Auto Artisan collaborates with Yamaha and 3M to create Fantastic Wraps!

When 3M contacted Michael Palladino, MD of Auto Artisan wrappers Auto Artisan to collaborate on the ‘Destination Yamaha’ campaign, there was only one answer … an ecstatic yes!

What followed was a mix of creativity and craft as Auto Artisan used its special touch to wrap the unique Yamaha Tenere and 700 Niken GT adventure motorbikes.

Yamaha utilised its in-house design team to come up with the company’s representation of ‘travelling around the world’. When 3M presented the designs to the team at Auto Artisan they immediately loved it.

“We didn’t want to change any of it. However, getting visualised images from a 2D digital render and making it come to reality is the next level! We knew what we had to do. We quickly pulled our design team together and drew out our pathways to make this a reality,” said Bora Bright, Auto Artisan’s CEO.

Project preparation was then underway, the tasks of which included:

- scaling and adaption of Yamaha’s designs to suit the bike in a real life size with all it’s curves;

- extrapolating the design, then imagining how the Auto Artisan team would mould it over the curves.

“Of course we added some ‘Artisan’ tweaks along the way for the actual design!” explained Bora, confirming that no major changes were made to the actual design.

“It was still very much ‘Yamaha’, just small simple and subtle things such as embossing, extending the design over to the clear portions of the plastic panels and more,” he adds, pointing out that it’s the finer details that always stand out the most.

Bora explained how the Yahama bikes were wrapped. “We started this project by dismantling the bike. It was very important to ensure all edges were curved and tucked under. Because we always work to perfection, we can’t have edges lifting. This always exposes additional risks, because you can break parts. Though we were lucky, it was a brand-new bike, which meant all the parts were strong and not fragile.

“Once all the parts were dismantled, we started by placing the first layer of the wrap, which was a small portion of the world map. This layer was trimmed with precision by our plotter to make sure the edges of the continents were perfect. Then, we applied the second layer over the top. This is how we managed to create the embossed effect. This was our favourite part! You couldn’t notice it from a far… However, when you sit on the bike, the detail looked amazing.”

Bora confirmed that the helmet design followed the same design as the two bikes.

“However, it has had one key difference: the colour scheme. The bikes are different shades of blue and some greys, while the helmet stands out because the destinations are a strong red colour. Let’s face it, if you have a cool helmet and a small surface area to work with, you need it to be as vibrant and noticeable as possible! Yamaha achieved this very well.

“For us to wrap this helmet, we needed to get creative. The design was great – again, it was on a 2D render. To bring it to life, we needed to print out the design but make modifications on the fly during the installation stage.

“We had some room to work with though -  the helmet had some distinct curves, dips and sharp angles. This meant we could implement overlaps and wrap lines without affecting the design. It worked like a charm!” he explained, confirming that the base and overlaminate films used for the helmet as well as the Yamaha Bikes came from 3M’s premium cast range of films: 3M IJ180mC and  3M 8915 Ultra Matte overlaminate.

In conclusion, Bora said that it was a fantastic project. “We had clear direction from the get-go by Yamaha and 3M. They gave us guidance and allowed us to add Auto Artisan creative touches.  This is the way we love to operate, and it worked perfectly,” he stated proudly.