1995
Hewlett-Packard and large-format digital printing
The legacy biography identifies consulting and development work with Hewlett-Packard as an early turning point, helping direct HP into the large-format digital printing business.
About
Stephen Spurgeon’s work connects invention with real-world adoption.
Over a span of more than twenty years, Stephen Spurgeon’s patented processes and product-development work have moved across industries: large-format printing, edible image technology, bowling products, custom musical instruments, and music-gaming applications.
With nine patents to his name, Spurgeon’s career is defined by finding practical ways to move visual technology into established industries. Early consulting and development work helped guide Hewlett-Packard into large-format digital printing. That same inventive mindset later led to PhotoCake®, a patented edible-image process adopted by DecoPac and used by tens of thousands of bakeries.
From there, the work expanded into Brunswick’s image-printed bowling balls, where graphics became a new surface for branding and product identity. That same trajectory continued into music, where custom-imaging technologies were applied to special-edition guitars for major makers and celebrity musicians, and later into gaming through branded guitar controllers and promotional hardware.
More recently Stephen has evolved the uses of his patents and secured contracts with guitar companies such as Fender Musical Instruments (FMIC), Taylor Guitars and Martin Guitars. Each using this technology for the enhancement of their respective products to create amazing musical instruments. In 2026, he secured a contract with Taylor Guitars to make custom guitars that have curated artwork designs from artists around the globe.
9
patents referenced across the legacy biography and technology pages
1995
HP large-format printing work appears as an early milestone
2001
Brunswick adoption of bowling-ball imaging technology
2005+
Art Guitar®, Viz-A-Ball®, and RiffMaster® expansion years
Timeline
A concise history of Stephen's work.
Late 1990s
PhotoCake® and edible-image printing
Spurgeon’s patented edible-image process was introduced to DecoPac, bringing digital imaging into bakery products at scale and extending printing innovation beyond conventional industrial surfaces.
2001
Bowling products and Brunswick Viz-A-Ball®
Brunswick acquired rights to the image-printing process for bowling balls, opening a new branded and promotional product category that reached bowling centers, consumer markets, and entertainment licensing.
2005
Art Guitar® enters the instrument market
Fender is identified as the first company to use the Art Guitar® decoration process, followed by Gibson, Ibanez, Dean, Peavey, and other manufacturers working with limited-edition and custom imagery.
2008–2009
RiffMaster® and music gaming promotions
RiffMaster® appears in the legacy materials as a crossover concept between music hardware, promotional branding, nightlife activation, and adult gaming, including references to CES recognition, Coors Light distributors, and Hollywood launch events.
2008-2026
ArtGuitar®
In 2008, Spurgeon created ArtGuitar® in which he licensed process patents to clinets in the guitar manufacturing industry. Throguh its usage over almost 2 decades, guitar companies have benefitted from these patents by integrating this IP into their workflow. In 2022, ArtGuitar® partnered with Fender Guitars to produce limited edition Stratocaster Guitars with curated atwork on the face of the guitar. This project enlisted renowned high calibre artists from around the world showasing these guitars not only as playable instruments, but as pieces of collectible artwork shown in private galleries and shows in the USA, France and Australia. In 2026, ArtGuitar® partnered with Taylor Guitars in a project that brings similar art to the acoustic market in an affordable offering targeted toward audiences from every walk of life - not just art collectors.
Featured Work
Four signature technology stories.
Art Guitar®
Art Guitar® translated custom visual technology into the instrument world, giving makers and musicians access to limited-edition, image-rich finishes that looked more like collectible art objects than standard production guitars.
Viz-A-Ball®
Viz-A-Ball® brought image-printing technology to bowling products, transforming the ball from a purely functional object into a branded and licensed visual surface.
RiffMaster®
RiffMaster® extended the work into music gaming and promotional products, linking visual customization with real-world events, branded hardware, and interactive entertainment.
The Throughline
One recurring idea: imagery applied where people did not expect it.
The continuity across these projects is not the product category. It is the method: taking surfaces that had traditionally been treated as fixed and turning them into places for imagery, branding, storytelling, or collector identity.
That approach appears in each stage of the record. Large-format digital printing made imagery bigger and more commercially useful. Edible-image printing put personalization into retail bakery products. Bowling-ball imaging turned sporting goods into promotional and licensed objects. Art Guitar® carried that same idea into the music industry, where instruments became canvases for artist identity, celebrity collaborations, and collector appeal.
RiffMaster® pushed the concept further by bringing physical customization into music gaming and nightlife promotions. Instead of treating these technologies as isolated inventions, this site frames them as chapters in a broader history of applied visual technology.
"Hijinx" - Callen Schaub
Jim SKWAK
Rust Guitar
Contact
Inquiries and further information.