Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, Steel Art Signs continues to thrive in today’s cutting-edge, competitive market. Photos courtesy Steel Art Signs
By Carly McHugh
From when he was young, Tom Hrivnak has watched Steel Art Signs expand and thrive in Canada’s evolving sign industry. What remained consistent for the company, which was co-founded by his father in Toronto, was the desire to bring new and innovative ideas to the craft, while maintaining pride in their finished product.
Since then, the business has expanded by leaps and bounds, and moved its operations to Richmond Hill, Ont. After growing his career with Steel Art—where he began working as a teenager—Hrivnak took over as chairman, and the company formed a partnership with fellow industry legend Gregory Signs. Now, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, it shows no evidence of slowing down, and continues to thrive in today’s cutting-edge, competitive market.
For a close-up account of how Steel Art has remained a household name in the industry, Sign Media Canada spoke with Hrivnak, as well as vice-president of sales and marketing, Boris Kaminsky. Together, they detailed the company’s history, its recent projects, and how it has continued to achieve success in today’s ever-changing world.
Sign Media Canada (SMC): What is the history of Steel Art Signs?
Tom Hrivnak (TH): In 1949, Lou Hrivnak and Nat Zajdner decided to start a metal fabricating company, where they made air conditioning ducts, stainless steel kitchen counters, and equipment, and even some wrought iron. The name was “Steel Art” because they were working in metal at the beginning. They weren’t in the sign business. However, they did make stainless steel letters for E.L. Ruddy, which was a fairly large sign company at the time.
Then, later, when acrylic sheets were being manufactured, people started building “suitcase signs,” which was a light box with a plastic face, and they thought this was an area they should get into. So, they went to E.L. Ruddy and said, “We just want you to know, we’re going to go into this new kind of sign business.”
The company said they had no problem with it. Steel Art continued to make letters for E.L. Ruddy, as well as Chrysler letters for Tek Plastics, but then they developed their own customers. Canadian Tire was one of the first large customers, along with Eaton’s and CIBC. That’s how they got going.
SMC: How did the business develop over time and continue to thrive in an increasingly competitive industry?
TH: My father and his partner prided themselves in building a quality product. My father was strong in the sales end and Nat was more of the production head. They warrantied their work. They looked for new ways to make signs. I remember hearing my father and Don King—who had a company called King Products—discussing which one was the first to use extrusions. Aluminum extrusions were something they pioneered in making signs. They also did all of the things everybody tries to do now: deliver on time and give great customer service.
Over the years, they built quite a clientele, and they were making signs with fibre optics. Then, later—when I was running the company—Steel Art and a company called Philadelphia Sign in the U.S. were the first two major North American sign companies that were using LEDs.
I followed what my father and his partner were trying to do, by pioneering new ideas and technologies. Since the beginning, where we were doing mostly large exterior signs, we ended up going into interior signs and small, non-illuminated signs. Instead of just putting the big signs on the outside of hospitals, we started doing all of the interior signs, marking the rooms and lobbies. Now, we’re more diversified in what we supply, but we’re still in what we call on-premise sign manufacturing, as opposed to billboards or outdoor advertising.
