Samantha Rogers
Owner, Drive Creative
Samantha Rogers graduated from year 12 and went straight into business. With a creative flair and eye for detail, her vehicle wrapping business combines her honed skills, passion for automotive and problem-solving skills all in one place. With a mission to ‘Lead with Kindness’ Samantha is a role model for the ages.
Explain your job to us?
I own a vehicle wrapping shop in Melbourne called Drive Creative. We specialise in commercial wraps that advertise a company's branding on their vehicles, we also do promotional wraps that can be more short term that promote a campaign or event. At Drive Creative we manage everything from the design concept through to the print production and installation, so the process is autonomous for our clients.
How long have you worked in the auto industry and what did you do before that?
I have done this line of work ever since I finished year 12 back in 2007!
How, when and why did you get into this line of work?
There were a few contributing factors to me ending up where I am now.
Creativity has always been a strength and an outlet of mine. I have won awards for my illustrations and have exhibited work in galleries, I have also had a solo exhibition of textile work… This feels like a lifetime ago and a chapter of my life a lot of people in our industry don’t know about me yet.
With creativity being a constant in my life; I wanted to enter a field where I could still exercise that, and when I found out about vehicle wrapping, that seemed like the perfect fit. I also grew up in an automotive loving household, my father was and still is restoring vintage cars and building his own drag cars, I always admired his unstoppable work ethic and adaptability to work with what he had, this is definitely a part of me today.
What is the pathway to your job ie. What did you study, formal training, courses etc?
Unfortunately there is no Cert 3 or diploma in vehicle wrapping.
You need to start working in a workshop that offers vehicle wrapping and do an apprenticeship in signage and attend short courses offered by vinyl manufacturers to become a wrap installer. If you want to design vehicle wraps; you need to study graphic design and then work in a wrap shop to understand how to design for a vehicle and get the niche caveats that come with that.
Is there such a thing as a typical day in your line of work, and what does that look like?
Depending on what your skills are; determine how your day looks, some people are just designers, wrap installers, or print production. Fortunately, I have worked on my skills in all of those avenues so I do all of those roles in my business + the admin. It really breaks up the day and keeps it interesting. Although I have installers and print production people in my business, I never want to lose touch, so I stay on the tools and work where is needed at the time.
What are some important skills required for your job?
You need to be creative, in your designs as well as creative problem solving; we are always faced with unique jobs, this is what makes what I do exciting! No 2 jobs are the same.
Career highlights?
One of our biggest clients at Drive Creative is BMW Australia. They entrust us with everything from managing the branding of their campaigns to protecting their Driver Experience fleet.
BMW trusts my knowledge and creativity in my field and last March I was kindly invited to design and install an Art Car for them. I'm grateful for the incredible relationship we have built.
What are the biggest challenges in your business?
I would say it's an industry problem, but a lot of shops have trouble scaling and keeping staff due to a lack of qualified wrap installers.
Our industry is still largely unregulated when it comes to training; I think there needs to be more extensive training for people wanting to be installers especially. I think it would be great for potential customers to be able to easily navigate through what type of shops they are dealing with. Hence there are a lot of companies trying to solve this at the moment. I work with Orafol Australia; who is a vinyl manufacturer based in Germany, I am a head trainer for them and we teach wrap workshops across Australia. Orafol does a great job of shining a light on the importance of training.
What’s something people might not know about your job?
Commercial wrapping is an avenue of signage production which is what my business niche is in, and this is not limited to cars, we often wrap helicopters and boats too.
What does it take to be successful in your industry?
If you want to get into this industry, my advice is to take it upon yourself to learn as much as possible, go along to the wrap training days that the manufactures put on and see how each film handles. Education is an ongoing thing; I’ve been working for over 10 years and I’m still learning, don't let yourself become stagnant, you want to stay on the pulse of what is current in your industry so you can be the best you can and in effect; offer your client the best solutions.
What would you like other WinA members to know about your job/industry?
Like most roles in Automotive; vehicle wrapping has generally been a male dominated industry and my personal mission is to just highlight women more in this space for their accomplishments and achievements.
When I first came into this industry, I didn’t see many females in wrap, so it can seem like an intimidating space for women to enter.
I don't use my sex as a gimmick to promote my business, I'm simply a business owner that does exceptional work that happens to be a woman.
Final thoughts…
As a director, I love that I can instill my own values, influence and culture.
One of my company mission statements is to 'Lead with kindness', this is in the way we treat employees and clients.
