Greg Williams

Story first published in the Calgary Herald Sept. 25, 2009.

All images courtesy Mark Dulmadge (www.factory1969.com).

It’s a staple garment in most every hotrodders wardrobe.

We’re talking about the T-shirt — often boldly emblazoned with the name and logo of a parts supplier or a favourite speed shop – something like Red Devil Racing Cams or Torque Brothers Speed Shop.

Except those aren’t real companies. They are the products of the fertile imagination of Calgary’s Mark Dulmadge, a graphic designer with a penchant for hotrod style.

He has created the ‘brands’ and designed a logo and lettering that look vintage. Dulmadge, a graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design, comes by the inspiration honestly.

His grandpa, Les Dulmadge, ran Dulmadge Service from 1932 to 1951. Legend has it Dulmadge’s was the first White Rose gas station in Calgary, and along with dispensing oil and gasoline the shop was a general engine repair facility located at 13 Ave. and Centre Street North.

And his dad, Randy Dulmadge, worked for 48 years in Calgary’s automotive industry. Randy started out in 1959 when he was 16 delivering parts for Motor Car Supply Co., and was with them until 1972. Randy worked for Sunnen products as a sales rep from 1972 to 1976, and then he became the general manager of Moore’s Machine Shop.

“This was when I remember being introduced to the auto industry — going to Moore’s with my Dad on the weekends was like going to an amusement park,” Dulmadge says. “This would be the start of my love for machinery and everything industrial.”

Randy bought Precise Engine Rebuilders Ltd. in 1991, and operated the shop until 2007.

Dulmadge remembers his Dad bringing home auto-related decals, such as those from STP and Hastings. Being talented with a pencil, Dulmadge would re-draw the logos.

“Everybody would get me to draw stuff on their text book paper covers,” Dulmadge says of his time in junior high school. Dulmadge was fascinated with design and he drew auto logos or full cars such as Corvettes or Camaros with wide tires and big engines.

In grade 10 Dulmadge went on a tour of ACAD and says he knew after visiting the art school and seeing the graphic design department that he’d found his calling.

“Up until then I thought I was going to be an architect,” he says. “I hadn’t known about graphic design.”

After graduating from ACAD in 1993 Dulmadge worked multiple jobs – none of them graphic design related. He soon had a job with Western Canadian Graphics, though, and then branched out on his own with his Storm Design Inc. graphic arts shop. His studio was above his Dad’s shop at Precise Engine Rebuilders, and says; “I had a great time being around all the noise, chemical smells and grease. I used to go through the metal recycling bin looking for gears or other pieces for inspiration.”

Up until 2005 he was selling his services, creating logos and lettering for other companies. And then two things happened. First, he was cruising around eBay when he saw a seller printing T-shirts with the old Triumph, B.S.A. and Norton motorcycle logos.

And second, he was listening to a tape series about how to generate new business. A suggestion on the tape was to hire a graphic designer to create something to sell.

“I can do that myself,” Dulmadge remembers thinking. “Without any knowledge of the industry, I said, ‘Why don’t I start a T-shirt business?’”

According to Dulmadge, it wasn’t really an ‘a-ha’ moment, but he started to develop logos for the Torque Brothers Speed Shop and other fictitious automotive related companies. He called his side venture Factory 1969 (www.factory1969.com). He did quite well selling his hotrod inspired designs on CafePress.com, a print-on-demand T-shirt company in the U.S.

After that success Dulmadge started having his designs silk-screened onto T-shirts by a local company. Since then he has been selling his shirts at swap meets and distributing his products through three Calgary retailers, Motorrad Performance, Plan B and the Rod Shop.

“I want all of my designs and T-shirts to feel like they came from the era, like an old shirt that somebody gave away to charity and some kid finds it hanging on the rack,” Dulmadge says. “I design in the distressing and the typography is era-specific, I want to be historically accurate to the period.”

Andrew Thomson opened Calgary’s Plan B, a clothing store just off of 17^th Avenue that is geared towards the hot rod, rockabilly and tattoo crowd almost five years ago (www.planbkustom.com). One of his first brands of clothing was Lucky 13, a company out of Southern California. Thomson says Dulmadge stopped by the shop with some of his Factory 1969 designs a couple of years ago.

“He had a sample of what he was doing, and it definitely had that vintage flair in terms of design,” Thomson says. “(Dulmadge’s) work is as good as any other big brand out there – put his work side by side with a brand like Lucky 13 and it’s as strong if not better.”