The Signs of Business

We’ve shown you how to set up the ridiculously simple “Pop-Up” trade show displays. We’ve talked about choosing which banner stand is right for you.

I want to introduce to you something a bit meatier. A bit sturdier. Something ideal for a multi-day trade show that might get bumped in to, leaned on and beat up but won’t mind it at all: Truss-based Trade Show and Event Exhibits!

These things are beefy but for all their metal glory are not difficult to set up. It took Walter a little over an hour to set up and he mostly did it alone. Check out the stop motion video below.

We are pleased to announce the Evansville Design Group’s Hood Wrap Contest!

The winning design will be wrapped live during EDG’s SIGNARAMA Evansville Tour on May 28. See that hood pictured above? We’ll remove the existing wrap and our 3M preferred vinyl installer, Billy Collins, will be wrapping that hood live during the tour.

Design Brief:

Design a hood wrap for the Evansville Design Group. The wrap will be used to promote EDG. The wrap is intended to be hung or displayed as a showpiece to raise awareness of EDG.
Dimensions: 52″W x 57″H + 2″ bleed
Must include: EDG logo, SIGNARAMA Evansville logo and your own logo.
Schedule: Designs must be submitted by Tuesday, May 21 at midnight. Winning entry will be selected by the SIGNARAMA Evansville designers.

How to enter:

• Download the Template – car-hood.pdf
• Design something epic (see Tips and Tricks if your epicness needs a boost).
• Upload your winning design here.
• Winning design will be selected by the SIGNARAMA Evansville Design Team.
• Winning design will be announced at the SIGNARAMA tour May 28.

Tips and Tricks:

• Embedded raster images should be 120dpi. Also, if you elect to design in Photoshop, set your file to 120dpi.
• CMYK – U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2 is the recommended color profile.
• Recommended file types: .pdf, .eps, .ai, .psd (immediate disqualification and lifetime ban from EDG for submitting .ppt, .doc or .pub)
• Convert fonts to outlines.
• Embed any images.
• The client is EDG. The design should promote EDG.

It might be a good idea to visit evansvilledesign.org to see their current branding, philosophy, etc.

• Must use the EDG logo. Size it to your wishes. (included in the template)
• Must use your logo and the SIGNARAMA logo at the size provided (~40 sq in).
• Wrap cliches (use these to your own peril): flames, snake skin, diamond plate and really bad flames.
• Have fun. Show off.

We look forward to seeing all of you at the EDG Tour of the SIGNARAMA Evansville facility on May 28 at 6pm. Please RSVP on the Evansville Design Group website.

Today was the Confections of the Rich & Decadent fundraiser for the Public Education Foundation. So, Walter bought a pie. Purely because it’s for a good cause.

Walter Valiant with Amy Walker, Executive Director of PEF. And a pie.

About Vehicle Wraps and Graphics

We have Billy Collins, a 3M Preferred Vinyl Graphics installer, on staff to ensure your vehicle’s graphics are installed with the utmost care. We want your business to succeed and firmly believe that a well-designed, expertly installed wrap gives you a distinct advantage over your competitors. More on Vehicle Graphics…

I’m still not entirely sure you can call this Spring yet, but temps have been getting up into the 50s for the past several days. Of course, frost is still on my grass in the morning and we set a record low a few days ago so the last vestiges of Winter still remain.

Landscaping rocks laid down this week by New Image Gardening.

The lovely ladies from New Image Gardening

One thing I am certain of is that the time to spread fresh mulch and landscaping rock fast approaches.

If you own a landscaping company, you’ve probably already been very active beautifying homes and businesses. When was the last time you checked what your vehicles say about your landscaping company? Do they present your company in a way that makes you proud? Do they simply communicate what you do? Springtime is a great opportunity to re-evaluate the effectiveness of your vehicle graphics. Bring your landscaping vehicle by for a free consultation or give us a call at 812-477-7763.

Marketing suggestions for Landscaping Companies

Your landscaping and gardening vehicles present a fantastic marketing opportunity. You drive them all over town. You park them where you are working. They are highly visible. Your vehicle needs to have graphics on it advertising you! Pickup trucks, trailers, dump trucks and any other vehicles you use for your landscaping or gardening business should naturally be branded to make your company easily recognizable.

When you are at a site trimming, pruning, planting or weeding, how many people drive, walk, bicycle or skip by? The graphics on your vehicles should be aimed at them, the passersby. Those are your prospective marketing targets.

Benefits of vehicle graphics to a landscaping company

• Your sign goes everywhere you do.
• Marketing can be expensive. Vehicle graphics are a ridiculously inexpensive means of marketing and advertising.
• Vehicle graphics will last you multiple years.

Tips to effectively use your marketing enabled landscaping vehicle.

• Be aware of your surroundings. When you arrive at a job site, take note of where traffic may be coming from. Is it pedestrian? How fast are the vehicles passing by?
• After you unload your truck, re-park it so that it is in the most visible spot available while still respecting the traffic coming to and from your client’s facility.
• Bigger is not always better. Your vehicle’s graphics should reflect your landscaping style. If you operate on simplicity and clean lines in your outdoor design, we will do the same with your vehicle design.
• We will do everything we can to stay in your budget. But we must know your budget in order for us to stay within it. The price range for vehicle graphics is similar to your price range for the landscaping services you provide.
• Plan for your vehicle graphics to last about three years. Landscaping trucks oftentimes get abused more than most, so you may want to replace the graphics more often if they get damaged.

