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The creation of Spikey Graphics is a small and silly one when I look back and think about it, an idea that sprang from the designing of personalised banners on a Stock car Racing forum called FTOOZ.
It started as something I did not even understand, I had seen these graphical images on other forums but never done one myself and honestly had no idea how to make them but after discovering how they go from the PC to the net it all made sense and away I went.
The First few were terrible and were deleted although I wish I hadn’t now looking back, this is the earliest I have still around.
It was pretty simple, I made them in Publisher, and copied them over to paint so they could be uploaded and that was it, from then on in it was all designing for about a year, I've actually lost count but I think I made about a hundred of these in all shapes and sizes, colours and designs.
They did get better than that first banner, I wouldn’t say by much though! But I earned myself the nickname “The Banner Man” it stuck for as long as I made them and they were always wanted but a new program was being brought in without me ever realising it, Photoshop.
It was a program we were learning at college, and one I didn’t understand to start with but some quick simple lessons by some friends and it made sense, that was probably about it, that was the real Beginning of Spikey Graphics.
One of the first banners made on Photoshop, very early as I wanted to use every fancy option available!
I now had to learn how to make this work in my favour and tone down my now over the top graphics, but I don’t really remember thinking that at the time as my banners were as popular as ever and now I was getting requests for logos for web sites and Skin designs for an online racing game.
My first big blow was the banning of Graphical banners and signatures on the forums, it stopped a good 80% of all my work and I was left doing bits and pieces of web sites and logo design.
In the two years or so that passed I had unknowingly created logos, posters and skins for just about anyone that wanted them and my web sites were looking pretty good too with The Batten Central site ( now Batten Performance ) and sixsix7.co.uk site going from strength to strength, both featuring in the stock car magazine “Unloaded 7.3” thanks to Barry Weatherhead.
2006 saw me have the chance to make banners again thanks to the FTOOZ forum, was a strange feeling but nice to have a go again, and some of the new banners looked pretty good compared to my old work, this is one of my newer banners
By the end of 2006 I had decided for definite that I wanted to get into designing and printing full time, I had hoped to start making T Shirts at the start of the year, but had been held back by the costs involved but now I have a well paid job ( not very luxurious though... ) and the chance was there at last.
I also now had a good reputation with people among the stock car community, had a Spikey Graphics logo on two cars, and then in 2008 it had spread to five cars, I had designed logos for the top companies inside the racing, mainly in Madison Motorsport, Fast Trax tyre softener and the redesigning of the Mtec logo.
That brings me right up to the here and now which looking at the date says ‘30th March 2008’ and Spikey Graphics is going from strength to strength, the winter period had seen SG make nearly 30 photographic collages in co-operation with BWP Live, as well as 2 web sites and many more logos and banners and now the printing equipment is here too, and the first wave of SG merchandise has left the building!
All the way I had great people around me that were happy to try out and be my testers, from the very start my good friend James has always used my work with pride as Have “Ace” Kyle Moore and many others, my parents have been as supportive as you can be with these things as has my girlfriend who wants to be my secretary when I'm rich....yes...err no? Please take a minute to see my thank you page as It is those people who have helped and spurred me on over the last 3 and a bit years.
So I’ll end it now before I babble on for ever and bore the pants of you all and say thank you for reading this and watch this space!!
Kris “Spikey” Burgess
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