In recent weeks I’ve talked to three shop owners who specialize in carved signage, which involves wood, PVC or high density urethane (HDU) signage that is either hand-carved or CNC-carved. In this realm, wood has become more of a boutique or special request item. A nice piece of wood can be expensive to work with, and the durability of a wooden sign simply doesn’t compare to PVC or HDU. This is why those options, especially HDU, have become quite popular over the years.
In this January edition you’ll read about New England Carved Signs based out of Putnam, Connecticut and Quint Creative Signs in Piqua, Ohio. You’ll even see that Peachtree City Foamcraft, a national wholesale HDU-carved signage provider, has released new offerings for their customers in our In The Industry section.
As someone who has spent the past four years covering signage of all aspects from print to carved to channel letters, I must say that the carved HDU signs tend to catch my eye the most. The intricacy of the designs, color-matching and the ability to achieve basically any and all looks a client desires is quite impressive.
With carved HDU signage, shops like Quint Creative and New England Carved Signs can achieve nearly any look (within reason) for their clients. When a landscaping company wants a sign that looks like granite, they’re there to make it happen. A burger spot that wants their sign to look like a giant 3D burger? They can do that too. They can even make a sign resemble petrified wood or marble, all with the magic of high density urethane and a CNC machine.
Now, just as with anything else in signage, you don’t just wake up one morning and know how to create incredible custom art out of thin air. This type of work takes years of trial and error. Years of R&D testing out various materials, software and CNC routing strategies. As you’ll read later in the issue, these shops recently had their best year to date, but without years and years of 60-hour work weeks prior to that, it simply wouldn’t have happened.
If there’s one common theme amongst all successful sign shop owners that I talk to, it’s perseverance. I haven’t met one person who told me getting their shop running at their desired clip was easy. Most tell me it started in a garage. Most say they worked all day for years. And for most, it’s been a family effort that has required a buy-in, both financially and with time, from everyone from mom and dad, to cousins, aunts and uncles.
Many joke about how the signage industry is a family business, but to me it’s quite refreshing to see an industry that is so obviously propped up by family values and a respect for hard work. Not many industries can say that these days, but signage can. These successful HDU signage providers didn’t take the easy road to their success, but they did take the right road, as time has proven.
