Playing Around with Car Tint

After looking for some car tint, Machele ordered a roll for another product that was in the making. It came in the mail and we were surprised-- both of us never really worked with car tint so we were confused to see that it didn't have a backing that we could peel off like expected. We looked online for help but there were so many different instructions and they were all confusing! Car tint solution? Getting it wet? We decided to just jump straight in.

Machele was wiping the glass we were working on with some wet wipes and then also wiped the small piece of car tint we cut out. I don't remember how but the backing came loose and we could peel it off! There was no way we could've seen it, the sheet practically looks like one layer!

Well that was good progress. Slightly encouraging. We did some more researching and made our own car tint solution out of soap and water. We tried to apply some test strips onto mirror. Our application method was to lay the car tint onto a piece of acrylic, remove the backing, and then flip the acrylic onto the mirror-- the car tint would adhere to the mirror after we lifted the acrylic.

Not bad, not bad. It looked alright. But we wouldn't really know how the process would change when we switched to the big piece, right? We were working with a 16x20 mirror, a design that came from a piece Machele had in Art Unleashed. So we moved on. I cut around a template I had done on Adobe Illustrator onto the car tint. Lots of complications, but I eventually figured out the best method to do this after several tries. We're new at this!

So the design is all cut out. But what's the design that I'm talking about? You'll see. It was time to put the car tint on the mirror. Nervous. We did it though. And....

First test with the #Rorschach #mirror. Anyone have any #tint application tips?? Also, I see a #lionfish swimming sideways. #windowtint #productdesign #prototype #inkblot #test #ilovescience

A photo posted by @talkdesign on Jul 30, 2015 at 10:52am PDT

Awesome!! There were a lot of beginner mistakes that are visible in person but for a first test, it wasn't too bad! Could've been worse. But eventually after a couple more tests, we found the best method to apply car tint (involving lots of water and a squeegee.)