From Screen to Van: Making Our 3D Acrylic Branding

When the SOAL Furniture van needed branding, I could have ordered a set of vinyl graphics and called it done. But that felt a little too easy. Instead, I decided to design and manufacture the branding myself using layered acrylic, Illustrator, Fusion 360 and the CO₂ laser. The result became a small project that follows almost exactly the same process I use when developing furniture: design it, visualise it, make it, fit it.

The first job was breaking the SOAL Furniture logo into parts that could actually be manufactured. In Illustrator I experimented with the logo, chair-and-oak-leaf emblem, website address and wording for the sides of the van. Rather than thinking of it as printed graphics, every part had to work as a separate physical component. That immediately changed how the design needed to be approached.

Before committing acrylic to the laser, I used ChatGPT to create visual mock-ups on the van itself. I tried different logo sizes, positions, QR codes, website placement and several versions of the wording. Some ideas worked. Some definitely didn't. But that was the point. It was much easier to move something around on a screen than discover afterwards that I'd just manufactured it in the wrong size.

Once the overall look was decided, I modelled the layered version so I could see how the finished pieces would work in three dimensions. The main SOAL lettering and emblem use two layers of 3 mm acrylic. A slightly larger black backing creates the outline, while the gold face sits on top. Simple idea — but the extra depth makes a huge difference once it catches the light.

Then came the satisfying bit. The individual black and gold pieces were laser cut, aligned and assembled on the workbench. This is where something that had existed entirely on a computer suddenly became a real object. And yes, there was plenty of checking which tiny piece belonged where.

With the main logos assembled, they could finally go onto the van. I deliberately kept the two sides slightly different, using the SOAL Furniture wordmark and chair emblem as the main features rather than covering every available panel. The 3D acrylic worked exactly as I hoped: noticeable, but still clean.

A logo on its own doesn't tell somebody much when they see the van for five seconds in traffic. So the final stage was adding the important bit: BESPOKE STEEL & TIMBER FURNITURE plus soalfurniture.co.uk These were made with a milky acrylic backing and darker lettering to keep them readable without competing with the main black-and-gold branding.

And that's the finished result. It would certainly have been quicker to order vinyl graphics. But designing, testing and making everything myself produced something much more appropriate for SOAL Furniture. More importantly, the process sums up how I like to work: start with an idea, visualise it properly, work out how to manufacture it, then build it. That same process just happens to normally end with oak and steel instead of a van.

Have something different in mind? SOAL Furniture designs and builds bespoke steel and solid-timber furniture made for individual spaces. Have an idea of your own? Explore our work or start a free design consultation.