Canada 
U.S.A 
Don Edwards, the visionary artist behind Knightworks Design, has spent over four decades fueling the visual culture of hardcore Canadian hot rodding and short-track racing. Beginning his journey in 1979 with traditional hand-pinstriping, custom airbrushing, and hand-lettering, Don honed his craft in an era when custom cars required raw artistic skill. Over the years, his Newmarket-based shop evolved into a powerhouse for high-impact visual design, translating that classic, rebellious hot rod attitude into award-winning custom vehicle wraps, aggressive fleet graphics, and specialized trackside branding.
While mastering commercial vinyl, Don’s true creative obsession remained rooted in the golden era of custom car culture, giving rise to his signature "Car-tooning" style. This unique art form blends technical automotive accuracy with wild, exaggerated cartoon proportions, capturing the roaring personality of low-slung street rods, gassers, and classic muscle cars. His custom hot rod illustrations have become a celebrated hallmark of modern custom-car art, bringing a nostalgic, high-octane energy to t-shirts, event posters, and custom garage banners across North America.
If a guy has got a spark of creativity, he can build anything he wants out of a car. Hot rodding is about building your own imagination.
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth
The Ultimate Hot Rod Racing Series
Don’t miss his profound dedication to traditional hot rodding, which led to a monumental partnership as the official title sponsor of the Knightworks Design OSCAAR Hot Rod Series. This highly popular racing division is a traveling time capsule, featuring full-bodied, steel-skinned race cars modeled after legendary 1950s, 60s, and 70s builds tearing up Ontario's toughest short tracks like Flamboro and Sunset Speedway. By backing this series, Knightworks ensures that the raw, roaring heritage of vintage hot rod racing stays loud, well-funded, and front-and-center for a new generation of gearheads.
The cars grid-aligned in the OSCAAR series look exactly like Don's vivid car-toons come to life, sporting aggressive stances, loud powerplants, and striking paint schemes. Knightworks builds upon this synergy by delivering comprehensive trackside support, from manufacturing official series merchandise to creating high-visibility graphics for official pace vehicles. Their specialized work helps the racing series maintain an ultra-professional look while keeping its gritty, grassroots hot rod soul perfectly intact.
This deep mechanical connection allows Knightworks Design to uniquely serve the custom car community, offering everything from authentic pinstriping layouts to modern digital wraps that respect classic automotive body lines. Whether designing for a championship-winning track team or a custom builder debuting a high-end street rod at a premier car show, Don's work consistently honors the rich design heritage of the custom car lifestyle.
Preserving the Art of Custom Car Culture
As standard digital templates continue to make modern vehicle signage look uniform, Don Edwards keeps the authentic, high-impact spirit of hot rod artistry alive through his specialized illustration work. His car-toons stand out because they emphasize the mechanical heart of the machine, glorifying over-the-top engines, giant rear slicks, and chopped tops. This intentional blend of old-school sign painter logic and cutting-edge vector tools ensures that hot rod culture never loses its vibrant, custom-tailored identity.
Through their active sponsorship of the Ontario Stock Car Association of Asphalt Racers United Racing Series and an ever-growing portfolio of custom automotive art, Don and Kim Edwards continue to push the boundaries of automotive graphic design. Their 40-year legacy proves that true graphic craftsmanship, when fueled by a genuine passion for burning rubber, loud exhausts, and classic hot rod styling, will always leave an unforgettable mark on and off the racetrack.
