Last year, Signs of the Times launched the Women in Signs awards to help elevate the voices of impactful leaders whose gender is underrepresented in signage and graphics, an industry historically saturated with men. While there’s obviously room for improvement when it comes to gender inclusivity within sign companies (only 22% of our Big Survey respondents were women; see St Mid-March 2022, page 9), the winners of our second-annual program have brought their own seats to the table, from running large-scale national businesses to building independent shops from the ground up.

Selected by our editors and a judging panel of industry power players from nearly 200 entries and 150-plus individual nominees, this year’s five winners aren’t just making great signs, they’re doing great work.

A special thank you to this year’s esteemed judges: Stacey Brown, chief image builder, Signarama Silver Spring (Silver Spring, MD); Elaine Scrima, vice president of operations, GSP Cos. (Clearwater, FL); Patty Soria, vice president of production and co-owner, Signtech (San Diego); and Heidi Tillmanns, national manager, infrastructure and signage, Trans Canada Trail (Dundas, ON, Canada). Read on to find out why the following women rose to the top of the judges’ scorecards.