Whether you’re going to tape your ride or have a professional do it for you, most people want it to look stylish and cool. The overall design is the most important element in having a successful striping job. Right behind the design are the colors of your choice. Here are 7 tips to help you choose the right colors of pinstriping tape.
- Choose the colors that you like best! Sounds obvious, right? However, some people choose what their friends or a vinyl professional likes, and don’t choose the colors they really want. The colors you choose may not look as good as the others, but if you like it, that’s all that matters.
- If the pinstriping tape you are using is more than one color, choose a dominant color and a secondary color. Let one color have most of the impact and the other color or colors be the supporting cast. In this way, the colors do not fight each other, they help to complement each other. For example, dark green and dark brown are nice colors, but both are very strong colors and will struggle for attention. Dark brown with a tan or beige would be a better choice in most cases; or dark green with a medium green.
- Generally speaking, I’ve found that metallic colors and a dark car can look great, but metallics don’t hold up over time on a dark vehicle. For whatever reason, metallic stripe colors go bad in two or three years. Try to avoid this scenario if you can.
- Complementary colors will generally look great together. Blue and orange are complementary, as are red and green, purple and yellow.
- Consider using a thin tape that is the same color as your vehicle, but is lighter or darker. For example, dark blue stripes on a midsize or light blue car look great. Fine dark green stripes on a light or medium green car look good.
- If you’re looking for colors that will really stand out and make a statement, look for high contrast, as well as bold lines and shapes. Contrast, as well as color, is what makes some striped ribbons stand out and others appear much more subtle. How do you get the contrast? dark against light Dark colors on light colors or light colors on dark colors.
- If possible, try to get a color chart of pinstripe tapes and place it next to your vehicle outside in the sun. On the side of the sun, not on the side of the shadow. Take a few steps back from the vehicle and squint to see what appears to you. Sometimes using the process of elimination is a better way to see the choice of colors. Instead of choosing colors, you start to eliminate what you don’t like to find the right color or colors for your vehicle.
I hope these seven tips help you choose colors the next time you want to add some stripes to your vehicle. The great thing about striping tape is that you can remove it if you don’t like it, and you can always add more if you think your car needs it.