Fabricator Spotlight: Western Sign Services
We’ve never understood the air of secrecy surrounding much of the sign business,” says Michele Normand, Design and Production manager at Western Sign Services in Boring, Oregon. “Some companies in the sign business can be quite secretive, as if making signs is some kind of magical process. But it’s not. Sure, there are tricks to the trade and things that can and cannot be done. That’s true in any business. We are very open with all our customers always give honest answers and suggest ways of providing what they want or need.”
Family-owned and twenty years young, Western Sign Services began as a trade shop making a wide range of signs. Michele’s husband Brad left his position at another sign company to build his own business and brought his family in to make it all happen. Located about a dozen miles southeast of Portland, the company remains a trade shop, making a wide range of signage, and over the past eight years has increasingly focused on ADA applications, using equipment and materials from Nova Polymers. “Specializing in photopolymer ADA signage puts us in a unique position in our market“, says Michele. “We have become a go-to supplier for designers and businesses that need ADA signage“.
“The unique requirements of ADA signage make photopolymer a compelling technology for Western Sign services. The small firm is the only ADA trade shop in the area that produces state-of-the-art photopolymer signage instead of using outmoded raster bead processes. Michele and her team believe this gives them an advantage both in the signage they produce and also in the ability to educate customers about the advantages of photopolymer technology. Michele says ADA signs are especially important for enhancing people’s experience and orientation in an unfamiliar building and in helping them find the correct route to where they need to go.
When Nova Polymers introduced photopolymer technology to Michele and her team the benefits were immediately apparent. “We liked being able to create attractive and durable ADA signs and Nova Polymers always provided the same level of service they give much larger firms,” says Michele. “Even better, their website is full of info, and I have directed customers there when they need specific ADA information.”
The majority of Western Sign Services’ work comes from designers and architects in the greater Portland area. “They know they can count on us delivering what they need when we promise it,” says Michele, “and we service the trade based on our reputation.” Today, the company’s customers span a wide range of institutional, corporate, architectural and construction companies in the greater Portland area. Currently on the front burner for Western Sign Services is ADA signage for a new hospital building.
“There are many types of signs and we can’t do them all. Putting our focus on ADA signage allows us to perfect the process and provide the best quality and long-lasting product for our customers. We don’t want to do everything. But we want to do braille really well.”
Learn more about Western Sign Services at www.westernsignservices.com.
