Date:         Sat, 20 Mar 2004 07:58:28 -0600
Reply-To:     John Rodgers <jh_rodgers@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Rodgers <jh_rodgers@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject:      List Sticker Survey - Update #1
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Erin Randolf fhas queried me as to why the seemingly limited choice of
colors.  I felt this was a good questions and that the list membership
should know my reasons. I have posted my response to him follows.

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

 >>>>>>
Erin, thanks for responding to the survey.

I have several limitations in this project. First, I can only do either
vinyl cut-outs for external application or static-cling for internal
application..... but I cannot do them both. It has to be either one way
or the other. So far, the survey is strongly in favor of the vinyl cut-out.

The vinyl cut-out approach has a materials limitation. If 40 people
wanted 40 different colors, I would have to get 40 rolls of vinyl to
meet the request. That simply gets cost prohibitive, because there would
be only a few stickers made from each roll and I would have leftover
material I would never use up.

The static-cling approach may give more color choices because they are
printed with an ink application process, but it gets to be a matter of
satisfying custom orders, which are always more expensive. The static
cling stickers is a more involved process straight across the board and
will cost more than the vinyl cutouts, and I am trying to hold down the
costs.  Again 40 people each wanting their own specific colors means 40
different printing operations, costing more time, which equals more money.

As for colors, when Karl Wolz did this project way back, it was clearly
demonstrated that the order of visibility was yellow, white, then blue.
I have a yellow sticker on the back of my van at present, it's five
years old, and it is highly visible, and easily read from a distance.
Part of the effect is the fact that my rear hatch glass is tinted, so
the bright yellow on the outside has a darker color inside as a
backdrop, for contrast. White against that dark background would
probably work well, but since the human eye is more sensitive to yellow
light, I am going to stick with the yellow sticker because it is so
highly visible and consequently easy to read at a distance.

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver