EP# 335: Passion in Design: Creating Effective Visual Solutions with JH Design Unlimited

Ever wondered how those eye-catching vehicle wraps transform ordinary cars into powerful marketing machines? Skip Mauney sits down with John Hodgson, owner-operator of JH Design Unlimited, to uncover the art and science behind effective commercial vehicle wrapping on the Treasure Coast.

A lifelong artist with formal training in industrial design, John shares his fascinating journey from yacht designer to branding specialist. His passionate approach combines creativity with meticulous technical standards—holding both 3M preferred and Avery certified status ensures his wraps don't just look great but last for years. What began as a graphic design shop in 2010 has evolved into a comprehensive branding powerhouse, with vehicle wraps becoming their signature offering.

The conversation reveals surprising insights about mobile advertising effectiveness. "You get on average 101 impressions per mile," John explains, making vehicle wraps arguably the most cost-effective marketing investment available to local businesses. But not all wraps are created equal. John emphasizes the critical importance of clean, strategic design that communicates instantly, warning that cluttered wraps fail regardless of how colorful or attention-grabbing they might be. His "less is more" philosophy and obsession with quality have built his reputation across Florida's Treasure Coast.

Beyond the technical aspects, John's personal story of honoring his late mother through excellence in his craft reveals the human connection driving his business philosophy. "Everything I do, I pour my heart and soul into," he shares, explaining why each design remains unique and custom-tailored to the specific business it represents.

Ready to transform your vehicle into a powerful marketing asset? Check out JH Design Unlimited's work on Instagram and Facebook, or contact them directly at 772-281-4964 to discuss how they can help your business stand out on the road.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Skip Monning.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
I hope you're doing well todayand I'm super excited because
we've got a very special guestwith us here in the studio.
And I'm sure you'll just be asexcited as I am to meet our
guest, because today I have thepleasure of introducing your
good neighbor, mr John Hodson,who is the owner operator of JH

(00:33):
Design Unlimited.
John, welcome to the show.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Thanks, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Absolutely.
We're thrilled to have you,like I said, very excited to
learn all about you and yourbusiness.
So, if you don't mind, whydon't you kick us off by telling
us about what you do All?

Speaker 3 (00:46):
right?
Well, basically we have aone-stop design shop and our
focus is really on design,graphic design.
But we do a variety, offer avariety of services.
We do graphic design, we docustom vehicle wraps, we do
printing.
We do custom vehicle wraps, wedo printing, we do custom
apparel Pretty much.

(01:08):
You know anything a businesswould need to help with their
branding and cover all the bases.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Very good.
So a wide plethora of thingsthat you do there.
So, John, how did you get intothis business?

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Well, it's a long story.
So at the core of what thebusiness is and who I am is art.
So I'm an artist.
I've been an artist my wholelife and went to the Art
Institute of Fort Lauderdale andgot a degree in industrial
design, which in short, isproduct design, and I've been in
the design industry workingprofessionally for 25 years.
I started off doing productdesign and then yacht design

(01:46):
locally here in Stewart Florida.
That really helped, you know,kind of build a lot of the
strong values that designersshould have and the pressure and
running a business, you know,as far as the demands of the
industry and everything.
But back in 2010, I started GHDesign, went out on my own and

(02:09):
it started off really just as agraphic design kind of small
business and I did a lot offreelance, a lot of design for
companies, a lot of branddevelopment, logo design and one
day I got asked to design avehicle wrap, probably about 10
years ago, and it went well.
I got asked to do another oneand then I decided to invest in

(02:33):
brick and mortar and get a placeand invest in the equipment and
the knowledge to produce highquality vehicle wraps for
businesses the knowledge toproduce high quality vehicle
wraps for businesses andessentially that's kind of what
we're on the treasure coast nowis uh is our wraps and uh it's.
It's a very big part of what wedo, of course we do, um you

(02:55):
know, printing printed itemslike business cards, flyers,
postcards and all that apparel.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Like I said, but the wraps really has become just a
big deal for us and we love it.
Well, I tell you, I was goingto ask what are some myths or
misconceptions in the designindustry, but particularly with
vehicle wraps I'm reallyinterested in.
You know, you would assume thatthat's pretty expensive.

(03:22):
Is that the case?

