On November 2, 2016, Avery Dennison Graphics Solutions announced that Toxic Rat by Nick Caminiti, car wrap installer at Exotic Graphix, was named the King of the Wrap World in the “Wrap Like a King” Challenge at the 2016 SEMA Show. Nick won against 223 other installers from 21 countries. See our coverage of his win and images of his entry, click here.
This win marked a first at two levels - Exotic Graphix was the first Australian car wrap installer to win at the Wrap Like a King Challenge, and the first time a regional winner from Australia & New Zealand was selected to compete for the title.
Here we chat with Nick to learn more about him and his team, his inspiration for Toxic Rat and working with Avery Dennison’s wraps.
1. Can you share with us what inspired you to be a wrap installer and how long you’ve been doing this?
I’ve been wrapping for 12 years. After finishing school, I started on my apprenticeship at a wrapping company as a signwriter. I fell in love with wrapping straight away and decided to open my own business once I completed my apprenticeship. So at the age of 21, I started Exotic Kustoms with a business partner. We decided to go our own separate ways and I started Exotic Graphix 6 years ago.
2. Why did you enter the 2016 Wrap Like a King Challenge?
We just recently won the ASGA (Australian Signs & Graphics Association) Australian and New Zealand Master Challenge — judged on the fastest, neatest wrap — and saw the Wrap Like a King competition. We thought it would be another great team building project that could open up some opportunities for us.
3. Can you tell us a bit more about your winning design and the inspiration behind this?
I’ve loved the hotrod and custom scene ever since I can remember and was fortunate enough to have built some cars with my family while growing up. Exotic Kustoms offered custom paint and wrapping, this was a big help when designing Toxic rat as I understood the process; Exotic Graphix now just focuses on Vinyl wrapping.
When I purchased the Ford Tudor, I had always intended it to be custom painted in the 60s inspired designs. When WLK came up, I thought what better opportunity do you get to prove to the world that wraps can be designed/printed and installed just as good as custom paint, to shake the industry up a bit and show what we can do. I still feel that custom paint is an unbelievable art and has its place for certain jobs but I just wanted to see how far wraps have come and how close they can be compared to paint.
So Toxic Rat, we used the newly-released Avery Dennison Supreme Wrapping™ Film Diamond Silver, to completely template the Tudor. This would achieve the shapes and edges needed to replicate the 1960s
custom Hot Rod panelled out paint theme; it consists of lace, fingerprint, sunburst and three-dimensional cube patterns, as well as a custom airbrush piece on the rear, which was scanned and printed in high resolution on Avery Dennison DOL 1460 overlaminate.
Toxic Rat’s entire exterior was wrapped, as was the interior and even the firewall at the back of the engine bay. Pretty much anywhere paint can go, vinyl has gone. If you’re not in the industry, you’d swear it was paint. It’s the ultimate example of “laid, not sprayed!”
[You can see the transformation process in this video.]
4. What do you have to say about Avery Dennison’s films?
I’ve always had amazing support from Avery Dennison. Early on they had given me some amazing opportunities. We partnered up and did the International Motorshow together, and then they gave us the opportunity to wrap the first chrome Lexus LFA in the then new Supreme Wrapping Film™ Conform Chrome. Avery Dennison products are so user friendly, their support is a class above the rest and they seem to always be pushing the industry and the latest products. I think the industry is still so young and I think Avery Dennison also knows this and that’s why they invest so much time into R&D on new products and finishes. It shows in their products, especially when you’ve install them.
5. What does it mean for you and your team to win Wrap Like a King 2016?
It’s the biggest achievement EXOTIC has done to date. It still doesn’t feel real though, it’s amazing how many people know about it and have reached out to us. We haven’t had a lot of time to sit back and reflect on it but plan to do something special for the team and the close people involved on the build in the coming weeks, hopefully that gives us time to soak it up.
It’s funny though I think we are the only company that flies back from Vegas, goes to work the next day, shakes everyone’s hand in the morning and says, “Okay so what’s next??”
6. Will you enter the 2017 competition?
To be honest, we have broken budget! But we definitely would love the opportunity to back it up! We have all had a laugh here though and said, “What’s next? How far will the industry push this?” I think 2017 will provide some amazing entrants.
Avery Dennison
www.graphicsap.averydennison.com/carwraps
Exotic Graphix
www.exoticgraphix.com.au
