Business

<< Previous   of   Next >> Darren Breen / Herald file photo  (click to enlarge) Sprint car driver Tayler Malsam drives a 410-cubic-inch car No. 26R, which sports Fire-Down vinyl graphics, at the Skagit Valley Speedway in Alger on May 31. Michael O'Leary / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Sean Cain (left) and Brent Anderson of Fire-Down Graphics apply a vinyl graphic to the side of a race car trailer at their Monroe shop Thursday.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Monday, July 28, 2008 Fire-Down Graphics of Monroe keeps fast company Common interests drew high school buddies together to produce hot vinyl designs for race cars. By Scott Whitmore Herald Writer MONROE -- Brent Anderson had a problem. In February 2007, Anderson was several months into planning for the launch of his own business specializing in auto racing designs. He came up with the idea in late 2006, and figured it would take about a year to get everything into place. He had already decided on a name, Fire-Down Graphics, adapted from the song "Fire Shot" by reggae band Slightly Stoopid. Then one weekend Anderson heard a potential competitor was looking to sell his entire operation -- lock, stock and vinyl printer. "We cut him a check on Monday morning," Anderson said. "All of a sudden I had all this stuff and I had no idea how to run it. That's when I called Sean." Sitting in Fire-Down's office in a Monroe commercial park 16 months later, Anderson, Sean Cain and Sam Bisset, the third member of the Fire-Down team, laughed at the memory. Although the three longtime friends have much in common -- all are 26 and graduated from Marysville-Pilchuck High School in 2000 -- the unique talents of each were vital to the creation and evolution of Fire-Down. "I remember that phone call," said Cain, who had helped Anderson design Fire-Down's logo in October 2006. Cain was working at an industrial design firm in Everett when he got Anderson's plea for help. With just a little more a month to go before the start of the racing season and orders pouring in, Cain began to spend more and more time away from his regular job helping Anderson. Some racers merely wanted printouts of existing designs, but others asked Fire-Down to create something new for their race cars. Anderson, who had worked as a mechanic for Rudeen Racing in Monroe since 2001, had done some race car and helmet designs for Rudeen and other sprint car teams. "I knew how to sketch the stuff out or draw things," Anderson said. "I was always missing the other link, to get it into the computer and get it out as an actual physical product." That's where Cain's formal training in design principles and computer-assisted design proved invaluable to the fledgling business. After the initial rush of orders for the racing season was completed, Anderson took stock of his situation. By adding Rudeen Racing to the customers he inherited from the buy-out, Anderson found he had more than enough work to make Fire-Down a viable player in the local racing market. Once he knew Fire-Down would succeed, he began to think of expanding the business. As a result of working for Rudeen, whose drivers raced throughout the country, Anderson had a range of racing contacts. He also had an understanding of what race teams and drivers wanted for the look of their cars, haulers, uniforms and media packages. Cain, too, saw the possibilities. "I realized Fire-Down could become anything we wanted," he said. "It was such an amazing opportunity to start something of our own that I left my other place and came here." Figuring out what to do with that opportunity was the biggest problem Cain and Anderson faced. Adding Bisset to the team shortly thereafter helped define Fire-Down's business model. Bisset's father taught him how to develop film, and in high school he bought a video camera and began making skateboarding films. Bisset had been working part-time for Fire-Down photographing one of its clients, Rudeen driver Tayler Malsam, racing at local tracks. Although just in his second year racing sprint cars, the 19-year-old Malsam's ability was widely recognized and Bisset became a full-time part of the team to support him. "I'm basically just attached to Tayler's hip," Bisset said. "(That) is part of our future business model. ... You have a personal photographer at the track at every race." Malsam became the prototype client for the business the trio wanted Fire-Down to become. They set up a whiteboard and began brainstorming ideas to promote Malsam -- and to expand Fire-Down. In the following six months the trio narrowed their focus, discarding ideas they deemed impractical -- among them a reality TV show centered around Malsam -- while adopting and refining others. The result was Fire-Down becoming a full-service marketing firm for racing teams -- Anderson called it "a one-stop shop" -- to get integrated designs for cars, uniforms and haulers, as well as media packages including Web sites, photos and video. "I believe we are very unique in that regard. We offer a wide variety of services that are all custom-made to the client's needs," Anderson said. "We strive to put the same amount of energy and detail in everything we do, graphics or media." In late 2007 Malsam was signed by Cunningham Motorsports, a race team based in Statham, Ga., to race in the ARCA stock car series. Fire-Down submitted a design proposal to Dodge, the primary sponsor of the car Malsam would drive. "When we knew Tayler was going to be in the Dodge car, we wanted to put our look on it," Anderson said. "Dodge loved it." Additional projects with Cunningham followed, including designing its Dodge-sponsored midget race car team and signing driver Michael Phelps of Duluth, Ga., to a media services contract similar to Malsam's. Fire-Down will also expand to an international market next year with a car design created for Max Dumesny, seven-time Australian sprint car champion. Last February -- less than a year after Fire-Down began -- Anderson, Cain and Bisset found themselves at Daytona International Speedway in Florida, watching Malsam drive the race car with their design. "To me that was great, just to see our logo on a car going around Daytona," Anderson said. "A year before, I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to get everything done. It came pretty quick."

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