16/10/2026
THE SDGraphics STORY — PART 1 OF 3
GARAGE #1 — Where it all began. Properly, anyway! 😂
I've been looking back through some old pictures recently, and it got me thinking about where this whole SDGraphics adventure really started, just over six years ago.
It's quite strange looking back at where it all began, what we started with and just how much things have changed since. So, I thought I'd share a wee bit of the story over three posts. From a garage, to a garage/workshop, to what SDGraphics has become today.
Anyway, here goes!
It all started with a wee, cold, damp, stone-built garage that was originally nothing more than somewhere to store my cars and occasionally tinker with them. Nothing fancy, nothing glamorous, just four walls, a roof and enough dampness to give the average rainforest a run for its money!
Then I had one of those ideas…
"I could build a wee room in here, find an old broken Roland printer, repair it and see if I can make a go of something for myself in the motorsport world."
I mean, I knew a bit about these machines after all, so how hard could it be? Famous last bloody words! 😂
While I was at it, I could do a bit of window tinting at weekends. That would bring in a few quid to help buy parts for said Roland printer. Simple really!
Now, before we go any further, there are a few people who deserve a mention, because this little adventure didn't start with just me. From the very beginning, I've had three people by my side. Ema-louise, Dave and Ruairaidh. Roorie to everyone else, because let's face it, his actual name is a bloody cow to spell! 😂
These three have been part of this adventure from day one, and without them, things would have been very different.
Myself and Dave had a chat and decided that, while we were at it, we might as well make the garage a bit more workable so we could still tinker away with the cars whenever we had some spare time. Because, obviously, spare time was something we had SOOOOOOOOO much of! 🙄
First things first, though. We needed to build a room inside the garage, and Roorie was the obvious choice for this. Why? Well, because he's a builder! I'm a sticker guy, and Dave's a bloody courier driver FFS! Not exactly the A-Team when it comes to construction! 🤣
So, Roorie was brought in to build the room, and in an attempt to keep costs down, I decided I'd be his labourer. Seemed like a sensible idea at the time.
BIG. BLOODY. MISTAKE.
Jesus Christ, did that boy work me hard! I thought I was helping a mate build a wee room, not signing myself up for some sort of unpaid military fitness programme! Apparently, saving money meant paying for it in sweat, aching muscles and questioning every life decision that had brought me to this point! 😂
Still, between Roorie knowing what he was doing and me doing exactly as I was bloody told, we got the room built. More importantly, we kept the costs down, although I'm fairly certain Roorie got considerably more enjoyment out of the arrangement than I did!
Meanwhile, Ema-louise was there supporting this slightly questionable adventure from the very start.
With the room finally built, it was time to get things moving. The Roland had been found, repaired and brought back to life, and suddenly SDGraphics was starting to look like it might actually become something.
Well… sort of.
It didn't take long before I started thinking that perhaps another printer would be a good idea. A Mimaki this time, because yup, I knew a bit about those too!
I found a wee Mimaki CJV30-60 going for silly money. It was advertised as having "issues", but issues? Pfffft. I've got issues. What's one more? 😂
So, off I went on a casual wee 600-mile round trip to collect a printer that didn't work. As you do!
Got it back to the garage, found somewhere to squeeze it in, invested in a PC, RIP software and a few other bits and pieces. Within six hours of arriving back at the garage, I had the Mimaki starting to work its way through those "issues".
Two days later, I had it producing 95% perfect prints! Not bad for a wee broken printer that someone else had decided wasn't worth bothering with!
And the grand total invested to get this little adventure off the ground? Around £5,000.
That covered the materials, labour, machinery and the various bits and pieces needed to actually get things moving. Five grand was what got SDGraphics started on the road to becoming something more than just an idea.
Now, we won't discuss the £@ #%&!! amount of money subsequently spent getting knackered machinery to behave itself. That's an entirely different conversation, and quite frankly, I'd rather not relive the financial trauma! 🤣
From there, I started putting together a very small portfolio of things I could offer to some friends in the rallying world. Nothing massive or groundbreaking, just wee bits and pieces, like stickers for rally crews to hand out to marshals as a thank you for standing out in all weathers for 10+ hours, making the sport we love possible.
It wasn't about building some massive graphics empire. I just wanted to see if I could make something work for myself, doing something I knew a bit about, in a sport that I loved.
Slowly but surely, things started happening. More enquiries, more wee jobs and more people asking if I could do this, that or the other. Meanwhile, the window tinting side of things was getting busier too, which was great!
Apart from one tiny problem…
I HAD RUN OUT OF BLOODY ROOM! 😂
The garage was never exactly blessed with space to begin with. Getting cars in and out to work on them was like trying to shoehorn an elephant into a mouse hole, and that was on a GOOD day!
Now I had printers, computers, materials, tools and everything else crammed in there, while people were asking me to tint vehicles that wouldn't even fit through the bloody door! There were only so many times you could rearrange the same stuff in the same space and pretend you'd somehow made the garage bigger.
Perhaps this little idea was starting to outgrow its home? Perhaps it was time to look for something a bit bigger? Or perhaps I should have just stuck to storing cars in the garage like a normal person! 😂
And that was when Garage #2 presented itself.
But before we could move on, there was the small matter of dismantling everything we'd built, including Roorie's room.
Now, remember how I said Roorie was a builder? Well, apparently the boy doesn't believe in doing things by halves, because OVER-ENGINEERED doesn't even begin to describe it! 😂
I'm fairly certain that room would have survived a nuclear explosion, a category 5 hurricane and possibly the apocalypse itself. But down it had to come, and this time Dave was on demolition duty!
The very room I'd been worked like a bloody donkey helping Roorie build was now being dismantled, piece by bloody piece. I think Dave probably appreciated just how enthusiastic Roorie had been with the construction when he started trying to take the bloody thing apart! 🤣
And just like that, the little room we'd built, the printers we'd repaired and the space where this whole adventure started were being packed up and moved on.
January 2022. Garage #1 was empty again.
Looking at the photos now, you can still see the marks where the room once stood. It's quite strange, really. What started with £5,000, a couple of knackered printers, a few people willing to help and a slightly questionable idea had grown to the point where we needed somewhere bigger.
That wee cold, damp garage had served its purpose. It had given me somewhere to have a go at building something of my own, and somewhere along the way, what started as a wee nights-and-weekends venture was beginning to look like it might actually become something.
There were plenty of long nights, plenty of swearing at printers, plenty of wondering what the hell I was doing and absolutely no shortage of questionable decisions. But looking back, I wouldn't change where it all started.
Garage #1 had done its job.
And the best part? I had absolutely NO idea what was coming next! 😂
Which brings us nicely to Part 2 — Garage #2: Surely we've got enough room now?!
Because apparently, I hadn't learned my lesson about taking on more than I had room for!
To be continued… 👀
