Today we’d like to introduce you to David Lawrence.
Hi David, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I grew up around art. My mom taught it, so museums were practically a second home. I went to AFI and I got my MFA in production design. And I kicked around the the art departments in film and television in LA for a bit, but I really didn’t like the lifestyle. There are some beautiful parts to it but it wasn’t a life that I wanted. And that was difficult for me because I had invested an enormous amount into the education. I didn’t regret it, but I didn’t know what I was going to do. I started to volunteer at the Arroyo Channel which is a public access community arts and culture television station in Pasadena. I would run the cameras and I would just help, and one day the head of the station asked me if I would I be interested in producing and hosting a show. The thing that popped into my head was I love going to art museums. So I pitched a little show called Museum Rat about visiting exhibits around the world. I flew myself to places like Santa Fe, Pittsburgh, New York, Paris, and Tokyo—just to walk into museums, look closely, photograph everything and then come to the studio and talk about what I saw. I was at MOMA in New York, I remember it was pouring rain and I stood in front of James Rosenquist’s F-111— this huge wall-filling, hand-painted, impossible to ignore mural—and it opened something for me about scale, craft, and impact. I learned Rosenguist was a commercial muralist and had a second track as a fine artist. I decided I wanted to follow in his footsteps.
From there I moved into large-format mural studios. I started in the shop—making pounce patterns, prepping layout packets, and mixing every color the wall crew would need—then became lead production artist, and eventually got poached by the biggest independent mural company in the country to help manage the giant downtown L.A. walls. I loved the scale and the effect of that work. It felt like “print plus cinema.” But I wasn’t painting as much as I wanted, so I began planning an exit.
I cold-called Wilkins Media, which is the most established global Out Of Home advertising agency in the world, for a year about my idea of bringing back hand-painted boards and finally one day they said they’d represent Craft Ads. I wanted the best out-of-home representation; they’re now we are official media partners.
After my art director Amber Easton came on board, I booked our first billboard to advertise ourselves and we didn’t have a website yet or anything. And within a week of it going up I got a call from NPR and they said “We’d like to do a story on your company.” Then we got a call from NBC News and they said they same and that pressed booked our first clients and gave us the confidence that this business idea had legs.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It hasn’t been smooth exactly. Any new business its going to have challenges, especially if you’re doing something really outside the current paradigm, but at every critical moment someone has helped or supported us. It’s given me a lot of faith that Craft Ads headed in the right direction.
Id say the first struggle was figuring out if the concept was even viable and then designing the production studios and workflows so they created consistent professional results, and finding our vendors and partners took a long time too.
Now we’re getting ready to really rev the engine for the first time. We’re courting larger national clients and offering no-interest financing for campaigns up to a year. We’re ready to expand.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Craft Ads is the only hand painted billboard agency in United States. Our team is bringing back the timeless art of hand-painted advertising specializing in start to finish white-glove concierge service, unique artistry and flexible plans designed around the client’s specific brand, We create campaigns with real paint, real artists and real attention to detail. This insures client’s investments into advertising are authentic, memorable and perfectly aligned with their business goals.
Our ethos is simple. Elevate our client’s our client’s message above the clutter of generic ads. Each campaign reflects a brand’s unique story, the community and setting in which the billboard is advertising, and is designed and made by skilled artists who understand the power of handcrafted design. Clients repeatedly tell us that this level of detail makes their campaigns stand out. A billboard that is hand-painted registers with the viewer as authentic, human and full of charm and character.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
In the context of my business the best thing is LA has a long and storied history of billboards. There was a time when ALL the advertising was hand painted by talented local artists which means there’s still a deep cultural memory of Los Angeles filled with commercial art that had a connection to the city. We are bringing back that heritage.
What I like least is that the majority of art in the billboard and OOH industry has become so bad it’s currently seen as visual pollution in many communities in SoCal. That’s unfortunate because it prevents local businesses their best, most cost effective option to advertise directly to their community in a way that integrates with the neighborhood’s daily life. I’m not sure Craft Ads can change that, but we can be a step in the right direction. Each great hand-painted billboard we do makes the cheap templated photoshopped art of most board ads look like exactly that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.craftads.com
- Instagram: @craftadsoffical
Image Credits
All photos were taken by photographer Deissy Flores Instagram: @deissypf
