Car show - Help me design an info poster

H

heySkippy

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I'm driving my NSX to my old hometown in Kansas next month. Coincidentally, this trip will coincide with a big annual car show there. When I lived there many years ago I used to look forward to this show and never missed it.

Since one of the things I like to do when I'm home is catch up with old friends, I decided to put my NSX in this year's show and hang out in the park and see who wanders by. It's a small town, but a large show (about 1000 cars), so I'm hoping to see a lot of people.

But that's not what I came to ask about. I go to lots of car shows as a spectator (this will be my first as a participant) and sometimes folks will make up a little poster with information about their car. I have access to a large format color printer here at work, so I want to make a small poster that I can put in a frame to prop up against my car at the show.

If you were making a poster like that, what would you put on it? I expect there will be a LOT of people at this show who've never seen an NSX in the flesh, so this could be a nice info thing for those that won't or can't strike up a conversation with me.

Suggestions?
 
heySkippy said:
Suggestions?
Click to expand...

I did this for a Pantera...just typed some of the specs and mods on a sheet of paper, had it blown-up to about 24"x36" (or some standard cheap frame size I got at Wal-Mart), trimmed the paper with a piece of tape that matched the car color (red).

For an NSX (unless its got a page of major modifications), I'd copy/blow-up the original window sticker (on half the poster) and add the mods or magazine performance data to the other side.
 
I always used a poster as a way to distract the judges (and spectators) from the fact that I had a lot of "road rash" on the front. I keep using it now as a way to educate people who are less than familiar with car by including the history of it, production numbers, etc. and also include a blow up of the NSX cutaway diagram that may be found here:

http://www.khulsey.com/acura_nsx_art.html

360122505_dQiyd-L.jpg


360122487_yrqwx-L.jpg


360122502_rgcvb-L.jpg
 
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I used to be a big fan of car shows but as with anything it gets old after a while of standing around....

For any car that has a reasonable amount of mods you want to create a display board so you don't have to keep answering the same questions over and over again.

I'm not sure how modded or crazy your NSX is but if it's stock then probably just the window sticker, some cool facts and good closeup pics would suffice. Ask someone with a graphic design background to put something together for you.

here's a sample of one of the many display boards I had made for my cars. Actually I have one for almost every car I owned since I moved to cA :)


Design.jpg
 
IMHO:

No matter what, include the following: Year/Make/Model, engine/trans e.g. 3.0L V6 5-Speed Manual Transmission. You really don't want to list too much of the stuff that came with the car from the factory like "leather seats".

You should limit the pictures to those of your actual car. Just pick 4 or 5 or so of your favorites that show off its best angles (or take some, if you can't find any you like already). If you have any mods that you're especially proud of and would like to direct people's attention there, make sure you have a tight pic of that mod as well as having it called out in your mod list. If you track your car and have pics of it on the track, at least one *must* be included. People like knowing that the "show" car they're looking at is also actually used for what it was built for.

Don't list every single mod you've done to your car. I'd rather see just the highlights of the vehicle, not the fact that you have something like a Type-R coolant bottle cover (or whatever). The exception is if you have sponsors (kinda sounds like you may not), then make sure their logos are present and that you call out all of their products present on your car.

The mod list should cover things that can be appreciated (wheels, body mods, etc.) and things that are mods that can't be clearly seen but you might get questions about (suspension, exhaust, etc.)

Again... all of the above is just my opinion

J
 
s4play said:
I used to be a big fan of car shows but as with anything it gets old after a while of standing around....

For any car that has a reasonable amount of mods you want to create a display board so you don't have to keep answering the same questions over and over again.

I'm not sure how modded or crazy your NSX is but if it's stock then probably just the window sticker, some cool facts and good closeup pics would suffice. Ask someone with a graphic design background to put something together for you.

here's a sample of one of the many display boards I had made for my cars. Actually I have one for almost every car I owned since I moved to cA :)


Design.jpg
Click to expand...
Whoa, thats nice.
 
02#154 said:
You should limit the pictures to those of your actual car. If you track your car and have pics of it on the track, at least one *must* be included. People like knowing that the "show" car they're looking at is also actually used for what it was built for.
Click to expand...

The track photos actually make a difference at times. I just took my fifth best in class last weekend and what put me over the top with the judges was the poster showing that I track the car and use it as a daily driver (113,600 miles). Now my poster was no where near the professional quality of the photo in the prior post but even with my rudimentary "artistic skills" it has helped me numerous times. In the post '79 foreign sports car class my track photos resulted in the NSX beating a 1000hp Supra, 700 hp Subaru, original RX7, some jags, etc.

94124776_okGJT-L.jpg
 
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s4play said:
I used to be a big fan of car shows but as with anything it gets old after a while of standing around....

For any car that has a reasonable amount of mods you want to create a display board so you don't have to keep answering the same questions over and over again.

I'm not sure how modded or crazy your NSX is but if it's stock then probably just the window sticker, some cool facts and good closeup pics would suffice. Ask someone with a graphic design background to put something together for you.

here's a sample of one of the many display boards I had made for my cars. Actually I have one for almost every car I owned since I moved to cA :)


Design.jpg
Click to expand...

Man, that's a heck of a poster! Somehow I don't think that's a home photoshop project :D
 
thanks guys, it helps knowing the right people - a friend of mine helped me design this poster and she does have some mad skills!

