Sign Company Owners and Managers Profiled

COMPOSITE SKETCH: White male, 50-70 years of age, college graduate, fairly optimistic about the economy and sign profession, prioritizing profitability and growth over the next 12 months, with about half a chance of having a relative in the sign industry.

11. What is your gender?

12. How old are you?

13. Did or do any of your relatives work in the sign industry?

14. What is the highest level of your education?

15. What’s your race or ethnicity?

16. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is “very pessimistic” and 10 is “very optimistic,” how would you rate your outlook for the following?

17. Apart from “any I made,” what is your favorite type of sign?

Neon, electronic, channel letters both front- and backlit, custom electric sign cabinets, EMCs, digital displays, dimensional, hand-carved, hand-painted, red cedar sandblasted, beautifully designed pylons with all sorts of character, monuments, wall graphics, lobby signs, custom acrylics and metal displays, theater marquees, old signs, vintage style with a modern flare, truck lettering, yard signs, graduation signs and banners, ADA signage, murals.

18. What type of sign do you like the least?

ACM with vinyl graphics, polycarbonate, real estate, foam letters, homemade with paint or a Sharpie and bad spelling, parking, privacy film on office glass, metal, foamcore, overdone every-trick-in-the book digital prints, traffic/DOT/highway signs, menu boards or lists of any kind, anything “gator foam” or temporary, disposable signage, signs that architects design, vehicle wraps with photos of kids and dogs, EMCs, channel letters, cabinets, standard ADA signs, neon, “slow down” signs of course, banners, anything up high on a ladder in the cold weather.

19. What will be your No. 1 priority this year/for the next 12 months?

20. What is the strangest thing to you about working in the sign industry?

Once you’re in you can’t escape it. Unique types of personalities in the trade. Installers. How technology in the sign industry has changed in the past 20 years. Lack of professional training programs. The white collar/blue collar nature of it. No dominant national company monopolizing the industry. People don’t understand that what looks good on paper doesn’t always make a great sign. How customers think their custom-made sign can be designed and made in less than a week. The idea that we keep custom signs in stock. That people always think we do billboards. How creative customers can be when trying to be cheap. How little we charge for our specialized products. You meet everyone in this business. The sense of gratification from seeing your work up around the area. Nothing is strange: I love all of it.