The art of boat wrapping

Queensland-based Fish Wreck was established in 2013, just as the idea of wrapping boats was starting to take hold. Over the years, the company’s passion for fishing has been expressed in the creation of quality, fresh and unique boat wraps and Australian-made apparel designs. Image Magazine features some of Fish Wreck’s original wraps and find out more from owner Paul Shaw about the company, its concepts and its craft.

Paul had worked in the sign industry for over 12 years prior to the conception of Fish Wreck and was aware that one of the main challenges in signwriting was to get access to quality artwork.

Planning to produce eye-catching and unique designs for his boat wraps, he and his team gathered a group of world-renowned marine artists each with their own individual style from Canada, the USA, South Africa, Denmark and Australia and signed them exclusively to Fish Wreck in the Oceanic region.

“Most of the artwork is hand-produced in either oils or graphite as we find hand-produced artwork provides the details and artistic flair that vector art quite often lacks,” explains Paul, confirming that all designs are produced in-house at Fish Wreck. “As the artwork is not vector-based, each piece has to be created with minute detail for large projects and compiled in Photoshop.”

Fish Wreck contracts its designs to sign companies all over Australia and the world. Although the company has a large nationwide network of sign companies to recommend to its clients, it is always on the look out for new talent.

“No two wraps are the same as we like to individualise them for each client . Since there are so many boat shapes around, every boat wrap requires some sort of custom adjustment,” he says.

In terms of materials used, Paul says that Graphic Art Mart has always looked after Fish Wreck, and confirms that the company’s vinyl of choice is Avery MPI 1105 EA RS with either a DOL6460 or 1460 overlaminate printed with original Roland DG inks.

One boat wrap project that stands out in Paul’s mind was a fleet of boats he completed for Ocean Blue Fishing in Vanuatu.  Apart from the challenges of working in a different country and enduring extreme conditions, he had quite an experience. “I was commissioned to wrap three 30ft and one 17ft boat on site in Vanuatu within five days, and planned to find the time to do some of my own fishing in this paradise location. However, Customs at Vanuatu airport confiscated the wraps and sent me on my way. The next morning I was greeted by the host of the resort who told me to relax as I was now in Vanuatu. Unknown to me she had gone to the airport late that night and sorted everything out,” Paul explains. But that was not the end of the challenges. With nearly 100% humidity, heavy rain with only a tarpaulin for cover as well as working alone on all the installs, the task seemed insurmountable for Paul. 

“Fortunately Ocean Blue provided two fast-learning employees available to assist, and all four boats were completed in four days, leaving one day for fishing,”
he concludes.

This article originally appeared in the Dec issue of Digital Image Magazine read more here.