I also have one for a buddy's bmw 645ci and my e46 m3 as well. I'm going to wait a bit on the NSX since there isn't enough mods to justify it yet..........hehe

These are all framed and make great decorations hanging in a garage when not in use!

**one thing to keep in mind is don't make the display board larger than what fits in that particular car. I made a 36" x 60" version for the s2000 and had to scale it down to fit in the s2000 trunk :wink:

rk
 
Take a look at the following website. In addition to stock posters, they have a custom poster service, focusing on auto show posters for collector and custom cars. Basically they take your photos and text and do a very professional design specifically for your car. Reasonable cost as well. You do have to submit high resolution digital photos (7meg or higher) - but looking at their final product, looks very impressive.

http://www.superstylings.com/
 
Thanks everyone for the ideas so far.

I don't track my car, so no pics like that and it's all stock except I/H/E. I figure its charm at this show will be that it'll probably be the only one and it's a daily driver that I drove 1500+ miles to get to the show.

So I'd been thinking small. Maybe a nice NSX logo with text blocks detailing NSX unique features (aluminum body, chassis, etc). I would LOVE to have a window sticker. If anyone here has one from 95 or 96, please hook me up with a high resolution scan that I could turn into a facsimile for display.

The superstylings.com stuff is quite nice. I'll have to reconsider and perhaps go fancier than I'd thought I would.

As for size, I plan to print it and transport it rolled in a tube. I'll just buy a frame when I get to Kansas and leave it behind when I leave.

Now I'm wishing I had a current version of Illustrator (or whatever it's become).
 
02#154 got it right

As a spectator, the stuff 02#154 mentioned above is exactly the information that would be most useful to me.

Although, I agree with limiting pictures to those of your actual car, including the cutaway illustration might be helpful in this case. Our cars' layout is somewhat unique, so perhaps the illustration could be included if done in an unobtrusive way.
 
Re: 02#154 got it right

Ojas said:
As a spectator, the stuff 02#154 mentioned above is exactly the information that would be most useful to me.

Although, I agree with limiting pictures to those of your actual car, including the cutaway illustration might be helpful in this case. Our cars' layout is somewhat unique, so perhaps the illustration could be included if done in an unobtrusive way.
Click to expand...

That's a good point...

To do this, I'd change the background color of the cutaway pic to something complementary to the rest of the poster, blow it up so that the car is covering a lot of the "canvas" then experiment with the opacity. Then layer it over your original poster design. That might look good.

What might look sick is if you could take a picture of your car from the same angle that the cutaway picture was drawn then lay the cutaway over your real car so that the audience can see that cutaway "on" your actual car. It would be hard to do perfectly but it would probably be worth it if you could just get "close". In fact, I might experiment with that someday.

J

J
 
99NCNSX said:
Take a look at the following website. In addition to stock posters, they have a custom poster service, focusing on auto show posters for collector and custom cars. Basically they take your photos and text and do a very professional design specifically for your car. Reasonable cost as well. You do have to submit high resolution digital photos (7meg or higher) - but looking at their final product, looks very impressive.

http://www.superstylings.com/
Click to expand...

Oh man, wish you hadn't posted that site :D. Now, I can take some hi-res of my car but is there anywhere to find some stock photos (like the cutaway) that are hi-res?
 
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Looks pretty good to me. Maybe name the manufacturer/brand of your I/H/E?

J
 
Well, here is my final candidate for a poster. Currently it is set up for 18x24". I figure that would prop up nicely against the front bumper.

PDF version is here.
http://sarasotadetail.com/gallery2/...2_GALLERYSID=720cddef6b1fa753b72ede43734d0ab0

Crappy shrunken JPG for those that don't want to download the PDF.
NSX+Placard2.jpg


I would still love to have a window sticker. If anyone can hook me up with a scan, it would be greatly appreciated.
 
heyskippy: Not bad at all....I really like the schematic portion of the display but not feeling that upper picture.

I'm still going to wait a few months b4 doing my NSX poster and will post it here.


rk
 
MartinSD said:
Greetings

Where in Kansas are you going? I am originally from there.

Martin
Click to expand...
Arkansas City - about 50 miles south of Wichita.

s4play said:
heyskippy: Not bad at all....I really like the schematic portion of the display but not feeling that upper picture.

I'm still going to wait a few months b4 doing my NSX poster and will post it here.


rk
Click to expand...

Now I've got a decent scan of the window sticker and have been playing with the design, trying to work it in. I guess it's time to get serious about this.
 
Wrap up to this thread, I made the show and it went splendidly! My NSX got a LOT of attention and I spent pretty much the entire day hanging around answering questions about the car.

There were about 900 cars in the show altogether. I won the prize for traveled the farthest which was $100. :)

DSC_6262.JPG


I think that was the cleanest my car has been since I bought it. I believe I should enter in a couple shows a year just to motivate myself to give it that level of detailed attention.

Thanks everyone!
 
Nice job on the poster :smile:
 
Nice poster - I like it better than the SuperStylings - they seem way too busy to me (not very in keeping with the NSX).

My first show I had a scale model matching my NSX that I put license plate, window decal, painted the interior, etc., so the two looked identical. That attracted some attention.

I've been thinking about creating a brochure to to pass out when people ask me "what kind of car is that" :D
 
Got my winnings in the mail yesterday -- in cash. :D Maybe not the safest way to send money, but it was a lot more satisfying than opening an envelope with a check.
Photo+131.jpg


I only had to spend $460 for gas to win that! ;)
 
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