2026 Women in Signs: Judy Shano

Judy Shano
President
Associated Sign Co. (Phoenix)

JUDY SHANO DID NOT expect that she would spend so many hours a week with signs when she started helping out her husband, who entered the sign business on advice from his friends when she was pregnant with their first child. She thought it was just going to be a couple days a week at the shop, but the work has become her full-time job.

As president, Shano manages the financial aspects of Associated Sign Co., from accounts receivable and payable to purchasing, along with payroll, benefits and HR. She oversees employee reviews whenever disciplinary action is being considered and ensures projects are progressing where they should, assuming production management duties up to four months at a time when the position becomes vacant. “I’m more of a shy person. Being behind the scenes, the doer not the lead,” Shano says. “I feel comfortable in the position I’m in but I’m not big on recognition. I just want to get things done.”

The Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix is another of Associated Sign Co.’s recent projects.

Complementing this hands-on approach, she most enjoys learning about Associated Signs’s employees, their families, talents and passions through working with them. Finding experienced workers and employee management also create the most challenges for Shano as it can be difficult to understand the context behind others’ actions, such as why an employee might show up late to work all the time. “But as far as the shop goes, making sure we get all the materials we need, sometimes outsourcing them is very difficult, like right now with metals because of the supply chain,” she adds.

Growing up sewing and cooking, plus learning to host parties, she has an appreciation for fine details — which she now applies to signs, as well as the creative solutions that her employees come up with. “I love that we try to have a family vibe and for the most part we do,” she says. “That’s how we get many people who stay for a great length of time.”

She encourages current and prospective women in the industry to educate themselves on signage to support their own passion, depending on the position they are applying for. “Obviously whatever knowledge they have is going to help them first and foremost,” she adds.

One of the recent projects by Associated Sign Co.

Despite her 20 years of experience in the sign industry, sometimes Shano encounters people who underestimate her. “Because my husband and I drive to work together, we’d go out on a project in the morning and he’d introduce me to people. They just kind of assume I don’t know anything about the business,” she says, adding that accounting, HR and other administrative roles are particularly underappreciated. “Sometimes people just don’t think that women can come up with ideas for a sign unless you’re an actual designer.”

Having stayed in the sign industry for so long, Shano now looks forward to seeing her two sons take over the family business and to spending more time with her grandchildren. “It’s very exciting to see all the ideas that the boys will bring up,” she says. “There’s nothing more that I would like for them than to take it to the next level.”