25+ years in the trade. Print-production precision.
Clients used to tell me I was too picky for this line of work. Their finished jobs said otherwise.
MCP Customs to Pesce Design
I started MCP Customs in Maine around 1997 and grew it into a full sign and wrap shop. For 25+ years I took jobs from concept to completion: the design, the print, the prep and the install, and I was the one who answered to the customer. If the color was wrong, the type was too small or the art wouldn’t hold up at scale, it came back to me.
In 2019 that work became Pesce Design. Today I focus on the design: wraps, signs, drumheads and print graphics, with the production details already solved. I still build every file like I’m the one who has to print and install it.
Color is only as good as the setup behind it. I know color management from the inside: printer profiles matched to each media, consistent settings and test prints. Every screen and every printer is a little different, so I build files the right way, with clean color, true blacks and print-ready specs, giving your print shop the best possible starting point.
Garbage in, garbage out.
Poor client artwork makes a poor wrap, no matter how good the print is. So I design from scratch or do a proper rebuild, in vector wherever I can, instead of stretching a low-res logo across a van.
Precise, accurate and dependable are the three words I hold myself to.
- RebuildsVector rebuilds of old and low-res logos
- LayoutTemplated to the vehicle’s body lines, read-from-a-distance hierarchy
- ProofingProofs checked at scale and in black and white for contrast
- FilesPrint-ready, finished files, not “almost there”
Heads for national touring acts, printed right.
Hired by Sic Skinz to print and produce drumheads for national touring acts: Asylum heads for Mike Wengren of Disturbed, radiation heads for Shawn Drover of Megadeth, circus heads for Barry Kerch of Shinedown, 40-inch kanji heads for Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe, and Colt Ford (whose Jack Daniel’s-style graphic I fully reconstructed from a jagged low-res JPEG). Most of the art was supplied by the band or client, and some of the provided files needed to be reworked; others were print-ready apart from file conversion. The Mallett Brothers Band is one of my own clients, with original designs, not through Sic Skinz. The art has to read from the back of an arena under stage light.
See the drumhead work →Color you can count on.
Color management is where a lot of wraps go wrong, so I treat it as part of the design. In my shop years I ran print samples at different RIP settings and pass counts and watched the ink load, so the color came out rich without flooding the film. That experience goes into every file I build.
My last printer was an HP Latex. I like latex for wraps because the inks are greener than solvent and don’t soak through the vinyl into the adhesive, which can cause outgassing and wrap failure.
See print production →What I bring to the job.
Design only. Files are built to print right at your shop.
Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat and Firefly, backed by years of hands-on RIP, wide-format and screen printing experience from the shop days.
- Type and layoutType pairing, custom lettering, hierarchy and kerning, tuned to read up close or from 60 feet away
- Brand and logoMarks, vector rebuilds, and working inside someone else’s brand guidelines
- ColorBrand color held across screen, ink, vinyl, fabric and wood
- RetouchingMasking, compositing and rescuing low-quality client images for large format
- AI-assisted imagingConcepts, backgrounds and upscaling, always finished by hand in Illustrator and Photoshop
- Print-ready filesFile prep and material guidance, informed by years of hands-on wide-format printing, lamination and material selection at my own shop
Tips from the shop floor.
Anchor Point Tips is where I share what 25 years of sign and wrap work taught me: quick Illustrator and Photoshop tips, print-production know-how, and Shop Life comics about the trade. The pen nib in the Pesce Design logo comes straight from it.
Have a file that has to print right the first time?
Vehicle wraps, signage, drumheads and print-ready design, plus logo rebuilds, all done remotely. Send me a note with what you are working on.