SignFarm.com

 

Scott Lewczak (pronounced Lew Zak), has been an artist since he was 12 years old, when he airbrushed a design on a van.

Since he was young, Scott has been fascinated with airbrushing designs on motorcycles, custom cars, race cars, as well as trucks. Scott's web site is called Signfarm.com because instead of raising vegetables he creates signs, graphics and vehicle wraps. Scott attended the du Cret School of Art located in South Plainfield, New Jersey. For more information see http://www.ducret.edu.

 

Scott has phased out of airbrushing vehicles and instead has entered the relatively new industry of vehicle wraps because there is less exposure to the toxic chemicals involved with vehicle paints which are easily absorbed into the skin. Even though Scott wore full body suits etc. when working with paint he feels it has taken a toll on his health. He only uses his spray booth is to put clear coat finishes on the vehicle wraps he creates.

 

Originally Scott went to art school to become a wildlife artist, but he found it very difficult to make a living and thought about going into the sign business since there was a demand. When Scott was eighteen years old and painting a mural he went into a store to buy an airbrush and saw a sign that said a company was looking for a computer artist. This was in 1982, when "Tron" the first computer animated movie came out. Scott responded to the ad, but every time he called they said they were too busy. Finally Scott showed up at the office and asked if they were really serious and they told him to go take a look at the computer in the other room.

Scott went in and drew a strawberry on the computer and the owner walked by and asked if he drew that on the computer. Scott replied "yes" and was hired on the spot. The next thing he knew he was traveling around the world demonstrating computer graphics. The company was bought out several times and had grown from five employees to about one hundred in five years. He got tired of traveling and settled in Virginia working for a telecom company which was bought out by GTE, at which point he decided to work on his own.

Vehicle wraps have been around about five years. In the beginning the cost of the production machines limited the pool of car wrap designers since they cost around five hundred thousand dollars. Now the machines cost approximately forty thousand dollars. Scott used to farm out a lot of the work until he had to repair graphics that were damaged and he found it easier to do the work in house in order to better match the colors and graphics.

The average car or vehicle takes about one day of design work and he gives the customer a small sketch for approval. Once approved, a full sized drawing is created that is approximately ten feet wide. Scott uses Photo Shop and a Macintosh computer to create the final graphic image and then he sends it to the printer, who prints it out. It takes four or five hours to print out a graphic image for a truck. Then Scott clear coats the image in his spray room.

 

Scott has been on his own for fifteen years and built his current studio from scratch. He said it was a struggle while he was building and working from his home. Also he had to get a special permit from the county to work on his eighteen acre farm located in Nokesville. Scott focuses on producing high quality graphic images and putting anything you can photograph or illustrate on a vehicle. He converts letters into looking like ice or fire and can add drop shadows. Each car wrap is priced according to the complexity of the design and the size and details of the vehicle.

Signs are like construction and art work, because you are digging holes and defining the art work like a sculptor ~ Scott Lewczak.

Some of the signs he is currently working on are for the Leesburg Animal Park and the Children of America Day Care Center. Scott created the sign for the city of Nokesville. Some of his vehicle wraps have been for radio stations, trucking companies and many people have seen the Superior Pest Control truck wraps that he created.

Scott's goal is to be the number vehicle wrapper in Virginia. He is also entering a vehicle wrapping contest in October, using 3M vinyl. He is estimating that his chances are pretty good since he has been a runner up or first or second in some contests. There are approximately five hundred vehicle wrappers nation wide.

For more information and photographs of Scotts commercial work go to: http://www.signfarm.com

 

 

 

Date Published: 2007-09-05 06:00:00

Section: Business, Photos: SignFarm.com Image 03,