Becke Sigaty applies the final strokes of paint to the sign before turning her attention to the tree holding it up.
Sign Media Canada (SMC): What is the history of your sign shop and how has the business grown over the years?
Dan Sawatzky (DS): I started in the sign business at the tender age of 14, doing seasonal window splashes. This ultimately led to owning my sign shop in Vancouver Island while still in my teens. We incorporated as Imagination Corp., in 1991; that gives our shop a 51-year history. We relocated to Chilliwack, a small town in British Columbia, in 2000, and built our current shop in 2003.
Today, our business spans nearly 372 m2 (4000 sf) of studio space. With six of us being related, we are definitely a family company: founders—Dan Sawatzky (father) and Janis Sawatzky (mother), partners—Peter Sawatzky (son), Hailey Sawatzky (daughter-in-law), Becke Sigaty (daughter), Grant Sigaty (son-in-law), and only two other employees, Matt Marriot and Brent Heimstra. We sometimes have extra staff onboard when the volume of work warrants it.
SMC: What type of signage does your shop primarily make? What type of projects have you undertaken recently?
DS: We specialize in designing, fabricating, and installing custom elements. We create all our designs in-house and only do dimensional signs in our shop. The bulk of our work is for theme park projects, although we make standalone signs for businesses, too. Lately, we have been doing theme park projects exclusively.
