I have an idea! But no knowledge......

[Micitan]

I have an idea for my side art, but no clue how/if I could do it.
The idea, flyers! Print 80~ of them and plaster them all over the sides. The cab will be mainly MAME and I would like to have that bit of original art, but for a lot of different games.

The problem, how can I print them for a decent price? A local print shop would be $1.30 per flyer.
How should I print them? 8x11 standard glossy?
Should I cover them with clear coat? Maybe poster glue? I am planning to use birch plywood.
Is this even a plausible idea? Feel free to answer questions I didn't ask.

A lot of questions, I know. The electronics, and wood working I know, art is foreign to me.
Thanks in advance for any advice. Thanks for the forums in general as well, so much good information here.

[PL1]

Welcome aboard, Micitan.

Flyers for sideart could be an interesting idea if it doesn't get too "busy".   

Instead of printing individual flyers, consider using high resolution copies of the desired flyers and composing your full-size sideart mosaic in Photoshop or Inkscape.

The advantage to this approach is that you can easily adjust the composition/content before you send it to the print shop.

There are several places that can print full-size sideart on advesive vinyl.


Scott

[Felsir]

Another benefit of the approach Scott mentioned is that you will get a smooth surface. If you plaster a lot of flyers you'll end up with a bumpy uneven side which probably looks messy. So I'd would go the digital plastering route and make your own mosaic in photoshop.

[JDFan]

As the others mentioned probably better to do the mosiac in Photoshop so that you canadjust sizes\layout before printing - though could probably also do that and adjust the layout so that it fits on a few 8.5x11 sheets so you could print the decals yourself on a home printer using regular size adhesive sticker paper rather than sending out to be printed and could also get that 3d look of the various flyers overlapping (if that is the look you were wanting) just trim the various sheets around the edges of some of the flyers near the edges of the sheets after printing and apply them so that those edges overlap the other sheets.

Here's a quick mock up using my bartop side so you can get an idea of what it might look like : (reduced for posting)
 

[Felsir]

What about this effect? I used a floorboard texture and added some flyers. Then I used a 'grunge' texture to make the posters look as if they have aged a bit. The floorboards could also be a brick wall or anything you like. It would also be possible to add a logo and overlay it in such way as if it was painted on, like the Dig Dug logo. Now I think of it, this also might translate nicely to a controlpanel, where the controls etc. look like they're painted on pieces of scrap wood, with the instructioncard added with the same effect as the flyers... hmm?

[jdbailey1206]

Thought about doing this but with propaganda posters.  Some artists have done some great ones for Super Mario Brothers....

[Micitan]

Instead of printing individual flyers, consider using high resolution copies of the desired flyers and composing your full-size sideart mosaic in Photoshop or Inkscape.
Scott

I had that idea, but I know literally close to nothing about it all.

Here's a quick mock up using my bartop side so you can get an idea of what it might look like : (reduced for posting)

That's basically what I was looking to do.

Thought about doing this but with propaganda posters. 

I do love these, but I want more original stuff.

I was thinking I could do the control panel with instruction cards too. So it looks like I need to do some learning, thanks for the information guys!

[SavannahLion]

You could try looking up decoupage I suppose.

Thin clear resin might work but you'll have to take extreme care in prepping.

Matching cut acrylic would work but it wouldn't look very good.