Since 1992
Print and digital marketing
By Bill Van Tassel
HALLOWELL — Brian Inch of Image Impact Painting remembers having a paint brush in his hand at the age of 11. His father had some real estate properties in the greater Boston area, and it was young Brian’s job to handle some of the painting.
After high school, he attended Salem State University in Massachusetts, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in art. He added a master’s degree and then began a career as an educator in Greenville.
After 10 years of teaching art and painting houses during the summer, Inch decided to take up the paint brush and roller again full time, though not in fine arts. In 1994, he began Image Impact Painting in Malden, Mass., ultimately settling his business in Dover-Foxcroft. He established the exterior and interior painting business there upon a solid foundation of “customer satisfaction.” He repeated this mantra during our interview, adding phrases like “one job at a time,” “doing it right” and “being thorough.”
Inch allows himself and his employees to “take no shortcuts.” He uses the highest quality paint and related tools of the trade, giving Image Impact Painting many success stories and a reputation for customer satisfaction. He and his business are fully licensed, insured and lead certified. His work is well respected and “word of mouth” references have been very important in expanding his business.
Inch is married to a local Hall-Dale graduate; he and his family decided to make a move this past summer from Dover-Foxcroft to Hallowell. At this point, his main business location remains in Dover-Foxcroft, ALthough he is working hard to establish himself along the Hall-Dale portion of the Kennebec River as well as within the surrounding communities.
The name Image Impact Painting comes from Inch’s work on store fronts and their business owners, who wanted to improve their image. Inch would carefully choose a color scheme to meet the owner’s wishes, then proceed to do the best job he could to improve the building’s look as well as add to the esthetics of the downtown or rural location. One of Inch’s long-term goals is to have the name “Image Impact” synonymous with quality. “Improve the look of the town one house at a time,” he said.
Image Impact takes on both residential and small commercial jobs. He and his crew focus on one project at time. He recently repainted some of the exterior and trim on the Summer Street apartment where his family is iving. During the normally slow winter months, Inch also runs another business for model train enthusiasts — Model Rail Scenes — designing extravagant layouts using computer-aided design software.
PHOTO: Brian Inch has come full circle since he started painting properties when he was just a youngster. One of his recent projects involved repainting some of the exterior and trim on an apartment building on Summer Street in Hallowell, where he and his family currently live. (Bill Van Tassel photo)
