Most car owners are passionate about their cars. After all, a lot of people today spend a third of their lives sitting the wheel. As such, there is also pride and attachment but the thing is, a Waja, Savvy or Kancil in Malaysia are pretty common sights on the roads. Everyone’s either got this colour or that… and it’s sometimes hard for even the owner themselves to differentiate their own cars from others unless they take a peek into the interior of the car or sneak a look at the numberplate.

That is how DSS Studio comes into the picture - to help proud owners give their cars a more personal look and even inject a little bit of their personalities and lives into appearance of their car.

DSS Studio is apparently one the first few studios of its kind, focusing on personalized car vinyl stickers. The shop is the brainchild of an artistic genius with a penchant for details and zeal for art, 25-year old Daniel Tan. Although the desire to be paint on the palette has been there ever since he was a child, Daniel’s imagination did not take flight until later in life when he enrolled at Lim Kok Wing’s institute for one of their Illustration degrees. Later, he moved on to The One Academy where the courses he took laid the foundation for his future and honed his skills.

What truly gave this unassuming bloke the biggest push is the encouragement and support shown by the communities and individuals that he has helped along the way…sometimes, out of the kindness of his heart and for the sake of experience, sometimes, he did it completely free of charge.

Daniel’s logo designs for the SS2 and LKH Motor, a company dominating the used car industry in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya, were well-received. Their acceptance and praise gave Daniel the right kick-start in the right direction… which was to eventually establish DSS Studio himself.

Upon graduating, Daniel furthered his studies at the Despark Automotive Academy where he learned about fixing up the exteriors of cars and other finer details of enhancing the cosmetic value of a vehicle. When asked what led to the start of the fiery business, Daniel’s response was, “I’ve always wanted to draw, especially in secondary school. It gave me a tremendous sense of pleasure whenever I drew something and showed it to my teachers because their encouragement and praise for my work fuelled my passion and drive to pursue this line of work”. Daniel, like many aspiring artists, yearned for acknowledgment and appreciation for their work – and this is not something he can easily find in the conventional working environment or even during the years he was enrolled in college.

In retrospect, it was a mere ‘chance’ that he stumbled upon the ‘career choice’. He found a way to express himself and help his customers express themselves when he first started exploring the idea of designing car stickers and helping the customers apply it to their vehicles. On top of personalized and custom-made artistic renditions, Daniel provides services for logo design, service or overhaul of cars, electronic repair, portrait drawing and once-upon-a-time, dabbled in cartoons as well.

DSS Studio has been around since November 2006 and with his single-minded determination, he’s achieved a lot. In less than two years, he’s managed to help numerous customers ‘brand’ their cars in a very personalized way.

Daniel explains his services as follows: “In the same way that a woman would accessorize herself with multiple accessories and personalize their look with cosmetics and clothes, vehicle owners can customize the look of their cars and make their cars stand out in the crowd with customized car decals.”

“Most of the time, my customers would prefer to have their own personalized decals but sometimes, a customer would walk in with no idea what he or she wants. In this case, it’s up to that person to decide whether he wants to sit down with me for a brainstorming session or to pick a design from the thousands of template designs that I have ready for use.”

The process of coming up with your own personalized car decal may sound complicated but to Daniel, it’s a piece of cake. The first step would be for Daniel to sit down with the customer to discuss the ideas that the customer has. This is a crucial step to putting the idea on paper…it’s always paper first, computer second and car last. With a rough by-hand sketch, DSS Studio would meticulously come up with the decal design on the computer. At this stage, the process can take anything between 10 minutes to 5 days, depending on the complexity of the design. Daniel, as a professional artist, will toil over the design till the very moment he gets the nod from his customer… no easy feat because every customer has his or her own preferences. Each and every design is customized specifically for the customer with full intention of wowing everyone who sees it.

On top of making customized decal designs, customers can get a pretty good idea from templates or in other words, template designs that DSS Studio keeps. These templates range from simple wordings with different fonts, captions with different colours or caricatures. In fact, DSS Studio customers can come up with their very own ideas, bring it to the studio where Daniel will transfer the ideas into a digital format where the decal can be produced from.

A plain Kenari like thousands on the roads can be transformed by DSS Studio into something distinctive

The 3M sticker sheet is a special light-reflecting sticker with millions of crystal formations within the decal that reflect light back directly to the person who is looking at the decal… but no other person is able to see it unless they’re in the same position as the first person. Incidentally, this unique 3M product has been approved by JPJ as a light-reflective product with respect to safety standards.

Through extensive testing, the manufacturers of the sticker guarantee a lifespan of up to 8 years. Many of DSS Studio’s customers love this material because sometimes, the graphics on the decal tend to ‘jump out’ at bystanders. Almost like a chameleon, it is camouflaged against the original colour of the car’s exterior and then flashing bright the next.

Another favourite among customers is a 2-tone sticker which reflects different colours and tones at different speed which creates an illusion quite like a chameleon. “Technically, it’s a two or three-tone sticker,” says Daniel, “but in actual fact, there’s really more than that”. Two, three or five, the most important point is that the design and colours attracts the attention that it deserves.

Despite having less than 2 years of experience in the decal design field, DSS Studio is beginning to gain ground on larger competitors, even grabbing awards along the way. DSS Studio’s name has been spread rapidly by its customers and a number of clubs have had their members drop by to get their ‘facelifts’ done.

The making of the stickers

The complexity of the application process cannot be understated because it does not take merely knowledge and skill but requires precision as well. As for how long it usually takes for the final design to be placed on the vehicle, it depends on the size of the decal and of course, the material. In general, larger decals would take a longer time to apply. The job takes up more time if the special reflective stickers are used as opposed to the more conventional ones.

It's always a sketch on paper first, and then the sketch is digitised on a computer, and then onto the finished product on the sticker (below)

Peeling the sticker has to be done in a very careful manner. This is done by ‘rolling’ it on top of the car… very slowly lest the layers of glue stick to each other. If done improperly, the decal would have to be destroyed and a new set done up.

To get a very slippery surface, before the sticker goes onto the body of the car, a conventional household dishwashing liquid is used. The reason for this is so that there is ample time to place the sticker on and then make adjustments before the glue permanently attaches itself to the car. The bubbles and water of the dishwashing liquid provides a smooth and slippery barrier between the paint on the car's body and the sticker. In case you’re wondering, the dishwashing liquid does not affect the 'stickiness' of the of the decal.

Once the position of the sticker is to the satisfaction of the customer, a special tool is used to apply gentle pressure over the surface of the decal so that the water and soap that acted as a barrier before is removed. Once this barrier is removed, the glue on the sticker will get a chance to stick properly to the bodywork.

But that's not the end of it. Most of the time, there air pockets or bubbles under the sticker and it’s important to remove these bubbles carefully without ruining the decal surface and design. This is done using a sharp object to poke a very tiny, invisible hole into the decal, thereby releasing the trapped air. Once the air is out, it is smoothened carefully. Finally, using a hairdryer, gentle warm air helps seal the glue. When placed under the sun, the drying process can be completed within 30 to 60 minutes.