Warroad gets a new business

In the summer of 1995, I worked a three month internship at The Warroad Pioneer, which I'm sorry to say has since ceased operation. This was the first professional newspaper that I worked for in my career, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience. I had only worked at Bemidji State University's newspaper for about a year and half before landing the internship. At The Pioneer I gained experience in sports, feature, beat and government reporting. I designed pages, took and developed photographs and was responsible for community relations. The best part is that I remain friends with the owners nearly 30 years later.

July 25, 1995

By Devlyn Brooks

Traces of his work have been seen around town for three weeks, yet a lot of people probably haven't even noticed them. The advertisements in the windows of Denny's Hair Care and the Fourth of July celebration message on the side of Tish's Beauty Salon are two examples that he has painted.

These signs, called window splashes, are created by Todd Thompson who recently opened his business Pine Creek Designs.

Window splashes are just one aspect of Pine Creek Designs. Thompson said that he will also do signs, lettering, magnetic signs for vehicles and "a little bit of striping for cars." He also said that he would like to start doing more than just striping on vehicles. In the future, he would like to do full customizing on vehicles.

"I don't want to limit myself," Thompson said. "I will do pretty much any artistic job that needs to be done."

Pine Creek Design is located next to the Four Seasons car wash at 104 Garfield St. S.W. He said that he opened up for business on July 10, and business "hasn't been too bad." He added that more business is always welcome.

He said that as his advertising goes out more and more people are starting to realize his shop is there. He said that everyone is welcome to stop in and visit, to see what his shop is all about.

Thompson has never gone to school for art, but he said that he has always been interested in it. After high school, he kept doing art work on his own, and last year he was doing some signs "on the side." Which promoted him to open his own shop, he said.

The window splashes are a unique addition to his work. They are painted on the outside of windows, but are waterproof so rain won't wash them off. Thompson said that the paint is non-toxic and environmentally safe.

This summer has been tricky to paint the window splashes, Thompson said. He can't go out in the rain to paint them, and the days it hasn't been raining, he has had to deal with blistering heat. "It's pretty hard to stand out there painting while the sun is beating down on you for six to eight hours," he said.

"I like to put as much artwork and detail into a job as a customer will let me," he said, but I also like to keep the price down.

"Some people don't realize that the advertisements on their walls and windows say a lot about them."