The yard art came first. The patterns came later.
Cutout Ranch reaches back to 1988, when Mark Perez began turning simple pieces of plywood into life-size animals with enough personality to stop traffic.
A few handmade gifts turned into a business.
According to the original Daily News feature, the first animals were made from remnant plywood as Christmas gifts. The reaction was strong enough that Mark Perez began making more — cows, pigs, rabbits, birds, zebras, giraffes and other larger-than-life characters.
The animals were simple by design: recognizable silhouettes, bold paint and just enough detail to give each one personality. They looked good from across a yard, and they were hard to pass without noticing.
What began in a backyard workshop quickly became something people were willing to stop for, talk about and take home.
Then the animals went roadside.
The collection moved beyond the backyard and onto a busy Malibu street corner. Newspaper coverage described buyers stopping for cows and other animals, word spreading, and requests growing well beyond the original handful of designs.
At its busiest, the Daily News reported production of more than 100 plywood animals a week. The line expanded into a small zoo of familiar and unexpected creatures.
It worked because the idea was immediately understandable: a simple piece of wood could become something cheerful, useful and memorable with a saw, paint and a little imagination.
Saved from the beginning.
These newspaper scans are part of the Cutout Ranch archive and document the original business as it appeared in 1989.
The shapes that made the collection recognizable.
The designs were intentionally straightforward: strong silhouettes, broad painted areas and simple black line details. That simplicity is exactly what makes them work as full-size patterns today.
Same animals. A new way to make them.
Cutout Ranch is coming back as a pattern company rather than a finished-animal business. Instead of shipping a large painted cow or pig, the goal is to give people the full-size pattern and let them make the animal themselves.
That keeps the best part of the original idea intact: ordinary materials, basic woodworking and a finished piece that feels personal because you made it.
The first returning designs are the Holstein Cow, Pink Pig and Duck Family — the classics that best capture the original Cutout Ranch look.
See the Returning Classics
Started in 1988. Built again for today.
The tools may be better and the website is new, but the idea is still wonderfully simple: trace it, cut it, paint it, put it in the yard — and make somebody smile.
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