We Didn't Set Out to Build an Art Company
For 40 years, David Ford built some of the most beautiful bathrooms and kitchens in the country. Luxury materials, precise craftsmanship, exacting clients. And for 40 years, he heard the same complaint.
The tile was boring.
Not just from one or two customers — from virtually all of them. White. Beige. The occasional stone pattern. Even as luxury tile options expanded, the fundamental problem remained: there was no way to put any image, any artwork, any vision onto a surface that had to live with water every day.
David couldn't let it go.
He spent 14 months prototyping in his spare time, chasing a single question: what if a shower wall could display any image imaginable — and hold up indefinitely? The early attempts taught him more about what didn't work than what did. Waterproofing, adhesion, substrate performance under heat and humidity — every variable had to be solved before the next one revealed itself.
Then something unexpected happened.
What he had built wasn't just a shower solution. It was a fabrication process capable of turning any digital image into a rigid, gallery-quality panel — one engineered to handle not just showers, but any high-humidity or outdoor environment. The process worked anywhere weather did its worst.
That's a different company than the one he set out to build. A much bigger one.
David brought in Marion Lewis — entrepreneur, investor, and the kind of strategic mind who knows how to turn a breakthrough into a business. Marion secured the patents and helped lay the foundation for what Wowzart would become. Shortly after, Brendan Smith joined as CEO to build and scale the company, bringing a background in ecommerce, product, and startup operations.
Today, David leads all fabrication, production, and R&D as our Chief Innovation Officer. Marion serves as Board Chair and strategic adviser. And we're all aligned on the same mission: to make gallery-quality art available for every space — indoors, outdoors, and everywhere in between.
Wowzart exists because a contractor got curious, refused to settle, and spent 14 months proving that beautiful art doesn't have to stop at the door.