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, you know it's funny.
I get asked how much does awrap cost?
Well, that's it's hard toanswer that question because
there's so many variablesinvolved.
You know, there's a lot ofplaces that do wraps and some
people specialize in colorchange wraps where basically you
change the color of your car.
Some people do commercial wraps.
We do all the above, but reallyour niche, I feel, is
commercial wraps.
We do all the above, but reallyour niche, I feel, is

(03:45):
commercial wraps, and the reasonbeing is the design part of it.
So there's some shops that dojust install, there's some shops
that just print wraps andthere's some shops that provide
you to spoon, feed them the artand all they do is print and
install.
We're kind of unique in thesense that we do everything and
we do everything in-house, so wedon't use subcontractors.

(04:08):
I design all the wraps, I printthe wraps, we laminate the wraps
, we install the wraps allin-house by our employees, and I
myself am 3M preferred andAvery certified, which is really
good to have thosecertifications to understand the

(04:29):
fundamentals of wrappingsuccessfully.
But we are extremely obsessiveabout quality.
So everything we do with wrapsis done to the highest standard
possible, all the way down tothe material choice, to the, the
way that the wrap is paneledand installed on a vehicle not

(04:49):
cutting on vehicles, not, uh,just not cutting corners.
You know we're obsessive aboutdoing everything, uh, to the
best that we can, and we've hadthe training and and the
experience now with our team towhere we're able to provide that
to customers.
But going back to the originalquestion, it's a long-winded

(05:09):
answer, um, you get what you payfor, because you can get a
thousand fifteen hundred dollarwrap with your vehicle sliced up
and the wraps falling off twomonths later.
Or you could spend a little bitmore on a quality product
that's going to last you five,six years and going to get you

(05:29):
amazing results.
And with wraps, especially forfleet and vehicles, they say you
get on average 101 impressionsper mile.
And having a wrap designedsuccessfully, effectively on the
road for a business, there's noother ROI really in form of
advertisement that comes close.

(05:50):
It's just a driving billboard.
And I've really spent a lot oftime in my career trying to hone
, coming up with designs thatare effective, not just pretty,
but that work, and for me that'swhat I love to do.
I install wraps too, but I havea team that does it for me and

(06:12):
they're great.
But I need to be behind thecomputer designing it, and
that's really where my passionlies as an artist.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Very cool, so you produce and install.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Everything, yeah.
Everything start to finish,start to finish the whole
process.
And you know we will take acompany that has a logo.
I'll rebrand them or keep theirbranding as is, if they're
happy.
Or we'll take a startup, smalllocal business here in the
Treasure Coast and I'll developthe branding, their logo, then,
from there, develop a cohesiveline of products that reflect

(06:49):
that branding, and vehicle wrapsbeing one of them.
And that's, that's a fun processbecause you get to develop
branding, you know a logo andthen figure out OK, well, now I
got to figure out how thattranslates into into a fleet.
How does that translate acrossall your collateral, like
business cards and marketingmaterial?
At the end of the day, you haveyou, you have this family of

(07:12):
product that just representsthis brand.
And it's a fun journey to do,exciting, and I love the
reactions that we get and I lovemaking people happy and I love
to see the success that all thisbrings to the businesses
because, at the end of the day,that's what I'm trying to do is
help bring attention to thesebusinesses by making them look

(07:33):
the best they can be.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Well, you know, very interesting.
You mentioned, you said ahundred, and what?
110 impressions per mile.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah, they say 101 impressions per mile.
That was a statistic done awhile ago, but the yeah, it's.
It's a lot of eyes on the wraps.
It's interesting.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
I had a company spam me, email me, about not wrapping
a vehicle but actually justputting a sticker on your back
window, and they pay you to puta sticker to promote whatever
product it is that they have.
So I can't imagine having yourwhole car wrapped gets a lot of
attention.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
And we do just that too.
We do stickers, decals, we'lldo rear window wraps and stuff
for cars.
At the end of the day, we'renot an all-or-nothing kind of
company.
So if your budget is such thatyou can only afford to do decals
or you just want a more minimalapproach, we're more than happy
to do that and we do literallyhundreds of those installs and

(08:33):
it's just really what your goalsare and the objective of it.
You know we, like I said, we doas much or as little as you
want and how far you want to gowith it.
But yeah, I mean having a fullwrap.
Really it just screams for yourattention.
I mean having a full wrap.
Really it just screams for yourattention.

