At Artdeshine, our journey began in 2000 with our Founder, Alfred Yow, and his passion for automotive detailing. Like many others, Alfred began his journey through the relentless trial and error cycles of self-teaching. Continuing to develop his skills through the stages of detailing, Alfred progressed onto the art of paint correction. In 2004 he launched a mobile detailing business to both expand his existing client base and offer a wider range of services. Compared to the present day, paint protection technology was in its infancy and Alfred’s products of choice were traditional wax and sealants from brands such as Meguiar’s and Turtle Wax.
Back in the early 2000’s, ceramic coatings as we now know them were yet to be invented and circulated on a global scale. The industry predominately used wax and sealants as a standard form of paint protection.
In 2008, four years on from the launch of his mobile detailing business – and as a testament to his continued success – Alfred embarked on further expansion, launching a small shopfront that focused on detailing, paint correction and wax services.
Early formulations of ceramic coatings were more of a bare-bones product and in comparison to the standards of today, paled in performance and durability. In 2007, the innovation of nano-based coatings was a major breakthrough for coatings and companies globally. This would go on to shape what we know today as the ceramic coating market.
In 2010, Alfred began experimenting with ceramic coatings and was introduced to Hypercoat – developed by DuPont. DuPont were an early adopter and formulator of what the market now refers to as ceramic or sio2 based coatings. Over the next two years, Hypercoat would be his default choice for paint protection, providing him with insight and experience into this growing market and highlighting the need and opportunity for something he felt was lacking in the industry.
In 2012, with over a decade of experience, Alfred launched his own line of automotive detailing products under what is now globally recognised as Artdeshine. Under his management, Artdeshine inherits complete control over the research, development and manufacturing stages of formulation; including testing, tweaking and innovating bespoke products all under one roof.
Later in 2012 and after extensive testing, Artdeshine’s first ever product – Kotsos Obsidian Wax – was released. Obsidian Wax paved the way for the development of an entire detailing range. Soon after in 2013, Artdeshine launched its first commercially available ceramic coating.
In 2015, three years after the inception of Artdeshine, Jia Hong Yow, son of Founder Alfred Yow, was brought onboard as Director of Artdeshine. His role was to assist in the development and management of the growing, global Artdeshine network. Jia Hong had been involved from a detailing perspective since the launch of Alfred’s shopfront detailing business, learning the ins & outs of automotive detailing. Since his absence, he had studied material sciences, chemistry, physics, and the manufacturing processes relating to the automotive detailing markets.
In 2018, Artdeshine is growing steadily, with over 15 distributors globally and multiple proposals for Artdeshine to offer OEM solutions for external brands. This increased interest created an opportunity for Alfred and Jia Hong to cultivate a truly unique coating with the potential of not only distinguishing Artdeshine from its competitors, but also injecting some much needed innovation into the automotive detailing industry.
In 2019, Artdeshine evolved into Artdeshine Private Limited and embarked on its mission to offer and further develop bespoke quality coatings that were otherwise unavailable. Rapid expansion of both distribution and manufacturing processes began and experimentation with graphene and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) were underway. In consultation and collaboration with the New Materials Technology Centre (NMTC) of Singapore, Artdeshine developed and improved our flagship Nano Graphene Coating, and were the first to market such ground breaking advancements globally.
As the true pioneers of graphene coatings, our popularity and prevalence has grown rapidly. With representation in six continents and over 40 distributors globally, our commitment to quality and innovation remains a key principle that guides us. We’re privileged to have such a great community around us and are excited to venture into the unknown with our current and prospective detailing network.