Freelance Lettering History

March of 1982 saw the official beginning of Freelance Lettering. FL was formed by Lance & Brenda Gibbs to answer the needs of the racing industry for dependable, quality spray painting and hand lettering.

Lance had shown an interest in hand lettering while in school in his native New Zealand. After leaving school in 1969, he began a five year signwriting apprenticeship that included classroom and practical training. The study of paints, brushes, signbuilding techniques, fonts, layouts, copying of logos and the practical application of these principles shaped his training.

Upon completion of the apprenticeship, Lance did what many young "kiwis" do - went out to explore the world. After spending some time in Johannesburg South Africa, he was joined by a couple of friends from NZ, bought a VW 'Combie' bus, stocked it with supplies and began a 5 month trip to London. In London, he met up with some more friends from New Zealand who were working for the Team McLaren F1 racing team. They had a week’s worth of work for Lance, that turned into a year and half with the team. Included in the stay was the 1976 F1 Championship of Team McLaren with James Hunt as the driver.

Wanting to see more of the world, Lance then spent a year on a wooden sailing ship in Monaco as a bosun’s mate. Next was a desire to see the USA. By contacting Team McLaren USA, he became the signwriter and truck driver for the Indycar team in 1979, while Johnny Rutherford was the driver.

Lance decided to settle in Indianapolis at the end of the '79 racing season. He soon got a job outside of the racing and signwriting industries. Unfortunately, he became disenchanted with the job. Fortunately, many of his contacts from the Indycar circuit kept asking for his services as a sign painter.

Lance found he had to break out his signpainting brushes and work with his toes hanging out. (The man never wears shoes, just Jandals brand flip-flops that he gets from New Zealand.) With the support and partnership of his Hoosier wife of two years, Lance and Brenda formed Freelance Lettering. Realizing there was not enough signpainting work available within the racing industry, FL was formed to serve two needs, to spray paint the racecars, pit equipment and helmets, and then hand letter the sponsor logos, numbers, driver and mechanic names that were necessary with the racing industry. It was absolutely necessary that FL offer the best possible product in a timely manner. Initial customers included a wide variety of sprint cars and midgets, and a few Indycar teams.

Times were changing. Larger teams were having decals screen printed and die cut rather than having a signwriter paint the lettering and logos on the bodywork. For the majority of the FL customers, Lance began signpainting logos and numbers on clear adhesive vinyl panels. That led to handcutting vinyl decals. Luckily, in December of 1984, FL bought the first vinyl sign cutting computer in the state that permitted the programming of custom shapes and logos. The CAD system became Brenda’s domain on the kitchen table, while Lance continued with the spray painting in the detached garage. The brushes went into retirement. With the computer signcutting equipment, we were able to offer a better , more consistent product that was less expensive and easier to obtain.

As local sponsors saw the quality of their logos on the racecars, they began coming to FL for their commercial vehicles, sign, banners and displays. The business grew by word of mouth as our customers shared the secret of where everyone was getting such good looking graphics.

By January of 1985, FL moved from a home operated business, to a newly constructed building on the south edge of Gasoline Alley, just a mile and a half south of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The business took on a more professional look, added a few employees, and benefited from the explosion of racing teams and racing related businesses on Gasoline Alley and in the Indianapolis area. Soon a second computer was added to the business and Lance left the spray booth to rejoin the signwriting field, but in vinyl, not paint. Employees ran the spray painting side of the business for a couple of years until one of them purchased and relocated that portion of the business under the name of Fletch’s.

The changes in technology in the sign field have grown in leaps and bounds. Eventually, FL acquired a Gerber EDGE that thermally embosses a digital image onto vinyl, plastic, lexan or magnetic substrates. This technology allows us to create fades, shades, multi-colored graphics and even photos that before were only possible with a silk-screen process. But without the need for large quantities that were necessary to justify the expense of silk-screening. Another plus with the EDGE system was that we could then cut the graphics to shape with our plotters after the printing process. This allowed us to make our customer’s graphics even more colorful and eye-catching than ever before. The next acquisitions were plotters for even larger graphics, 48" tall single color graphics with virtually unlimited length were now possible, without the need for seams or splits.

With this larger ability came the need for a larger facility. By 1995, FL had built a 14,000 sq. ft. facility to house the larger staff, greater amount of equipment, and the addition of a vehicle installation bay. A number of offices were created to house the design and office staff, improving the image and efficiency of FL. The installation bay was made large enough to pull in a semi truck and trailer, and still have room to work.

The next addition for FL was the acquisition of a large format 80" solvent based digital printer that prints directly to banner material or pressure sensitive vinyl & some fabrics. Once again FL is leading the field with the best possible technology to fulfill the needs of our customers.

As always, our philosophy for FL is to always provide our customers with the best possible product in a timely manner. The entire staff takes pride in the work that we do, and the relationships we have formed over the years.