The start of the 2016 North American Season gets underway with this weekend’s Rolex24 at Daytona International Speedway and I have been involved in a variety of projects associated with the event.
Most prominent are new liveries for Turner Motorsport with their all new BMW M6 GT3 and CJ Wilson Racing and their new Porsche Cayman GT4 ClubSport.
SEMA 2016 was a relatively quiet affair for me, scaling it back after some insanely busy times to focus on the Race season. I had a few vehicles at the show though.
This was an awesome build to work on with Keith Charvonia, who I assisted on the 2014 Scion Tuner Challenging winning Scion FR-S.
This project was to design a livery for his latest build, a Toyota Land Cruiser. Initial brief was for a snow-camo style livery, but we moved it on a bit into something more distinctive, finished off in AERO paint. A paint (not vinyl) wrap.
More details here.
The Need for Speed Porsche 964 was reborn for this year show with a livery and wrap design to give the car a more menacing look. Also had the opportunity to work on a few vehicle styling aspects including the additional driving lamps, rear end clean up and additional holes in the front bumper for a more agressive asthetic.
Final car looks a little different to my original design, but it still works!
More details here.
I was commissioned to create the vehicle styling of the original Hoonicorn a few years ago and it made its original debut at SEMA 2014. Fast forward to 2016 and the Hoonicorn has been updated with extra power and exposed Turbochargers! A new livery (I was not involved in either livery) finished the new look off and it was cool to see this monster have a new lease of life.
Chris Harris of Top Gear commented …
“So, its a stunning set of aesthetics, a stunning piece of engineering and possibly the coolest Mustang… ever built”
More details on the styling of the Hoonicorn here
Working on a feature of the Safecraft/Nexgen livery for the site but in the meantime, two Baja 1000 entries for McMillin Sport and CLP Motorsport were at SEMA in preparation for Baja 1000 qualifying
Nexgen and Safecraft are owned by CLP Motorsports and both divisions run the same livery for consistency and to ensure maximum exposure.
blah blah
On the main Safecraft stand, two buggies were also wrapped in the Safecraft/Nexgen look.
This livery was created last year for a road going LMP style Diesel vehicle and has ended up more than 10 vehicles including Formula Drift Camaro’s, Polaris buggys, off road racers and the CJWilson Racing Porsche Caymen which raced at Laguna Seca earlier this year.
Elsewhere, on the Safecraft stand their Lamborghini Gallardo PWC car which will race with Tyler McQuarrie at the Thunderhill 25hrs in December.
Stay tuned for a folio feature on this livery.
The highlight of recent SEMA builds has been working with top car builder, Keith Charvonia.
As a fellow Industrial Designer by trade, Keith and I often share the same vision and wavelength and is one of the most under-rated car builders in North America. Take a look at his site.He has appeared on Jay Leno’s Garage with his unique Kaiser Manhattan and the Scion Tuner Challenge Scion FR-S build which I worked on a couple of years ago
This year, Keith was creating his build on his trusty Toyota LandCruiser FJ60, a classic SUV in the making, as the main-stream begin to realise how tough these vehicles are. Speedhunters and Airraid were supporting him in the build process along with many partners.
INITIAL CONCEPTS
The original brief was to design a livery on a white base based around camo. Some reference supplied called out the Snow-Camo look which has been used often on various VW Group projects in recent years. I wanted to move this on a little, so we explored a few different approaches as you can see here.
Personally, I wanted to move this on from Snow-Camo a little and make the look our own. I’ve been quite interested in random geometric shapes across vehicles to give a sense of speed. You can see elements of this in my liveries for Corey Fergus and also Subaru Rally Team USA, but this initially didn’t work.
Keith mentioned a hexagon shape he was considering using and that sparked a thought! I reworked the design with chamfers and hexagons to create something a little more unique.
We developed the design back and forth and ended up as you see above. We wanted to utilise the lines of the truck, so you might notice the graphic removed from some of the body creases on the vehicle.
Next task was working out how this was going to be produced. We had little time, no available to scale drawings, a vehicle 1000’s of miles away from me and the end result needed to be super clean. I spoke to one of my clients, AERO who came on board straight away.
AERO produce PAINT film. Its applied like a vinyl wrap, but its actually paint. Its lighter than vinyl and paint and also as tough as paint. Colors and vibrancy really pop as well, so this was perfect.
