Lennart Van Kampen , Graphic Designer

 

 

 

 Lennart Van Kampen is a Graphic Designer from the Netherlands. His specialized artwork has a vintage style ,with wall decor, interior design, &  customizing musical instruments with a  rock n' roll theme!

 The name of his shop is  Lennart's Garage, the Home of Lennart's Home Déco & Lennart's Guitar Garage.

 I like collecting signs , either for my office or my garage , it's a great hobby , I'm sure others agree . When I came across Lennart's artwork I was just blown away by his keen eye for detail . And the fact he does it old school , all by hand.  I told him that I would be honored to show his work here so here are some samples .

 

 All of Lennart's designs are handcrafted and hand painted one at a time , no two are a like so each piece a client receives is unique  .

 

 

 The size and detail of his work will stand out in any room,This DAF truck was custom made based on the owners real truck.

Lennart's designs have that vintage distressed look that fit in well from man caves to garages to even your office wall.

 

 

He also offers a service where you can send him a photo of your car and he will apply the image to a wood surface,giving your photo a classic vintage feel.

 

 

 

 Lennart can also design and build custom tables for your bar or restaurant , these feature Elvis and Marilyn Monroe.

 

 Lennart tells us where it all started :

It's December 2009(ish), I am about 14 years old and Sinterklaas (the Dutch version of Santa Clause) has been so kind to gift me an electric guitar. In retrospect, this has clearly been the most life-defining moment of my life up until now. Although I had never played the guitar before, nor never really expressed the interest in doing so, he must have noticed that (unlike my peers at that time) I had a deep passion for guitar-driven old school rock/blues music. 

The loud and long blasting of bands and artists such as Guns N' Roses, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Santana (to name a few) through my bedroom's stereo speakers was a regular occurrence (and that's an understatement). That old, long-bearded man must have found it an interesting idea to gift me a guitar, just to see if I would like it. And boy, was he right?! As soon as I had unwrapped this black Stratocaster-copy guitar, I knew that guitars were about the coolest things in existence and I was going to obsess myself with learning how to play it, (the music I wanted to play, that is). I was going to be a guitar player!

 

HOW I STARTED DESIGNING

Along with my passion for music and guitar playing, I always had a deep interest in graphic design work as well, along with a general interest in building projects, and making existing stuff look cooler. I was always messing around with Lego, K'nex, plastic model kits, wood, painting, drawing, etc.

 When I do design work on a guitar, it is very important to me that it really catches your eye. In the first place, the design needs to fit the shape and color of the guitar. There needs to be a certain harmony between the guitar and its decorations. Not just a guitar with an image on it, I am looking for a coherency, a balanced mixture between the two. Then it is key that the colors of the design come out bright and vibrant. 

It needs to shine, literally and figuratively. Lastly, one of my key characteristics is that you need to be able to "feel" the image on the guitar. I use different lacquering techniques to create a relief and a carved-like feel to the designs. This element of touch adds a whole extra dimension to the design.

 

WOODWORKING

Around the same time I started Lennart's Guitar Garage, my father started his new furniture building company.He would build all types of in and outdoor furniture on commission,mostly from scaffolding wood. Naturally,because of my father's business, there was quite a lot of wood laying around. Due to a mixture of creativity and curiosity, I started experimenting with applying the skills and techniques I had learned on guitars by using them on old pieces of wood. After some experimenting, I found out that this new surface opened a door to a whole new world of possibilities.

The end result was heavy and durable decor pieces, with vibrant colors and a realistically aged look while maintaining its authentic wooden characteristics. Suitable for in- and outdoor environments (as long as they are not in direct weather conditions such as rain and full-on sunlight).

 

 Slowly I was adopting and transforming my guitar-design skill and techniques to be applicable to my new venture. I had developed ways to make large molds from digital designs,and how to apply their colors to the wood,using many layers of different kinds of lacquering techniques,combined with a lot of sanding (and sweat). 

I wanted my decorations to look vintage and worn but in a realistic manner. The process of realistically "aging" the decor pieces is quite an art of its own, as I would soon find out. But after a lot of experimenting and wasting good pieces of wood, I started to master different sanding and weathering styles, to give my works a realistically aged look. If you look closely at my works, you can find tiny cracks in the lacquer, small intentional damages, weathered and faded spots.

LENNART'S GARAGE  

In the beginning, my wall decorations were relatively small and had basic square or rectangle shapes. However, pretty soon I started to get bored with these "basic" shapes and wanted to challenge myself to make bigger and more interesting projects. I liked the idea of moving away from these paintings or poster-shaped decorations and move to bigger projects in the shape of the subject's object. Thus, I started building large projects such as a Jukebox and Car Fronts into completely cut-out wall decorations, with vintage style. These large projects take about 3-4 weeks to be completed. Since at this point I was still working from my house's garage,I soon ran out of space.          I needed a bigger workplace. This why I moved to a new and bigger garage,which I transformed into my current workshop and showroom. 

 Another passion of mine is automotive design/history and motorsports. Especially old-school American Hot-Rod and muscle cars, classic Italian and British sports cars, and (historic) Formula 1, endurance, and rally racing. I love the history, the design, the liveries, the brands and logos, the billboards. I think everything about (especially historic) racing cars is pure passion and art. This is why a large portion of my work is automotive-related.

To end my story I would like to add that I truly believe that your creativity is one "thing" that can be expressed in many different ways, and therefore one should strive to express his or her creativity in as many ways as possible. By becoming more creative as a designer, I will become more creative as a guitarist. By becoming more creative as a guitarist, I will become more creative as a designer. Go out there, try out new things, experience, and be curious. whether it will be a success or failure, you can only grow.

 

 

                                   This amp was inspired from the movie Kill Bill .

 

Thank you Lennart for sharing your story and your amazing artwork with us , if you would like to reach him here is his contact information.

 lennartsgarage@gmail.com

Tel: +31321239004

LENNART'S GARAGE

De Schipbeek 45
8253 RD 
Dronten 
The Netherlands