Design Studio: This Star is Bright in Texas

Design Studio

From Drafting Dreams to Designing Drives: A Texas Tale of Artistic Evolution

By Joe Solis

I graduated high school in 1989 and was a mediocre student at best. I didn’t get the grades to get into a good school or university, and honestly, I didn’t even know if I wanted to go to school. However, I had taken some kind of drafting or architecture every

year in high school. So without much direction, I just opted to go to a (everyone can get in) junior college and was “accepted,” starting a secondary education in “drafting technology.” Little did I know that this style of drafting was more like engineering than architecture.

I wasn't a math guy; the only math I like is addition and subtraction of money! So, consistent as I am in school, I did not do well, and even worse in the prerequisite classes for the drafting classes based on math. By year two, I was on academic probation and needed something to get my GPA back up.

I had always loved art, and my father was a huge inspiration as he was always drawing and loved art. I never took art in HS because I was taking all the drafting and architectural classes. I saw that the junior college had some art classes that I could take, so I jumped on them, hoping to boost my GPA. I took those classes, and one was a commercial art class, and I really loved it. Its only parameters were just to do what has good composition and color. So, these throwaway classes really caught my eye. My teacher asked if I ever thought about a commercial art degree, and I said I didn’t even know that existed. After I walked away from the college thing, I looked into a more credible side of art and found The Art Institute of Houston. I really dug into that and fell in love with the commercial side of art and the limitless variations of media and tools. As I was going to AIH, I found that I still needed to make some income, and my father (who was a police officer) knew of an architectural sign company needing someone in their art department. I applied and became their “art director,” but it was less impressive than the title stated. I was just in charge of taking floor plans and making them into “egress maps” for elevators in high-rise buildings in downtown Houston. I did that for two years and got a chance every now and then to do some custom sign designs when given the opportunity.

After a couple of years there, I transitioned into more of what I liked doing, commercial sign design, by going to work for a commercial sign shop. This led me into my first adventure into vehicle design. I started to manage a one-day sign shop that did banners and stickers, and I had some friends who raced cars and asked me if I could do multicolor number and graphic designs. I took the challenge, and this is where I knew I would be for the rest of my career. I loved doing themed cars and characters. This is where I decided to push my career towards that direction. Shortly after that, wraps came out, and I have been designing ever since. I love all aspects of wrap, but there’s nothing like taking

an idea and making that idea come to life and then see it on a vehicle!!! That’s so awesome.

So for me, the process has refined itself over the last 20+ years. Over the last two decades, I have refined it and tried to make it as efficient as possible. I have a 2400 sq ft shop with an 1800 installation bay and a couple of offices. My office has a custom-designed and made computer to handle the large files I create for each client. I utilize Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flexisign for my design programs. I have never been an illustrator but more a photo manipulator. I take photographs and add different effects and create something unique and personal for each client. My core competency is designs for the service

industry and commercial fleets. My love is in the more custom themed one-off designs for show and custom vehicles. I really like the freedom that those clients give me. The one thing I learned about this industry that I am in is that it’s a true community. There are so many super-talented individuals and companies that, if you watch, challenge you in a slight way to raise your bar, to always push the envelope, and continue to get better with each project. For me, finding inspiration is so easy, from music and the way it makes me feel, to pieces of artwork or styles of artwork. Tattoo artists, designers, custom car makers, stories, articles, sculptures. I get inspiration from life. I love typography and really like to see different perspectives on how to design with type. When people hear music and can recite lyrics almost instantaneously is the way I see color and color theory. I LOVE color; I love bright colors and combinations. I love to see how color combinations go together and how to push those boundaries. The future is going to be exciting (and slightly frightening) with the advent of AI. It’s going to be a very interesting next few years.

Doing this on my own, I have learned to develop customer relations and then bootstrap my company to where it’s at today. I often would take any and every client, and that was always a detriment because they never ended the way it was supposed to. Early on, I took it personally when a client didn’t like my art FOR them. It was like they were not liking me personally, not just not liking the art direction. One of the biggest pieces of advice I could give a designer is LISTEN to the client and then take your expertise IN design, and if their ideas and your experience don’t

jive, then be a professional and give educated feedback on why their idea isn’t the best way to do it. If you take this approach, you will get less pushback and more interest in your ideas.

Looking back, if I could speak to myself, I would say enjoy the process. There is no end to the game; it’s just a growing process from the beginning to when I decide to retire. Some advice I would give to those wanting to get into this industry would be pretty simple, LEARN, learn as much as you can. Back when I started, there were no lines of separation between designer, production, installer, to salesperson. So learning it all was just part of the industry two decades ago. Now there are dedicated positions for each of those, and it has evolved into a promising career for each of those positions. In the aspect of designing, there are two ways that I can see to get there. The traditional way is to go to a university or college and get a degree in marketing or commercial design, and then the harder way (which I did) and just learn on my own. I took the challenge to learn on my own through books, online classes, and other mentors who helped along the way. As far as some things I got from this journey is learning that my time is valuable. No more free artwork, no more artwork INCLUDED in my project costs. I charge for my time whether it’s one hour or a full-blown-out project. If I were speaking to a designer starting out, I would encourage that designer to always push your limits and get better and learn as much as they can. Design has its caveats and different industries, so in our wrap

industry, there are things that you can’t learn in a school (yet). Learning templating and how to make a design have the same composition on the driver AS WELL as the passenger side. Being able to make the design flow and, more importantly, efficient for the installer once the wrap has been printed and produced