Recent AERO wraps have included the US Bobsliegh team, the Rahal Letterman Lamnnigan BMW M6 and Indycars and the Michael Shank Racing Daytona Prototype.
One we had a design locked in, I played with various muted hues to get a nice transition from White to Dark Grey. Every day, Keith had another partner on board, so we had to incorporate these into the actual design, so they didn’t look added on. One of my other clients, Safecraft Safety Equipmentd also came on board straight away, so huge thanks to AERO and Safecraft.
Once signed off, I completed the Wrap file. This is different to the final design sheet as it includes bleeds, overlaps and annotation to aid wrapping the build.
AERO wrapped the Land Cruiser while Keith finished off the build and all went well. This image shows the transformation from original Toyota (off) white paint, shown on the roof and B-piller compared to AERO.
Once again, Keith has impressed massively with his build and I hope the livery goes someway to match his latest pride and joy.
A pleasure as always to work with Keith. Make sure you check out Keith’s site.
You can read Keith’s Trailhunter Build posts on Speedhunters here.
You can also go back in time and read about the creation of the Speedhunters Scion Tuner Challenge winning entry here.
Official Spotter Guides for IMSA WeatherTech and Continental series  at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park this weekend are now live at sister site,SpotterGuides.com. Thanks to IMSA and for their support.
Download your guides at SpotterGuides.com
Another year gone by without a website overhaul! I have one laid out and designed, but 2022 was super busy, thankfully, so had to rely on Instagram.
Now, to my annual Rolex 24 post. This has been a long, so called ‘off-season’. Its normal for the odd livery to fall by the wayside during production as money and sponsorship plans fall apart for teams, but this year was the exception. Every project came off which has been awesome. Added to the liveries which are being re-used from previous years, I am extremely fortunate to have a good number of liveries at the Rolex, most will carry through to the whole IMSA Season.
A summary of the all new liveries below.
Good riddance 2020. Who thought 2021 was going to be better?  There is still time yet.
I have now released the 2020 Edition of my Le Mans Spotter Guide, sponsored by long-term client, AERO Sustainable Paint Technology. You can download the guide at sister site, SpotterGuides.com
As with any freelancer in any industry, this is going to be a challenging time. If you are in a position to help any freelancer or local business, please do. The local shops and businesses are going to need your support, now, and after the virus passes.
The big companies and banks will largely survive. In many countries, the offers for self-employed are non existent, minimal or only available if you close your business down.
Time will tell how we, as a famiy, do, we currently have our health which is the main thing and Canada seems to be relatively pro-active on action plans.
My 2020 didn’t start well as I injured my back and shoulder through work (!) and bast posture over the years which wrote off most of February with countless tripes to the Chiropractor and Massage specialists. Just as I’m getting back to full time COVID-19 kicks in, so I’m on the back foot.
I would therefore like a refund on my 2020 experience please. It was not as described 😉
Many of my clients have been awesome, both while I was out of action with my back and now, chasing invoicing.
So, the realities, Racing has been posponed. This has a knock on effect on current work, but also future projects as teams struggle to survive.
Time to diversify.
The so-called ‘off’ season has been anything but here. My first 2020 livery comission came in early September with various discussions months before that and there has been no let up since.
My first full weekend off will actually be the weekend of the Rolex 24 when I’ll be miles away from Daytona watching from BC, Canada.
It has been a great year so far and I will endeavor to update the website more often in 2020, but for now a quick over view on the various liveries and art at the Rolex 24.
GEAR Racing powered by GRT Grasser
I have worked with GEAR’s Mark Ruggieri on a number of sponsorship proposals in recent months. Just before Christmas, the team decided to make a big entrance at the ROAR with a one off livery. I had two days to pull something together, if I was going to accept the challenge.
To be honest, I was already overloaded, but I’ve had an idea for a Pop-Art style ‘Art Car’ for a few years, but as its not very corporate friendly, there was never the right opportunity until now.
I have been fortunate to have been super-busy for the first six months of this year which has resulted in the website taking a backward seat again. Its actually a great situation to be in for the past 18months or so, but I am going to find time to bring this little place up to date!
