In my building in Germany, I already had a fully equipped motorcycle workshop. When I moved to Sweden in 2021, I had to start from scratch. This workshop was not only used for my private mechanic pleasures—we also needed a proper backdrop for all the photos and videos we would make for our Independent Racing campaigns.
The shop needed to be a welcoming, inspiring space you love looking at and dream of working in, elevating our product photos into a tangible feeling. Nevertheless, it of course still had to be fully functional as a real workshop, not just serve as a prop.
I took out some walls, put up new ones, painted the walls in a dark colour to contrast the industrial workbenches, and added reclaimed Euro pallet wood to give it an even more vintage character. This style is complemented by retro tin signs and electrical wiring running through exposed steel conduit, which I brushed with black paint to achieve a vintage look.
The biggest challenge was the floor. Since the garage originally had orange tiles that looked terrible in every shot, I had an industrial concrete floor in mind. To recreate that aesthetic, I poured several layers of self-leveling concrete compound, blending in different shades of white and grey to achieve an uneven, weathered finish. The surface was then ground down wet (to prevent dust from spreading throughout the building) and sealed with a heavy-duty, clear topcoat to give it the fitting final finish. Since then, this has served in nearly all Independent Racing advertising campaigns.