About Vehicle Wraps and Graphics

We have Billy Collins, a 3M Preferred Vinyl Graphics installer, on staff to ensure your vehicle’s graphics are installed with the utmost care. We want your business to succeed and firmly believe that a well-designed, expertly installed wrap gives you a distinct advantage over your competitors. More on Vehicle Graphics…

Despite the snow on the ground and this past week’s rather chilly weather, I maintain the optimism of a shadowless groundhog and proudly proclaim that Spring is coming! Surely it’s coming… please?

Spring is a natural time of year to spruce things up around your home and your business. I mowed this past weekend. It felt great. Had I one more day of relatively nice weather I also would have put down fresh mulch, dead-head my daisies I didn’t get around to last fall, trim my rose bush, pull some weeds, clean my windows, and oh yeah, take down my Christmas lights.

As a company that helps other businesses market effectively, we are often asked for advice on ‘Spring-cleaning’ marketing ideas. This, of course, depends on your budget, needs and planned marketing efforts. For some of you, a sidewalk sign announcing your daily specials will be the perfect solution. For others, it’s really time to replace your old faded sign with a new electronic message center.

Another option for many of you will be to reassess your vehicle graphics. Whether you have one vehicle or a fleet of vehicles, take a fresh look at them. Here are some questions you should ask yourself about your vehicle graphics:

• Do my vehicles display the level of professionalism that is consistent with my brand?
• Are my vehicle graphics faded, peeling or damaged?
• Is my message relevant?

Here’s what we did for a company recently. See if you can spot the differences in the before and after pics.

About Vehicle Wraps and Graphics

We have Billy Collins, a 3M Preferred Vinyl Graphics installer, on staff to ensure your vehicle’s graphics are installed with the utmost care. We want your business to succeed and firmly believe that a well-designed, expertly installed wrap gives you a distinct advantage over your competitors. More on Vehicle Graphics…

A banner stand welcoming incoming university students in a variety of languages. Fun typography always wins the day.

Q: Who’s ready for a little baseball?
A: WE ARE!

We love having a professional baseball team in Evansville. We love spending a few hours at historic Bosse Field with our family while we root, root, root for the home team. We love the smell of the grass and the infield dirt and the well-cared-for leather. We love our Evansville Otters.

For family entertainment value, it’s a steal. Just $5 a person to get you in and relatively inexpensive ball game food.

We are proud to be a corporate sponsor for the Otters because the Otters are good for Evansville. If you are interested in sponsoring the Otters, give GM Joel Padfield a call (812-435-8686) and he’ll get you set up. Check out the Otters’ website for game time info for the 2013 season.

And finally, consider this: where else can you watch people pull polyps off a giant wooden colon and still feel good about yourself after you get done laughing?

About Where’s Walter

The Where’s Walter series highlights the mysterious activities of the owner of AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama in Evansville Indiana. See all of the Where’s Walter posts.

Originally with a burnt-orange paint job, this color-change wrap is a simple branded message for Verizon Wireless Zone’s Phone Surgeons who will travel to your location to repair your devices. Check out Phone Surgeons of Evansville’s Facebook page for more info.

About Vehicle Wraps and Graphics

We have Billy Collins, a 3M Preferred Vinyl Graphics installer, on staff to ensure your vehicle’s graphics are installed with the utmost care. We want your business to succeed and firmly believe that a well-designed, expertly installed wrap gives you a distinct advantage over your competitors. More on Vehicle Graphics…

Mike Suyeyasu is starting a new adventure. With a wide and varied background that includes being a financial advisor with Northwestern Mutual, a business analyst in the defense industry, and general manager for a wholesale floral company, Mike is embarking on the entrepreneurial adventure of owning his own business.

And he has chosen wisely.

Mike is one of the newest SIGNARAMA franchisees to have graduated training school at the SIGNARAMA headquarters in West Palm Beach, FL. His store’s location has been selected on the southeast side of Indianapolis. His wide format equipment is being installed. His crew has been selected. His hopes and dreams are resting on his ability to wear all of the hats required by a new small business owner in today’s sometimes tumultuous economy.

But he is not alone.

As a member of the SIGNARAMA family, Mike has instant support, instant influence, instant street cred. In fact, one of the things that attracted us to SIGNARAMA in 1997 still rings true today: the network of other owners that will bend over backwards to help you succeed is a tremendous asset. Inevitably, as soon as a new owner graduates from training, the real world tries to punch you in the face. Hard. And it never stops.

That’s where SIGNARAMA Mentors come in.

Every new graduate is assigned a ‘mentor store’. We are excited that Mike has been assigned to us. We’re even more excited that Mike actually took the time to come down to Evansville from Indy to spend the day with us. As any small business owner can tell you, having a network of other like-minded owners that you can call at any time to discuss anything is often the difference between success and failure. Having that network available to you on day one is like being able to punch the real world in its face. Even harder.

So, congrats, Mike!

If you’re in the Indianapolis area, connect with Mike on LinkedIn.

About Where’s Walter

The Where’s Walter series highlights the mysterious activities of the owner of AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama in Evansville Indiana. See all of the Where’s Walter posts.