Whether you’re going to be taping your ride or having 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 stripe job. Right behind the design are the colors you choose. 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. This way the colors don’t fight each other, they help complement each other. For example, dark green and dark brown are nice colors, but they are both very strong colors and will fight 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 some reason, metallic stripe colors go bad in two or three years. Try to avoid this scenario if you can.
- Complementary colors will usually 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 lighter or darker. For example, dark blue stripes on a midsize or light blue car look great. Thin dark green stripes on a light or medium green car look good.
- If you’re looking for colors that 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 tapes stand out and others seem so 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 pinstripe tape color chart and post 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 begin to weed out what you don’t like to find the right color or colors for your vehicle.
I hope these seven tips help you when choosing 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.