2020 Signshop Competition Best of Show

AMID ALL THE changes this year – some welcome, others not so much – our sign contest carried on! Further refining the significant changes we made last year, we reduced the “divisions” of sign companies from three to two: small (1-19 employees) and large (20 or more), and also added vehicle wraps. This year, roughly the same number of companies participated in the Signshop Competition as in 2019, though for 2020, many entered only one project – the maximum being three per category with 12 in total allowed. Were these shops just really pressed for time? Should we blame COVID-19? In any case, there is something to be said for a sign company entering their one, best project of the year: Bravo!

Four judges filtered through more than 150 entries across 10 categories: Tom Bergeron, art director/marketing, Design Communications Ltd. (Boston); Maggie Harlow, president and CEO, Signarama Downtown (Louisville, KY); and the tandem of Mandy Moore, business development, and Starla Haney-Swart, art director, Don Bell Signs (Port Orange, FL), voting as one. Our great thanks goes out to the judges for lending their valuable time and expertise.

They awarded “Krazy Kraken” by Timber Signs (Ofterschwang, Bavaria, Germany) “Best of Show” honors. This isn’t our first contest that has featured the Bavarians’ craft. Though very contemporary materials comprise the Krazy Kraken, the judges were clearly impressed by the finely routed, hand-carved and gilded details. So, we offer well-deserved herzlichen Glückwunsch (“congratulations” in German) to Timber Signs’ fabricators and designers, Manfred Didier and Marcus Goebels.

And congratulations as well to the rest of our winners, with additional thanks to all who entered and helped to carry on this contest tradition, now in its fifth decade. Check signsofthetimes.com and follow Signs of the Times on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube for next year’s entry information.