When people ask me what we do here at JKS, it’s a challenge to keep my answer under an hour because we do so many different things. It’s rare that that a client comes to us and just says, “I need a banner” or “I need a show car.” The projects we take on involve a lot of different things, and clients come to us because they know we can do them all.
A great example of a project that involves almost everything we do is what we call the “Mobile Cigar” lounge that we just recently completed.
A few months ago, our friends at Zoom Marketing came to us and asked us to create a mobile smoking lounge for a client. The product itself is an all-natural cigar with a roll-your-own look, frayed end, and unfinished head. The idea was that this mobile smoker’s lounge would be taken to different events, like music festivals, around the country. Event visitors can then stop by and sample the product and enjoy the cool lounge created just for them. Based on that concept, we went to work.
We’ve worked with Zoom Marketing before, so they know our capabilities and trusted us to get the job done. They told us their budget, so we knew how much we had to work with in finding the right vehicle and revamping it as their traveling cigar lounge.
Given that the product branding itself has a vintage feel – nothing fancy – we looked for an older vehicle, and were lucky enough to find a 1946 Spartan Camper that would work perfectly. It wasn’t in great shape, but it had good bones and we knew we could work with it. Here’s a close-up of the original camper. You can see it needed a lot of work.
Our first step was designing the interior of the camper to be a kind of luxurious, “man cave”-like place where visitors could sit and enjoy a good cigar. We designed it with room to seat ten, with big comfortable seats, rustic décor, a TV and even a fake fireplace to really give it that “cabin in the woods” feel. I was able to get personally involved on this project, choosing the fabric for the cushions.
Next, we (and I do mean “we” – all this was done right here in our shop by our own craftspeople) went to work turning that old, worn out camper into the amazing cigar lounge our client asked for. That meant gutting the camper, reinforcing the walls, adding electrical wiring and making it totally road worthy and street legal. Then we went in and added the interior we had designed. Here’s the result.
Then there was the exterior. Unpainted, the camper wasn’t very impressive.
Our painting crew went to work on it, though, and when they were done it was a real show stopper.
All in all, it was a massive job, but our folks loved doing it, and they loved the completed camper. In fact, when that camper finally left our confines, there were grown men crying, they were so sad to see it go.
But go it did. The cigar smoking lounge made its debut at an event in Nevada in March. Here’s a shot of the camper set up at the event before the crowds arrived.
You may notice our truck parked behind the camper. That’s because we’re also handling all the logistics for the lounge. That’s yet another aspect of what we do. For clients like Zoom, we make sure the camper gets where it needs to be and we work with the client’s hosting personnel to make sure it’s all set up and everything is in place. Then when the event is over we pack it all up and bring it back to our facility, where it’s cleaned and stored until the next event. Our clients love having us do this because we’re experienced, we have all the necessary licenses and know all the rules and regulations, and we bill them in a way that’s both fair for them and good for us.
In the photo, you can see additional signage we created, fencing around the outdoor smoking area, and tables for people to sit. We designed and created all that stuff, too.
So, for this one project we found and completely renovated the vehicle top to bottom, designed and made the signs and accessories to display it, took the vehicle to the event and helped with running it, then brought it back to store and maintain until it’s used again. That, in a nutshell, is why our clients keep coming back – because we do it all. And the best part is, we have fun doing it!