Starting off with a preview to my work around Le Mans 2019. I am very lucky to have worked on three liveries and another edition of my Le Mans Spotter Guide for the 24 Hour event.
I was comissioned by driver Wei Lu and Jeff Segal to create an all new livery for the JMW Ferrari 488, while keeping the teams iconic Yellow base. The camo livery features many references to Jeff and Wei, the history of Le Mans, Ferrari, the success of JMW Motorsport, Vancouver (where Wei and I live) and even a Chinese Dragon, drawn by my daughter!
A feature on the design will be published during race week.
I was also able to work with American artist, Richard Phillips on his art-car design for Porsche’s new Second Skin personalisation programme and the Project 1 Motorsport entry. Richard designed the livery featuring three pieces of his art and I was tasked with creating production files, branding and ensuring everything fitted to the curves of the 911 RSR.
Background feature HERE.
The third livery followed the same path. Risi Competizione reached out to me to assist on their livery. Designed by Chloélia Breton and Louise Doublet, students at the ENSAAMA School of Art, I was involved in wrap production, branding, paint and vinyl choice for this French Racing Blue Ferrari.
Background to the design is available HERE.
In addition to this, the WeatherTech Racing Le Mans 2019 Spotter Guide is nearing completion and will be online on June 7th ready for early travellers attending Scrutineering. Version 2 of the guide will be released on Tuesday 11th June and posted at sister site, SpotterGuides.com
Finally, I have partnered with Full Torque Gear with additional shirt designs featuring the iconic 24 Hours event and a range of RadioShowLimited/RadioLeMans apparel. You can purchase this and some of my other designs at Full Torque Gear.
I have been working with Mark Mullens and championship winning driver, Scott Hargrove with their Full Torque Gear brand over recent months on a range of quality Automotive inspired apparel which is available at FullTorqueGear.com
This week, we have announced FullTorqueGear are now the official store for RadioShowLimited, the broadcasters behind RadioLeMans and IMSA Radio.
I have produced all of ‘RadioShow Limited identity over the past nine years.
A number of other illustrations and designs are also available.
More products including additional ‘RSL’ apparel will be added in the coming weeks.
(Products produced in North America and Europe depending where you reside)
I was fortunate to be approached by FCP Euro to update their livery for 2019. The European parts company has a distinctive livery with set colors, so this was an evolution to make the livery more dynamic and also accomodate an increase in sponsor logos.
The livery of the two car team uses the same colors, but more dynamic with angled graphics on the side and up the c-pillar to accomodate additonal sponsors Liqui Moly and Corteco. The front bumper with horizontal ribs on the corner proved a tricky area but we turned that into a feature to stack sponsors.
The so called off season has been a busy time with a fleet of liveries in IMSA and other series either complete, or in progress, plus the release of the IMSA Spotter Guide.
I have been fortunate to have been able to produce a number of liveries for teams which will be on display at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Here is a quick summary. Full features on some of these liveries coming soon.
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
#19 Moorespeed – Audi R8 LMS GT3
Moorespeed are a long term client and I have designed their liveries for a few years in the IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup. This year, they move up to the WeatherTech series with a new Audi R8 LMS GT3. Main sponsor Bardahl traditionally run in black and yellow. We wanted to mix it up a bit and make the car more stealth, so a mix of Gold (to tie in with the #IMSA50 celebrations) create a clean looking design which is also unique on the grid.
The livery has been well received and IMSA have used it as their flagship car to promote the Rolex24
#48 Paul Miller Racing – Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo
Current Lamborghini Super Trofeo AM champion, Ryan Hardwick has commissioned me to design his liveries in the past and returned this year to create an all new look for Paul Miller Racing with Ryan’s 1st Phrom sponsorship. This was a tricky design as another (NDA) client had an identical livery brief in terms of color, for a while, so we played with a Blue and then a Black base.
As is often the case the extra variants and revisions helped to resolve the design.
#71 P1 Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3
I had great fun designing the Chupacabra for JC Perez and P1 Motorsport last year. The livery also ended up on multiple Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeos as well as their race haulers. This became a huge fan favourite for kids which was cool We tweaked the design this year, using a graphite base and adding in a side illustration of a Chupacabra, ready to pounce. P1 Motorsports will be racing the full season of the IMSA WeatherTech championship.