(08:54):
But it's also very importantthat it's designed effectively,
because I have seen wraps outthere, fully wrapped vehicles,
that they drive by and you knowafter observing it, you don't
know who they are or what theydo, and it's just because
they're too cluttered they'renot designed right.
There's too many things goingon, maybe things clashing, too
many colors, and it's a less ismore approach and it's something

(09:19):
that, once again, that I'vespent a lot of time really
trying to perfect.
That you know.
And the other thing is no twowraps are alike, so I never copy
a design.
Everything is custom, one off,one off.
And uh, you know, if I create alook for that person, that is
their look very cool, very cool.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Well, john, else how to work.
If there is time outside ofwork, what do you do for fun?
Well unfortunately as of late.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
There hasn't been any time.
Uh, you know we're blessed tobe as busy as we are and it's
been crazy.
But I love fishing, I loveboating and I do have a bass
boat and ironically we do wrapseveral pro fishermen's boat
every year and I love bassfishing but I have not had it
out in a while because I've beenworking so much.

(10:05):
But yeah, I'd say fishing andbeing outdoors is what I'm
pretty passionate about.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Man of my own heart.
I'm a serious fisherman too.
Although I like to trout fish,fly fish.
I really like to fly fish.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
Yeah, I fly fish in cold water too.
I love fly fishing.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Oh wow, Do you do bone fishing?

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Snook mostly, and trout locally here on the
Treasure Coast.
I've gone out and done it.
I've got a nine weight, youknow fly rod set up and I just,
I love the hands-on with a flyrod.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Very nice, very nice.
Well, let's switch gears forjust a second.
Can you describe a hardship ora life challenge that you've
overcome, either professionallyor personally, and how it made
you stronger on the other side?

Speaker 3 (10:50):
Well, there's been a lot, so much stuff.
My my ex boss when I did workin the yacht design industry.
He was a really he's kind oflike an Einstein and he was a
designer, a yacht designer andhe was very passionate about
what he did and he had highdemands and it was a high, high

(11:10):
pace, high pressure workenvironment and I loved it
because it helped build me intobuild the work ethic that I have
that translated into mybusiness.
And when my mom passed away,that was another big life change
for me because that was my bestfriend, I was very close with
my mother and that was basicallya pivotal moment where I

(11:34):
basically really focused onimproving myself overall in
design and my career was a bigdeal because I think I started
to you know, show her, you know,hey, I can do this, I'm going

(11:57):
to do this and I'm going to makeyou proud kind of a deal.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
So yeah, Absolutely, and I'm sure she's looking down
right now Very proud of you.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Yeah, hope so.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
Absolutely Well, if, if, john, if you could think of
one thing that you'd like ourlisteners to remember about JH
Designs Unlimited, what wouldthat be?

Speaker 3 (12:17):
uh, well, that we're just very passionate.
Uh, we're a passionate designcompany that really does care
about, um, local businesses hereand, uh, we really do take
pride in what we do.
I'm not just doing this, youknow, for a buck.
I mean, this is everything I do, I pour my heart and soul into

(12:42):
and I just I love working withpeople and helping them look
their best.
So awesome.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Well, when you're passionate about something it
shows in your work, for sure yesabsolutely.
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
Well, for those of us who might be interested in
wrapping a vehicle, doing adesign, corporate gifts sort of
thing or promotional items, howcan they learn more?
Well, you can visit our website.
It's wwwjhdesign.
We're very active on Instagramand Facebook, so you can see a
lot of the work that we'redishing out actively on our
social media.
And then our phone number is772-281-4964.

(13:34):
Basically, email or call us isreally the best way to get in
touch with us, and but yeah, we,we try to show off what we're
doing all the time on socialmedia and everything.
So, very cool.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
And that number again was seven, seven, two, two, yep
.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
Two eight one four, nine, six, four, very good.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Very good, all right.
Well, john, I can't tell youhow much I appreciate you taking
time out of your busy scheduleto talk with me and our
listeners and wish you and yourfamily and JH Design Unlimited
all the best moving forward.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate that.
All right, thank you, and maybewe can have you back sometime.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yes, sir, all right, Take care.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
You too.
Thank you for listening to theGood Neighbor Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to gnptry-citiescom.
That's gnptry-citiescom, orcall 423-719-5873.