Graphics Unlimited in Putnam, Connecticut is an award-winning sign shop that specializes in sign design and fabrication that took a leap forward about five years ago when owner Aaron Perry decided to buy a plot of land and build a new facility. Prior to that, Perry’s stepmother and business partner was running a different division of the shop about 20 minutes away from Putnam in Massachusetts. It just made sense to consolidate, and they were able to maintain 95 percent of their customers.
In addition to Graphics Unlimited, Perry also operates New England Carved Signs that makes carved signage of wood, PVC and HDU. New England Carved Signs sells fully built carved signs in a wholesale capacity and has been seeing success as of late.
“With New England Carved Signs, we can sell a monument sign to a print shop to round out their offering to their customers. So for us, it’s like base plates. No big deal. Some bolts in the ground for them, you know, and that’s it,” says Perry. “It’s a huge benefit for the print shop to have somebody be able to walk them through the whole process.”
Today, Perry and his semi-retired father run things for Graphics Unlimited and New England Carved Signs. It’s a lean operation, but they get the job done well and have been growing year over year. Perry, who nearly won a 2024 Top Young Sign Maker award from SBI, has become extremely knowledgeable and versatile as a manager.
“You have to have a big hat to cover all the gray hairs. I don’t want to say it’s all on me, though. I have help for everything, but I lead most projects. This way, I’m touching all aspects. When it comes to the CNC machine, if the guys got questions, I’ve got answers,” says Perry. “If it comes to the painting, I still do more than half the painting. If the guys have questions about fabrication, unless it’s a light duty frame or something like that, I do all the fabrication. I’m involved in almost every install. If there’s anything electrical, that’s all me.”
And while things are going well for the shop as is, just like many other shops in the country today, they’re always looking for more solid help.
“I need to hire more people. Right now I have a full-time guy who runs the majority of the printing and vehicle applications, but when it comes to a wrap that’s on me. Our other full-time employee is more or less my right-hand guy. He’s our main CNC operator and he’s been picking up a lot of the paint work along with light duty, fabrication and light installation. He’s a great guy and can do it all.”
Although the team is small, everyone is capable and well-versed in nearly every element of sign production. Even as Perry was talking to SBI, he couldn’t let work slip from his mind.
“We all overlap each other in a way. We can all go in and run the printer. We can all run the cutter. Two of us can paint. Two of us can install. I am waiting for some paint to dry right now as we speak so I can go back in here in a bit,” says Perry. “Later tonight, I’ll be wrapping a car that’s a part of a fleet of 35.”
But, back to the aforementioned New England Carved Signs division of the company, Perry and his team make their customer’s carved designs come to life with an easy installation process.
“We will certainly make a wood sign, but we try not to, because it’s the most expensive and will give you the least longevity. We also don’t really offer much for a warranty on a wood sign, because they’ve got signs out there that are years and years old that look great, but I’ve also made wood signs that decline in the first year. You know, a little crack opens up just because it’s wood. You never know,” says Perry. “We do a lot of HDU and a lot of PVC. Our main focus is quality, we go the extra mile. We go the extra 10% and it’s worth it. So all of our carved signs, especially the wholesale ones, we try to just achieve the best finish possible. Everything is an automotive finish. There’s no brush strokes, there’s no faulty paint lines, there’s no pinholes. It’s close to auto body, perfect as possible.”
To put it simply, Perry is running a full-service sign shop with a small team and a lot of heart and dedication. It has not been an easy road to success. There have been a lot of blood, sweat and tears spent along the way, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’m 35 right now. And I would say from my early 20s up until about 30 every week was a 60-70 hour week. I started to go a little crazy shortly after I turned 30 when we built our current facility. I had no idea if I could afford it or not, so it was still 70-hour weeks for the first two years,” says Perry. “Once I realized I could stay here, we added another one of those main guys who handles the small sales, the vinyl, that type of stuff. That brought the weekly work down to 40 to 50 hours a week. It was great this last year. We’re able to keep up with customer demand without me pulling too many hours. This year we have had five or six of our biggest repeat customers all pull the trigger on a big project. Our process is working.”