The Official #IMSA Spotter Guide for the Rolex is now available to download on sister site,  SpotterGuides.com
Quite a few ‘first looks’ including my updated Chupacabra.
If you are going to the race, there will be printed booklets available (they went to print over the weekend, so aside from updated #9 Pfaff and #29 Land liveries, pretty much complete).
Online guide will be updated with any changes later this week.
Thanks to IMSA and almost every team for helping out. 96 illustrations including 11 of my own liveries.
MASSIVE thanks to Shea Adam and Paul Marquart for proof reading. They discovered pretty quick which I color in for a living
This was a beast to produce!
Sadly, the website continues to take a back seat with a great range of working coming in. Most of my work is with motorsport liveries and these are showcased here.
2018 is way in the past, work wise (my last ’18 livery was created back in September), and was an epic year, my most successful to date. My first 2019 design was actually in August and if all the planets line up, I will have around 15 liveries at the Roar24 and Rolex24 combined. (4 WeatherTech, 9 Michelin Pilot, 1IMSA PC)
All of this wouldn’t have been possible without the support of my family, friends and the teams, sponsors and drivers who commissioned me to design these liveries, so a huge THANK YOU!
All the liveries shown have competed (or used in public, in the case of the Vancouver Canucks liveries) during 2018. A couple (the CES BMW M6 for example) were collaborations and a few are older liveries still in use today.
Also a few sponsorship proposals which never saw the light of day and a couple which are confidential with NDA etc. There were a few helmets, race haulers, race suits, t-shirt designs and vehicle styling projects along the way was well.
Signing off 2018 with wishes for a healthy, happy, fun-packed and peaceful Happy New Year.
One of the best kept secret’s on the net! Earlier today, Ken Block showed off his new GYMKHANA TEN toy, the Ford F150 Hoonitruck.
This is not an ordinary 70’s Ford F150.
I was commissioned to style the vehicle (not the livery though) at the end of 2016, working with a brief and feedback from the Hoonigan team.
Where did the 2018 season go? I’ve had the most amazing season, but also easily the busiest, even busier than legendary crunch time on EA games, or back to back race weekends when I was at McLaren many moons ago.
So, with the result of up to14+ cars running on an IMSA weekend in all classes, plus others, the website had to take a back seat. I had to ensure my client work were not compromised.
However, now, I’m starting to update the site so pop back and see some of the liveries I will be highlighting including the Chupacabra P1 Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 racecar. More soon.
Pop back tomorrow as a new project I styled for Ken Block and the Hoonigans drops on You Tube. Somehow, its stayed a secret for two years, but this teaser below might give you a clue. All I can say is its bonkers.
Its been a busy few months with liveries and Spotter Guides galore. Sadly that has resulted in a lack of updates on Andy Blackmore Design. Fear not, for the 2018 WeatherTech Le Mans Spotter Guide is available to download for free on sister site. SpotterGuides.com
The guide features all 60 entries with a huge list of info on each car down to driver grades and social media handles. The guide has been update throughout race week, which ensures this is the most up to date entry list and guide online. You can download the guides here
I also produce the official Spotter Guides for IMSA (WeatherTech, Continental, Porsche GT3 Cup USA and Prototype Challenge) and for the Lamborghini Super Trofeo championships in Europe and North America. All available for free on SpotterGuides.com
I will be bringing this site up to date during the summer months, so check back for 18months of liveries!
I have been very busy (not complaining!) the first part of the year and updates to the website has taken a back seat while I give all my clients my full attention. Post Le Mans ‘should’ be quieter.
I’m currently on vacation in the Canadian Interior (thankful for Scheduled Posts!), so I wish my fellow Canadian residents and citizens a very happy Canada Day, the 150th birthday of Canada as a country we know of today.
Also, a Happy 4th July and Independence Day to those south of the border.
Two North American racing icons. Only natural the Ford GT is decked out in the Maple Leaf as its built by Multimatic in Ontario.
You are welcome to use the above image, but please be respectful and do not crop out my logo.
Official Spotter Guides for IMSA and Lamborghini are now available to download on sister site,SpotterGuides.com. As the largest online resource of Guides, we have official guides for five of the six series racing at ‘The Glen’. Thanks to IMSA and Lamborghini Squadra Corse for their support. Download your guides at SpotterGuides.com