City Image Signs: A multi-faceted signmaker with a drive for excellence

by all | 9 April 2021 2:39 pm

By Sonia Yooshing

City Image Signs was formed in 2015 through the purchase of an existing signage manufacturing outlet in Edmonton. Since the transition, the newly acquired 35-year-old signmaking company has revamped its operations and improved its capabilities to satisfy a growing customer base on a national level.

The shop prides itself in producing some of the country’s most challenging sign projects. With a focus on expanding into strategic installations and professional services partnerships, the company has succeeded in propelling its growth and enabling the staff to collaborate with several multi-location customers. The vast database of national installation vendors, in addition to in-house permit and sign building experts, allows the company to handle all aspects of every sign project, from start to finish, in any municipality across the country.

Sign Media Canada recently spoke with City Image Signs’ president, Matthew Pennycook, to learn more about the shop’s signmaking process, recent projects, and plans for the business.

Sign Media Canada (SMC): What makes your company unique?

Matthew Pennycook (MP): Our company’s uniqueness is rooted in the extraordinary staff who have committed their careers to excel beyond the ‘average’ and strive for the ‘exceptional.’ There is an expression that suggests ‘people’ make great companies; however, at City Image Signs we believe it is the ‘right people’ who make a company great.

With a focus on cross-training our employees across multiple departments, empowering individuals to broaden their knowledge through education and experience, and bringing accountability to not just the individual but to the entire team, we have successfully fostered a culture where excellence is the goal while still allowing for a lot of fun along the way.

While hard work, attention to detail, quality, and care are among City Image Signs’ core values and ethics by which we operate without the need for validation, it was a great honour to have been recognized with two awards at the 2020 Best of Canada’s Sign Industry Awards (BOCSIes). We believe this is a testament to the team’s commitment and conviction to pursue perfection with every customer interaction, design, and project.

SMC: How large is the facility?

MP: We currently have 14 full-time employees in our 864 m² (9300-sf) facility.

SMC: What type of signage does your shop primarily make?

MP: City Image Signs specializes in working closely with storefront businesses, multi-location companies and franchises, general contractors, facility owners, and developers in the execution of permanent and illuminated signs. These can range from building-mounted fascia and projecting signs to large-scale projects involving freestanding structures, and comprehensive packages.

As we carry a cUL electrical certification, our illuminated signs meet and exceed electrical code in all Canadian provinces and throughout the U.S.

SMC: What type of projects have you been working on recently?

MP: The shop has been actively providing signage to several of our house account customers who are expanding their geographic reach into various parts of the country. As such, we are currently engaged in several storefront signage projects. The staff is also working on many pylon signs for regional developers.

We recently supplied and installed signage for one of our hospitality customers’ new locations at the Edmonton International Airport—an exciting first for our company.

SMC: How much of the signmaking process is handled in-house?

MP: The fabrication facility is where the majority of our signmaking process takes place. Though we sometimes leverage our vendor relationships for certain industry-specific signage requirements, our cUL certification ensures the completion of all electrical components and assembly in-house.

SMC: What tools/equipment do you currently use to complete your projects?

MP: Our custom-built signs are made using a variety of equipment, including a Summa vinyl plotter, a MultiCam computer numerical control (CNC) router, a CLN channel letter notcher, and welding machines. We also have a professional spray booth, which allows us to deliver products with a superior finish.

That said, our greatest asset is our incredible staff. Without their extensive knowledge and experience, these tools and equipment would not matter.

SMC: What does your planning and design process involve?

MP: The success of each project can be attributed to the emphasis we put on pre-construction planning. Using a detailed charting process, we are able to learn, acknowledge, and understand all aspects of the project, which enables us to establish a plan prior to the fabrication process. This strategy effectively streamlines fabrication, minimizes change orders, and shortens overall timelines, which ultimately benefits the project and the client.

We employ project managers and project co-ordinators to execute on each milestone in the signmaking process, including estimating, designing, permitting, co-ordinating installations, and collaborating with onsite vendors and landlords to keep the project on track. We work closely with the client to ensure the sign is within the allotted budget and reflects the overall brand and image of the business.

SMC: How is technology changing your business?

MP: We understand advancements in technology directly impact signage and the means by which it is made. To keep up with product developments, we rely heavily on our network of vendors to bring in a variety of manufacturers for ‘lunch and learns’ so we can gain knowledge about new products in the market. We also attend trade shows and subscribe to the latest industry resources to keep ourselves informed of new trends and signmaking methods. Engaging with businesses outside the sign industry allows us to find potential overlap in technologies.

Further, our staff is encouraged and fully subsidized by the company to upgrade their knowledge and skills by pursuing further education within fields of study that will directly contribute to the advancement of their professional careers and subsequently benefit the business.

Most recently, City Image Signs invested in building its own customer relationship management (CRM) system to streamline the flow of information within the company, allowing for greater efficiencies in turnaround time, effective communication, and increased capacity to take on more projects at once.

SMC: What is the key to staying successful in this industry?

MP: The key to our success is centred on our core values of integrity, mutual respect, and quality signage. With a focus on building and maintaining long-term relationships, delivering a customer experience based around these values helps solidify our reputation of delivering on our promises.

SMC: What are the future plans for your business?

MP: The company is still in the growth stage of where we want to be as a business. While we are currently set up to supply and install signage anywhere in Canada, we are continuously looking for ways to build efficiencies within different regions. By leveraging our strong partnerships, electrical certification, custom-built CRM program, and project management expertise, we strive to become an industry leader in the turnkey execution of permanent and illuminated signage projects across North America.

MC: How has the pandemic affected your business? How did the shop cope?

MP: This past year has been unprecedented and, honestly, it was not exactly planned for when we created our budget for 2020. That said, while we had no control over the pandemic, we did have control over how we adjusted to it. With the foresight to shift our front-end business entirely to cloud-based operations back in 2015, we were equipped to transition to the work-from-home mandate. This preparedness enabled us to easily adapt to the changed working environment, allowing us to continue to bring in enough projects, remain fully staffed, and even add two more employees to the team. In addition, with dutiful diligence in following health mandates, we have been able to successfully establish and maintain a safe work environment for our staff to continue working while we find our way through to the other side of the pandemic.

Source URL: https://www.signmedia.ca/city-image-signs-a-multi-faceted-signmaker-with-a-drive-for-excellence/

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