Canyon Creative Signs the Vote

For approximately three decades, Glenn Tamblingson has fabricated political signage. He began his sign career in the mid-’70s as an apprentice to his father, who handlettered signs and showcards for Chicago’s Lettering Arts Studio, before founding Campaign Graphics Corp. (Ocala, FL) in 1982. He recently launched a new company, Canyon Creative Inc., also of Ocala. Although the diversified company sells large-format graphics, apparel and vehicle wraps, political signs represent a core competency.

“We work for candidates at the local, state and nationwide levels,” Tamblingson said. “We’ve even produced several jobs for international customers, such as producing signs distributed through Poland in support of Lech Walesa’s Solidarity movement in the early ’80s.”

He offers signs via both screenprinting and inkjet printing. Typically, 250 signs is the break-off point between the two technologies (smaller jobs are inkjet-printed, larger jobs screenprinted). The shop operated a Patriot and other, clamshell screenprinting presses; he formerly used a Gerber Solara printer inhouse, but now outsources to a digital-print provider that uses a Gandi 3300 inkjet printer.

Common material choices include corrugated cardboard, corrugated plastic or polyethylene “bag” signs, all of which are affixed to wire ground stakes. Corrugated plastic tends to be cheaper than cardboard; bag signs are inexpensive to produce in large quantities, but setup and production make them more costly for smaller batches.

Typically, he maintains a lead time of five to seven days for political signage, although large orders for Presidential campaigns may be delivered 10 to 12 days after an order. However, Tamblingson noted they once fulfilled a 20,000-sign order for a prominent candidate that was placed on Friday and fulfilled by Sunday night.

At presstime, Canyon Creative fielded inquiries from two, front-running Presidential campaigns for thousands of signs in anticipation of Florida’s primary, which took place January 31. For such large orders, he also handles logistics and distribution.

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Although he said political-sign production can be lucrative, Tamblingson said it can be perilous for inexperienced shops: “A lot of shops get into the market without understanding the scope and the strict turnaround requirements. They’ll lowball without understanding what they need for a fair profit margin, and will often lose money.”

And, Tamblingson’s most basic principle of election-sign work? “Always get paid up front. In fact, don’t start work until you know the check has cleared, and the funds are in the bank.”