Known as the Music City, Nashville is an energetic hub for musicians, entertainers, nightlife — and luxurious tour buses. It’s a perfect home base for Wrap Artist, a 14-year wrap shop that offers design services, installation and consulting. The company has built a large portfolio of bus wraps for the rich and famous around the country.
“We come at the wrap industry differently. We have degree-holding designers that have 15 to 18 years’ experience in the wrap industry exclusively, and we’re also probably the most endorsed certified installers in Nashville,” said Wrap Artist owner and operator Jamie Mullican (a.k.a. Mully). “I try to focus on the high-end entertainment world and all the buses and tractor-trailers that go along with the tour industry. Those are the most exciting jobs. Nashville is the Mecca for tour buses, and I get my fair share.”
Mullican, who has a background in graphic design, has been designing wraps for 19 years. Although he loves the wrap industry, he admits it can wear a professional down. “There are only so many ways you can put a blade of grass on a landscape truck, and I’ve done it,” he said. So, when it comes to wraps for celebrities and artists, there is a higher level of gratification and pride. Mullican has managed wrap projects for several musician’s and entertainer’s tour buses, including Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum and Jim Gaffigan. Mullican also works with franchise giants such as ESPN, which is owned by Disney. The coordination with major ad agencies makes his work that much more interesting.
“[The] Lady Antebellum [tour] was cosponsored by Bed Bath & Beyond, so I get to work with a lot of high-end ad agencies. It’s rewarding as a designer, and that’s why I focus on the buses because the artwork and the caliber of the job is just so much more rewarding.”
Wrapping tour buses isn’t a regular 8-to-5 job, at least not for Mullican and his Wrap Artist team of installers. Most tour managers lease buses for their clients, which means those buses are quickly changing their “skin,” or even getting million-dollar facelifts, inside and outside, to accommodate the next performer. These aren’t average Greyhound buses — there is a lot of expectation and pressure for the design and installation of tour wraps, according to Mullican.
“You’ve never seen a logistical nightmare like the tour industry,” he said. “We are the last to get any information for anything. A lot of times, we’ll be sitting at the bus company waiting on the bus to come off a tour. It comes in and gets serviced, maybe the interior gets changed out for the new artist, and then we’re putting a wrap on it. As soon as we’re done, the bus driver is heading right back out to pick up. We might start a bus wrap at 1 in the morning and be done by 6 a.m.”
Some of the more seasoned artists own their buses. But when those buses need a fresh look, Mullican helps to brighten up the old paint by sanding it down to the bare metal and then doing a color change.
While about 30 percent of Mullican’s business comes from wrapping buses for the stars, the rest of his company’s work goes toward commercial installations. Wrap Artist does fleet work that runs the gamut, with businesses ranging from energy drink franchises to cable companies. Mullican has never advertised, and about 90 percent of Wrap Artist’s business comes from word-of-mouth referrals. The company is a 3M Preferred graphics installer, Lowen-certified, and part of the Professional Decal Application Alliance.
When Mullican first started in the sign industry, it was the late ’90s. The vinyl wrap market was just taking off. “At that time, you were printing on wax paper in reverse and transferring it to vinyl because they didn’t even have printed vinyl.” While the industry has evolved and become more sophisticated, Mullican keeps all of Wrap Artist’s printing equipment is in the basement of his house. There, he has an HP Latex 260 Printer and a GFP Laminator. The only vinyl he trusts for buses is 3M, he said.
Mullican and his team will travel up to 6 hours to wrap a bus, and outside of that, he works with a network of installers and removers all around the country. The professionals at Wrap Artist are so experienced with tour bus projects, they understand the challenges of wrapping a tour bus. One Mullican credits his templating as one of the most beneficial parts of his business.
“I physically go out and take pictures of the buses, trace them in illustrator and then scale and measure accordingly. All these buses are so unique, depending on how the interior is laid out – they all have little kitchenettes and bathrooms. It affects where the vents are in the cargo base beneath. A lot of ad agencies design buses 45 feet by 10 feet, and when they go to install it, all their graphics are getting cut off in the vents, web addresses are running through the wheel wells, hitting tail lights.”
With all his years of installing bus wraps, Mullican knows it takes a lot of practice to become the best. A 6-inch cut on a bus can cost about $3,000 to repair. Sometimes, he’ll end up losing money on a project, but it’s all worth it to be able to work with his roster of clients.
“We’ve positioned ourselves well because we have more experience in designing buses than anyone, and because I physically know every make and model of buses. The biggest asset that we’ve got is the quality of product that we produce, the accuracy of our design, the templating, and the turnaround.”