February 18, 2021 Reanne Duffy

It helps having friends in the trade when you’re promoting a business..

When you’re looking for a new livery for a vehicle to promote your business, it's great having a husband who’s something of an expert in their design and production. Even better, if he is involved in the business you're promoting too.

Such is the case with Progressive Martial Arts. One of the lead instructors in the business is also one of the company’s founding directors together with his wife. We know him better as Steven Smith, managing director of Eyecatching Signs based in Richmond in the north of England, and the winner of this year’s British Sign Awards vehicle graphics of the year category.

Steven has travelled extensively in pursuit of his further learning in the field of martial arts. In particular, he’s visited the United States where he climbed the learning and experience curve required so that he could qualify and return to the UK and teach Jeet Kune Do. 

Jeet Kune Do and Bruce Lee are synonymous. Lee perfected the art and taught many acolytes who went on to spread that learning further. What the uninitiated may not know is that, beyond the theatrics of his very successful movie career, Lee was a genuinely gifted and highly influential martial artist.

Having met with his wife and discussed the vehicle livery Progressive Martial Arts needed to promote itself, it seemed fairly obvious that an homage to Bruce Lee would be appropriate. There was no pushback and so the job proceeded.

Clearly Steven and the team at Eyecatching Signs are no strangers now to leading edge vehicle livery design and production. When the Bruce Lee wrap was first considered though, it would serve not just to promote the gym, but as a portfolio piece promoting Eyecatching Signs’ vehicle livery capability too.

The finished design is what you might call a head-turner. Bruce Lee is instantly recognisable in the graphics that pay him respect. It's clear to those in the know, that Progressive Martial Arts, is able to deliver his teachings, among other things too.

You need to be fast and very flexible to practice, let alone teach, Jeet Kune Do. Provisioning a winning wrap featuring the art’s master, your chosen material needs to be able to stretch and retain its composure too. MetaWrap MD-X and its matching laminate got the job done for Stephen and clearly acquitted itself and his design and printing skills brilliantly.

When it comes to promoting a local business, wraps represent a really cost-effective means of advertising. When they are done properly they achieve a certain celebrity of their own. When you add to that, subject matter that features towering celebrity itself, the effect is even bigger and better.

Looks like Progressive Martial Arts really has put its name on the map.