Paint ninjas at Cole Coatings Workshop
Custom paint is enjoying somewhat of a boom. London based Dan Cole is one of the new school painters who many of my favourite builders would acknowledge is part of a new movement. I should say, Dan has been painting for years. Priceless cars and crazy classics. Thankfully for us, he now prefers the challenge and creativity in painting bikes. As well as the odd creative project.
I first met Dan when he shared a workshop with Seabass Cycles, in Peckham. A couple of years later after much hard work and they’ve made a move to to their own place. The garden is like a Barberella themed barbecue. The actual building now houses a proper paint room, decent storage, a design office and that weirdly trippy garden, where the paint oven lives.
With the sheer number of rosettes from this year’s Bespoked it’s easier to ask which ones they didn’t paint at this year’s show; such is their standard now. With a waiting list of nearly two years, and a rack stuffed with finery from Autumn, Mercredi (have you seen her paint?), Quirk and Saffron Frameworks, I was a little intimidated returning to see them, with our latest frames under my arm.
Dan leads on the guns and it’s his name on the door. Ian runs the business side of things and is a genius with stencils (and a very handy designer in his own right) and Arun is the apprentice, learning his trade and business from Ian and Yoda Cole.
Importantly for us, when it comes to crazy ‘can it be done’ ideas Dan just gets it, and with Ian and Arun they’ve got the team in place and the facility to get our stuff done, and get it right, even with the weight of that crazy long waiting list. We just love what they do (when they can fit us in!).