‘TIS THE SEASON FOR signmakers to support their communities, make the season twinkle and join in the festivities. It’s a time when many find ways to give back, get into the holiday spirit and, as a bonus, promote their companies. Many work extra hours like Santa’s elves to make the magic happen. So as a gift, enjoy four sign companies’ efforts to make their local community’s holiday season successful.

RED NOSE DAY: On Thanksgiving Eve the stag’s red nose is lit on this beloved, landmark sign built and maintained by Ramsay Signs since 1940.

Portland’s Historic Postcard

Ten, nine, eight… Nothing marks the beginning of the holiday season for Portland, OR residents like the annual lighting of the stag’s nose on the gigantic neon-and-incandescent-bulb sign on the west side of Burnside Bridge. Resembling Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer rising into the sky with Santa’s sleigh, the sign marks a centerpiece of Portland’s nighttime skyline, an endearing symbol of the city and national historic landmark. It’s also become an annual Portland tradition for school children and other fortunate dignitaries to push the giant switch on the 50 x 52-ft. sign’s control panel the night before Thanksgiving and light up the night sky with the white stag’s bright red nose — announcing to everyone that the Christmas season has arrived.

“This sign is what makes Portland so magical at this time of year,” says Joe Gibson, president of local Ramsay Signs, which built the original sign and continues to maintain it. “We take great pride as a company to be known as the builders and caretakers of this iconic sign that welcomes the start of the holiday season.”

Lit with 1,250 ft. of neon tubing and 500 incandescent lamps, the state of Oregon’s shape outlines distinctive green script lettering beaming the words “Portland Oregon” with the great white stag prancing above the letters. While many might believe that the red nose is a bulb screwed into place each Christmas, it’s actually a grid of 13mm clear red tubing pumped with neon gas and wired to its own power switch.

The sign’s storied history has many twists and turns. Ramsay Signs built the sign in 1940 for White Satin Sugar featuring an animated pouring sugar sack. In 1957, the lettering was changed to advertise White Stag Sportswear for an apparel company that owned the building. That’s when the white stag silhouette appeared at the top of the sign. The wife of White Stag’s owner suggested the addition of a red nose on the deer to make it more festive during the holidays, but the sign went dark a few years after White Stag sold the building.

After maintenance and repair fees were resolved, the words “white stag” were changed to “made in Oregon” and “sportswear” to “old town” for the neighborhood where the sign is located. Ramsay continued to maintain the cherished symbol, eventually donating it to the city in 2010, which quickly copyrighted the image and pays Ramsay to maintain it. Once a month, one of Ramsay’s employees visits the sign to check the neon and ensure that the lights are twinkling. Everything from its original 1947 tubing is still working very well, says Gibson, so there are no plans to switch the lighting to LED.

“This is Portland’s postcard,” Gibson says. “All types of items like shirts and posters feature the sign. While not everyone knows Ramsay Signs, everyone knows the Portland, Oregon sign. It is instantly one of the most recognizable parts of the Portland skyline especially during the holiday season.”

ALL THAT GLITTERS: Signs for San Diego (San Marcos, CA) helps Valley View Casino celebrate the new year with twinkling pairs.

Twinkling Into the New Year

When revelers gather at Valley Center, CA’s Valley View Casino on New Year’s Eve to watch balloons fall and confetti shot from cannons, they’ll usher in the New Year with glittering 2025 signs made by Signs for San Diego (San Marcos, CA). The 4 x 8-ft. LED proclamations act as focal points for the popular event at the premier gaming destination outside of San Diego. The company builds four identical signs for high-traffic areas of the casino: both sides of the main stage surrounded by thousands of flowers, another in the convention center, and two outside in the valet and main entrance.

“This is our second year of supplying the signs for the casino’s New Year’s Eve celebration,” says Frank Murch, owner of Signs for San Diego. “We have a close working relationship with a number of artists including Paul Kauffman. He has worked with Valley View in the past and brought us into the project.”

FOCAL POINTS: Signs for San Diego’s four idential New Year’s Eve signs draw attention to various parts of the casino.

Murch admits that the temporary signs were simple to design and build, as well as profitable. Using .063 aluminum sheets, the team routed the sign’s numbers with their MultiCam 1000 Series CNC machine, then added standard General Electric 6500K LED lights with Paige wire on a pole and a power supply. In all, the routing took an hour, three hours for wiring and an hour to work on the upright PVC pipe. 

To install the signage, the company uses existing 5-gallon buckets that are welded to pipes and then covered by cloth, foam and flowers produced by Paul Kauffman.

While production may have been straightforward, the challenge remains in the installation and scheduling. The team at Signs for San Diego has to quickly set up the signage at night a few days before New Year’s Eve and then take them down quickly a day or two after the first of the year.

“The casino loves our signage and wants to continue to work with us,” Murch says. “For this year, all we have to do is make a number 5 for ‘2025.’ We’ve made a big positive impression on them and their guests.”

TO THE MAX: Quality deSigns decorates their classic shop truck for a local parade.

Leading the Local Christmas Parade

One of the highlights of the year in the small town of Campbell River, BC, Canada, is its annual pre-Christmas Big Truck parade, sponsored by the Downtown Business Improvement Association (BIA) and the Art Gallery. Thousands of residents line the five-mile stretch of waterfront highway to watch an amazing spectacle of large industrial trucks with bright Christmas lights as they parade into the downtown shopping area. Here, the trucks are greeted by the mayor and the town’s Christmas tree is officially lit to the sounds of live music.

