Paint by Serial Numbers: Custom Designs
Is your notebook's grey and black design about as fresh as a cab driver's insole? Make your portable pal stand out at the next LAN party with a custom paint job. Graphics and logos can also be added to make your PC look unique.
Black,white, silver, gray-the usual colors of a laptop lid are as drabas the suits and hair colors at a bankers' convention. For thoseof us noncomformists looking to stand out, there might seem to befew options. You can drop a few grand on a designer laptop, ordrop a few dozen and plop a sticker onto your existingnotebook.
Or exploreanother option: painting. Custom laptoppainting used to be done at your own risk, with the resultpossibly being your warranty being voided or your notebook'spaint job peeling like a banana in only a couple weeks. Now thereis a new company on the scene, however, that seems to know whatthey are doing.
Called Laptop Design USA, the company is supposedly the first inthe United States to offer custom paint designs for notebooks on aprofessional and large scale. Prices range from $99 to $199 forone paint job. And the firm also has deals with manymanufacturers so that warranties will not be voided if they paintthe lid of your notebook. If your warranty is already expired, oryou just don't give a monkey's uncle, Design USA can evenpaint the rest of the case and the palm rests.
The beauty of lid painting is the opportunity of individuality.But on the other hand, it can also be used by Big Business too.Corporations can brand all their company laptops with their logo.They can have their employees' names painted onto the lid. It canserve to get brand attention and protect the pc from would-bethieves. Who would be able to re-sell a laptop with "Acme Corp."stenciled on it?
During the painting process, the lid is typically removed fromthe case and hit with primer and a couple coats of paint,suitable for cars, motorbikes, and hockey goaltender helmets.Logos on the lid can be removed before painting and thenreattached after, or completely removed or covered over. LaptopDesign USA can also attach customized graphics on top of the custompaint job, all of which will be sealed in by clear coating.
The company also offers sublimation, a process by whichgraphics are "baked" into a clear or white coating on the lid.This only works for metal lids, though.
