Rectangles, her badge, her black and gold. All five are drawn at 3:2 with the rounded corners a real magnet needs, so what you see is what comes off the press. They differ in what gets the most room: the badge, the name, or the phone number.
Check this before ordering anything: magnets only stick to steel. A lot of food trucks and almost every trailer have aluminium or fibreglass side panels, and a magnet will not hold on either. Have her put a fridge magnet on the side of the truck. If it falls off, these same five designs get printed as removable vinyl decals instead. Same artwork, same price range, different material.
The panel also has to be flat. Rivets, seams and body lines break the seal and let wind under the edge.
The one that looks like it came with the truck
Badge centred, name set large underneath, phone in gold at the bottom. The badge is the mark and the big name is the legibility layer, because the wordmark inside the star is unreadable from more than a few feet. Symmetrical, formal, nothing to date.
Best as the default. One on each side of the truck and she is done.
Tasten Cee
Barbecue & Soul Food
(503) 689-9014
@tastencee · tastencee.com · Salem, Oregon
Shown at 3:2 with the rounded corners a real magnet needs. Drag sideways on a phone.
The one you can read from across the lot
A gold block takes the left third and carries the badge at full size, everything else banks to the right in one left aligned column. Splitting the panel means the badge never competes with the phone number for the same eye line.
Best if the truck parks side on to a queue and she wants the number read first.
Smoked slow in Salem, Oregon
Tasten Cee
Barbecue · Soul Food · Catering
(503) 689-9014
@tastencee · tastencee.com
Shown at 3:2 with the rounded corners a real magnet needs. Drag sideways on a phone.
The one that pops on a dark truck
Cream ground with a gold double rule and the diamond corners lifted off her star. If the truck is black, navy or dark grey, a light magnet reads as a deliberate panel rather than something stuck on. Gold is used for rules only here, never text, because gold on cream is too low contrast to read.
Best if her truck is a dark colour. On a white truck use one of the black grounds instead.
Tasten Cee
Barbecue · Soul Food · Catering
(503) 689-9014
@tastencee · tastencee.com
Shown at 3:2 with the rounded corners a real magnet needs. Drag sideways on a phone.
The one that books catering
A full width gold bar across the bottom carries the phone number at nearly twice the size of anything else. The top half does the branding, the bar does the job. This is the version that earns its cost back in one catering call.
Best on the side that faces traffic, or on the back door where people sit behind her.
Shown at 3:2 with the rounded corners a real magnet needs. Drag sideways on a phone.
The one that looks current
The badge is scaled up and cropped by the left edge so it works as a graphic rather than a sticker, and the type stacks in the clear space to the right. It treats her logo as a pattern she owns, which is what expensive brands do with a good mark.
Best as a second magnet, or if the truck already carries her name somewhere else.
Tasten Cee
Barbecue & Soul Food
(503) 689-9014
@tastencee · Salem, Oregon
Shown at 3:2 with the rounded corners a real magnet needs. Drag sideways on a phone.
Drawn to scale against a typical truck side. The 24 by 16 is the one most people should buy: readable from across a parking lot, still small enough to pull off and store flat. Go to 36 by 24 only if the panel is genuinely clear that wide.
The thin 15 and 20 mil stock is for fridges. Vehicle magnets need 30 mil or they lift at speed and crease when she pulls them off.
Half inch radius, drawn into every design above. Square corners are what catch wind and start peeling. This is the single most common mistake on cheap magnets.
Gold fades first without it. Matte or satin, not gloss, so the sun does not blow out the panel in photos.
Order a pair so both sides of the truck match. Print files come out of the same artwork, so the second one costs almost nothing extra.
Tell her this when you hand them over: take the magnets off once a week, wipe both the magnet and the truck, and let both dry before putting them back. Grit and trapped water are what damage paint, not the magnet itself. Take them off before a highway run or a car wash.
Steel or aluminium. That one answer decides whether these print as magnets or as removable vinyl.
Favourite plus a runner up, and whether she wants the phone number or the name doing the heavy lifting.
Vector PDF at the chosen size with bleed, rounded corner marks and the two spot colours separated, ready for any sign shop.
The spelling on the badge reads TASTEN CÈÉ and everything else she owns reads Tasten Cee. Worth settling before anything gets printed.