Three years ago, Quality deSigns Ltd, one of the city’s popular signmakers, was asked by the BIA to join the parade using its historic 1955 Ford Panel van. “Every year, we make a 4 x 8-ft. Coroplast sign displaying the scheduled times for the shopping and parade,” says Shannon Orlick, co-owner and partner of Quality deSigns with her husband Geoff. “When the BIA saw our 1955 Ford Panel van parked outside our building, they asked if we would be interested in participating in the parade. We jumped at the chance and felt special to be included.”

In its first year, the signshop chose a classic holiday theme using soft-white lighting, green garland and live greens (fir, cedar, pine and holly) to make a giant wreath for the Ford’s hood. But last year the shop went big and splashy. The husband-and-wife team decided to deck the van in a Dr. Seuss Grinch theme. They enlisted the help of their friends and colleagues to mount a live, decorated Christmas tree onto the truck roof. Geoff designed and printed 58 x 50-in. decals of the classic cartoon Grinch character, which they applied to the side panels, while 39 x 28-in. decals of Max, the Grinch’s dog were also made and applied to Coroplast, cut to shape and fastened with sheet magnets to sit on the hood. 

To let the crowds know who owned the vehicle, a large 20 x 46-in. Santa face wishing a Merry Christmas from Quality Signs was attached to the rear and side doors. To help hold all the lights in place, the team used 1.5 x 4-in. multicolored holiday light decals. Magnets with hooks and zap straps were attached to strings of lights powered by two large battery packs.

It took the shop two hours to print and laminate the work using its Roland SOLJET Pro 4 XR-640 printer/cutter and Avery MPI 1105 premium high-gloss cast film laminated with Avery Dennison DOL1360 Max clear cast laminate. After that, the shop spent an additional 10 hours installing all the designs on the van.

Time was the biggest challenge. “Our shop was running full-tilt busy, and we needed to design, print, laminate, apply decals, attach the tree safely, finish lighting and remember to charge the battery packs,” Shannon says.

The second biggest obstacle was the unreliable weather on the West Coast of Canada in December. “We live in a damp, wet, rainy environment in the winter,” says Shannon. “To adhere the bulk of the decals and lights on the van, we used our install bay but that put it out of commission for two days. Then, the night of the parade, it rained. We found some of the decals were not adhering well to the van. Solution? More magnets!”

The final hurdle involved fastening a live decorated Christmas tree to the van’s curved roof. The couple’s handy friends helped to secure the tree with wood, rope and special tools.
 
All of the work and long hours certainly paid off for the signshop. As they drove along the parade route, they heard loud cheers and laughs and other bystanders shouting, “Hey Quality Signs… we love you!” Clients and friends took photos. Family from all over the globe watched them via a livestream. This advertising in motion enhanced the company’s reputation.

Complementing the parade participation, Quality deSigns added to its holiday advertising by expanding its retail section, buying some extra radio advertising and social media, and parking the Ford in its driveway for the entire month of December to participate in the Holiday Light Tours.
 
“This event is all about community spirit,” Shannon says. “Our business has a 33-year history in our community as a major contributor to our local service groups, churches, charity events and children’s sports. Participating in this event just feels good. Geoff’s heart may have even grown three sizes!”

ORNATE DONATION: Hill House Graphics volunteers time and effort for their historic town’s annual Christmas Festival.

Supporting the Christmas Festival

One of New England’s most treasured Christmas festivities takes place in Bristol, RI, an historic small town founded in 1680 where businesses and community have always been tightly knit and supported one another. The Bristol Christmas Festival, ongoing for more than 35 years, draws thousands of locals and visitors to the Culinary Market, Gift Bazaar, Santa House and Grand Illumination.

Hometown Hill House Graphics is one of those businesses that works with festival organizers and happily donates its time and effort to make the event a success each year.

“We donate projects throughout the festival grounds from the Santa Mailbox, a Key to the City, the Santa House property and oversized replicas of ornaments that are sold at the festival,” says Ian McLellan, owner of Hill House Graphics. “We print advertising banners and other signage for the festival and we also donate to our local Fire Department’s Ladies Auxiliary and Christmas Community Aid Drive.”

Hill House’s work can be found throughout the festival grounds. The life-size Santa Mailbox was adorned with goldleaf using CAD-cut SignGold vinyl and automotive paint then clear coated. An oversized Key to the City was elaborately decorated with vinyl-lettered, CNC-cut PVC which was spray painted. All of the carved signs on the Santa House property were produced using PVC and finished on the shop’s EZ Router 30 x 48-in. CNC, masked and hand-painted. The shop depended on its Epson SureColor S40600 64-in. roll-to-roll printer with briteline Air Release DurationX vinyl film and laminate for certain jobs. Contour cutting was accomplished with the Summa S One D140 54-in. drag-knife vinyl cutter. The team used a vinyl wrap on the giant light switch that Santa flips to illuminate the town Christmas tree. Visitors can purchase oversized replicas of the ornaments that Hill House makes.

McLellan and his team were given a bit of latitude on the design of the final products, but many design pictures were provided to them as napkin sketches. Another challenge was receiving necessary information such as files, specs and clear direction in a timely manner and coordinating schedules with other entities that volunteered.

The biggest difficulty, says McLellan, is the fact that these projects always need to be completed in a hurry and mostly after hours. The majority of the holiday décor including the Santa House itself is stored about a mile away at the property of Reliable Pest Control, but a great crew of volunteers from carpenters to Department of Public Works workers are ready to pitch in by placing and decorating the Santa house and setting up displays.

“In the end, everyone is happy when the festival comes together,” McLellan says, “but it is extremely special since the mission of the Santa House, a program of the James D. Rielly Foundation, is to foster the magic of Christmas for adults and children with disabilities and their families. It provides an immersive holiday experience free of charge through community partnerships.”

PHOTO GALLERY (17 IMAGES)

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