Invoking Mod Nostalgia With Md-X

Back to the 60s. Venture Signs delivers an authentic transformation that'll speak powerfully to those who were there, and to those who wish they were alike...

Chris Illsley is the managing director of Running Imp. If you've ever had cause to make an occasion out of anything to do with athletic endeavour, chances are that you've connected with Running Imp. The company stocks everything you could need when you're organising a sporting event to make that event the success you'd hope.

Whether it's awards for a three-legged race around the village green in a good cause, or the need to install, support, man and maintain fifty-five timing clocks that line the course of the London Marathon, Running Imp will deliver. One of the company's divisions delivers the prized medals for the London Marathon too. Running Imp is as well known as the events it supports and it serves customers throughout Europe and as far as New Zealand too.

Keith Archer is a director of Lincoln based Venture Signs. He and Chris Illsley have an interest in common - Scooters. We're not talking the recently reborn scoot-along two wheelers that seem to have risen anew an are now part of every child's operating essentials, we're talking motor scooters, the Vespas, the Lambrettas the breed that's never really gone away and that for many evoke a whole era.

Just as a compass needle is always drawn to point toward the magnetic North Pole, the front wheel of a scooter when it's mobile is likely to be pointing toward the coast. Back in the 60s huge swarms descended upon coastal towns. Bristling with chrome accessories, ridden by the immaculately attired and signalling a huge social movement and music scene that defined a generation, 'the scooter' transcended its role as practical transport then, and endures as a style icon now despite the passage of time.

Chris Illsley wanted his Vespa to represent a rolling homage to the era and so engaged Venture Signs to consider the job. No sooner said. Once the Venture Signs team demonstrated the potential of modern applied print and how it could conform to complex surfaces, the die was cast.

What resulted is as 'on-target' as its possible to be. Metamark's obligingly conformable MetaWrap MD-X was printed in the requisite colours and soon the Vespa was bedecked in the badges of office all self-respecting scooters should be wearing. Central to the theme is the roundel of course. Other little touches round out the ensemble. The MD-X handles every curve and, in particular, makes very short work of the cooling grill on one of the panels.