Roots in Motorsport Graphic Design
My first job in the Graphic and print world was working for and with a very talented and introverted man named Ian Hutchinson. He was the man who first ignited my interest in Motorsport Graphic Design. Sadly I heard recently that he passed away at the very young age of 58 years old. Some of his livery designs have gone down in Motorsport history and at one time in his career, he was designing or advising on the liveries for 5 Formula 1 Teams and he is the man who is responsible for my Motorsport Graphic Design roots.
He was very well known within the Motorsport community and it always gave me a buzz when we visited places like Silverstone and we stopped to talk to the main players like Ron Dennis and Flavio Briatorie. The phone would ring at the Office and it would be Guy Edwards or Eddie Jordan calling.
It was Eddie who gave Ian his big break in Formula 1 Livery design when he gave Ian the task of designing the 1991 7up Jordan.
At the time this was seen as a groundbreaking livery design and it still follows true to the way that Hutchinson followed his design process. The livery would be designed using the client’s colour scheme and then Ian would make the Design flow with the shape of the Vehicle. This is the way that Ian taught me to design the vehicle Livery.
My Roots in Motorsport graphic Design
I joined Hutchinson Design International Ltd in 2000 as an IT/Production Manager. It was not long before I was tied up in the design and production of vehicle graphics. Before I knew it, I designed corporate manuals for Jaguar Motorsport and Hornby. From 2000 – 2004 I was heavily involved with the design and specification for Mild Seven and Renault with their shared cars in F1
Mild Seven were the sponsors for the car and they contracted Hutchinson Design to design the livery for their cars and the signs at the F1 track in Japan. Japan tobacco was the main company behind the team so as an offshoot we also got to design the team image and livery for Seven Stars Honda.
Domestic Motorsport Graphic Design
From 2001 – 2004 I was the main designer at Hutchinson Design International Ltd for RML Ltd for their ASCAR Teams when the American race format came to Britain. This was a great time as the relationship with RML was very close and we all worked as a team. Whilst I was involved with RML I developed their shield logo and worked on other projects with Hutchinson.
During my time on the RML ASCAR projects, I was responsible for the Design, Production, and Installation of the race car liveries and the Vehicle transporters as well as production for all of the additional marketing signage such as photo backdrops and banners.
It was a great time in my life and it was a great introduction to the graphics world. I still carry the same design approach through most of my commercial livery designs.
DMS Graphics Ltd
I now own and run DMS Graphics Ltd in Maidstone and, I try to carry the fundamental design skills forward in my own design and graphic work. It would be great to return to Motorsport one day but, Who knows what the future holds?
