ago, we've ensured that professional designers rather than transport men make up the bulk of our judging panel.

That way we are not sidetracked by irrelevant arguments over whether it's harder to make a livery work on a tipper than a box van.

So why are operators still making the same mistakes with their liveries? For one of our judges, John Rushton from design consultants The Small Back Room, the answer is clear: "They don't have a perception of what makes something work. They're the kind of people who go to a signwriter and tell him what they want and where they want it, without thinking it through."

"It's not just an ad in Yellow Pages," he adds, "It's got to work belting along the motorway."

Once again our judging panel included

Peter Green, assistant editor (Art and Production) on top selling Options magazine. Green is sure that many operators place too many restrictions on their designers. "A job is only going to be as good as the designer is allowed to be ... you can definitely see some client interference in many of the entries." A case of the blind leading the blindfolded perhaps?

It's clear that many operators considering new liveries have little idea of the message they actually want to get across on their vehicles. There was certainly plenty of confusion in many of the liveries our judges looked at. Uncomplementary typefaces, random stripes, irrelevant logos, useful space left unused and limited space overcrowded to the point that no message comes through—they all play a part in turning off potential customers.

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