CorelDRAW Brings Winning Looks to the Race

Working with high profile racing teams, Michael Boote of Rage Designs produces custom helmet and motorcycle vinyl graphics to identify and differentiate riders. He also creates motorcycle liveries, pit garage displays, and race truck designs, incorporating the brand identity of the team and team sponsors.

It’s all about building a brand out of top racers, and Boote relies on CorelDRAW Graphics Suite from Corel (Booth 8657) to do just that: delivering intricate, differentiated helmet and motorcycle designs, to riders’ specifications.

Rage Designs was born when owner Boote combined his two passions, motorcycling and painting. He’s been involved in motorcycle and helmet paintwork since 1995, and started producing his own vinyl graphics using a very basic sign making software package. As their exposure grew, they began working with high-profile racing teams, and needed to produce graphics in-house, which enabled them to build relationships with many top teams and racers.

With their reputation on the line, every graphical representation is critical. The big design break came for Rage Designs when they were asked to design the layout for the Ducati race bikes, support vehicles, and pit garage display.

Since discovering the power of CorelDRAW, it has become a daily staple in their design toolbox. According to Boote, it’s a complex, yet user friendly program that he uses for helmet graphic design, and so much more.

With an array of creative and comprehensive tools, Boote relies on CorelDRAW to find just the right font, then manipulates it into a suitable logo, adding curves and infilling with textures, transparencies, and drop shadows. Using an assortment of precision-based features and vector capabilities, he can also distort a graphic or logo on the centerline so it lies perfectly on a curved surface — an essential step in his daily work.

Rage Designs now enjoys a strong and diverse following of loyal and legendary customers, including work for the SMR Racing BMW World Superbike 2018. They pride themselves on having designed helmets for racers such as Peter Hickman, John McGuinness, Leon Camier, and many more high-profile teams and riders.

During race season, Rage Designs must manage tight deadlines, and sometimes needs to design and produce helmets and bodywork in lightning fast time. CorelDRAW helps them design it on the same day.

The program is easy to use, so they don’t waste any time. Once they get approval, they start work immediately. In addition, they now have their own cutters and plotters, and have been known to turn around a race helmet in a week during TT season, including for a young rider in the British Superbike Championship, Ross Turner. They simply couldn’t do it without Corel. 

Simplify the design process

Here’s a step-by-step overview of how Rage Design makes the most of CorelDRAW for its logo needs:

1. Choose a suitable font
2. Check alignment on letters
3. Convert the font to graphic format
4. Convert the font to a graphic format
5. Duplicate the original before manipulating the lettering
6. Combine all the letters & numbers so they can be manipulated as a group
7. Add Italic slant
8. Duplicate and reverse the slant so both logo’s face the same way on each side of the helmet
9. Outline the edge using the contour menu
10. Outline the logo using the contour menu
11. Add curve to logo so it will follow the lines of the helmet when applied
12. Add some lines to the helmet itself
13. Apply the finished logo on the helmet