“No one else does what we do”, said Matt Winemiller founder and chief designer of Spazz Monkey-3D Wall Art “We believe we are one of Mansfield’s best kept secrets”.
Spazz Monkey designs and manufactures 3D wall décor made of PVC board. Each individual product is comprised of multiple pieces that are skillfully layered, covered with a digitally printed vinyl, and then finished with a dry-brush shading technique to create the three dimensional look. The unique wall décor is made right here in Mansfield.
The Ontario business holds twelve college licenses (the first being Ohio State University) and has represented over forty high schools with their wall art. The company creates logos, 3-D corporate signage, non-sport designs, and personal caricatures. A self-taught artist, Winemiller was inspired by his grandfather Nelson Calendine, an artist who created hand-painted signs for local businesses around Mansfield.
Spazz Monkey started as a hobby in 1997 when the Cleveland Indians were in the World Series. Winemiller began sketching freehand images of Indians mascot Chief Wahoo on cardboard for fellow employees at his former job at General Motors. A local friend’s request to create the Cleveland Browns “Dawg” mascot out of wood with spacers was his first attempt to implement the three dimensional effect for which Spazz Monkey is now known.
In 2007, Winemiller took his art to Prairie Peddler Craft Show in nearby Butler where plywood replicas of Woody Hayes became a sensation. Winemiller left the show that day with 70 orders for the wall décor. He worked on the orders non-stop from mid-October, completing the last one on Christmas Eve. “Seeing the reaction to the product”, Winemiller said, “I just knew”. With the goal of turning a hobby into a business, Spazz Monkey was launched in the summer of 2009 with the support of Winemiller’s brother-in-law Scott Biettner and his cousin Tim Rowe.
So why the name Spazz Monkey? While watching his son Bryson who was enthusiastically entertaining grandparents one evening, Winemiller told his son to “stop acting like a spazz monkey.” For some reason the name stuck with Winemiller, and “I knew that was the name of my company”.
The company has developed rapidly over the past few years and found a niche in the trade and craft show market, growing from five trade shows in the first two years to eighty shows in 2012. “We want to revolutionize the wall décor industry”, said Winemiller. “There is nothing else like us out there. We are setting the standard.”
On the cusp of great things, Spazz Monkey recently received an invitation to be featured on the ABC hit TV show ‘Shark Tank‘. They hope the appearance will provide exposure and interest from investors that would enable them to secure additional licenses, moving the company into a new dimension of success.
We fell in love with your work when we went to The Press Box and saw your 3_D of Herbie Husker on the wall. This is inLincoln, Nebraska This is in Lincoln, Nebraska. I want one. – how much?