CAN a door be truly funky? A Whitefield businessman insists that it can.

Photographer Mark McInnes says his company Funky Door can transform any door into a work of art.

The idea is to turn the boring dead space of doors into eye-catching art. Specially-taken pictures - or favourite images - are printed on to doors.

Customers include a Thai Boxing club with images of boxers printed on the locker room doors, and a shoe shop with images of footwear.

In the home, doors have been printed for children's bedrooms and city centre apartments.

The idea came to Mark when he was setting up his Whitefield photograph studio, Rocket Red.

He explains: "We asked a local graffiti artist to take away the kitchen and toilet doors and to design something to put on them. They looked fantastic when they came back, and so many customers wanted something like it that I thought that had to be a business idea.

"Initially the idea was to make panels - with photographs or other images - and stick them to the doors, but I found a Manchester printer with a specialist £300,000 press that can print on to virtually anything. So now we print photographs directly on to the doors.

Diversify

"Orders are starting to come in from businesses and we're also aiming at domestic customers." The idea is one of a number of ventures to diversify Rocket Red.

"These days you can't survive as a shop-front photographic studio if you rely on the portrait business alone.

"In the Whitefield area we see studios closing all round us. But fortunately I have good contacts in the design business and we do a lot of commercial photography - mixing the design and the commercial photography is providing business that is really picking up, because clients can come to one place for their leaflets and publicity material," said Mark.

Large corporate clients include internet bookseller Amazon.

"For now I'm really excited by the door thing.

"I have been working in photography for 15 years and I never dreamed one day I'd be selling doors.

"Maybe we'll take the concept to garage doors next. Imagine: you could have a Ferrari printed on your garage door, so it would be like you had an expensive car parked on your drive."