Journal Entries

Feb 22, 2006

I’m the copycat

With all this talk of custom painting my 8600, I wondered if I was an original. The idea of customizing the external look of PC boxes seemed like a marketing goldmine. What company looking to impress it’s clients wouldn’t want to show off a bull pin of desks with desktops sporting the company logo? Hell, the first company I worked at had regulation desktop images and screen savers with the company logo. The idea was that everything was brandable. And everything the company owned should be branded. So was had no one stumbled into this potentially lucrative space?

Well, it’s turns out that people have. And most of those people are amateurs. I say amateurs, because mostly I found poorly put together sites offering one or two color paint jobs IF you buy the moniter from them. These sites borthered me for two reasons: 1.) it was clearly a one person business who was in all likelyhood working on weekends out of their garage and 2.) how do you know that you got the moniter you paid for? Paint covers everything…even serial numbers.

I did find two professional outfits. And I must say, I was impressed.

The first is a place called Falcon Northwest. PC gamers will be well familiar with them. Falcon Northwest builds PC from the ground up. They do everything; the box, the components, the cabling and the software. Apparentally, the fully assembled PC is a work of art and it’s speed is unmatched. In addition to all this, the boxes are custom painted in the same way a ‘57 Chevy might be custom painted. These are professionals. No doubt about that. Check out their work. It’s awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, I prefer macs. And I consciously avoid gaming. So I am not their market.

The second place has me targeted as a customer. Colorware will take your mac, paint it one of 20+ colors, double-gloss clear coat it and return to you a stylish one-of-a-kind (almost) mac. Their work looks immaculate. And I love their color selection and preview page. My only criticism is that they paint only areas without too much text or symboling. The result is a mac that “looks” painted instead of a unit that may have come right out of the factory.

Both companies have shown me one pit fall that I was worried about. It might be my personal preference, but the glossy finish of their paint jobs are not to my liking. They will show too many flaws; finger prints, chips, scratches, etc. They will also, in my opinion, look completely out of place where ever it comes to rest. My hope is that with a matte finish I will create a look that will be interesting without overpowering. That remains to be seen, but I am confident. I know I am giving up the “wow” factor, but my computer’s exterior is supposed to start plesant conversations, not shouting matches.

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