Billboard Direct Signs & Graphics overcomes challenges

by | 3 July 2018 11:45 am

By Ginny Mumm

What happens to a business when a natural disaster roars through its town? In the case of Billboard Direct Signs and Graphics (BDSG), which is based in Fort McMurray, Alta., the massive wildfies of 2016 ended up bringing the company’s employees closer together, as they knew restoring the inflow of revenue would be a whole new challenge afterwards.

In May of that year, fast-spreading fires—both within Fort McMurray and across adjacent areas—forced the evacuation of 80,000 residents and destroyed approximately 2,400 structures.

“It was unbelievable,” says Carrieann Griffiths, graphic artist for BDSG. “We weren’t given any notice when, suddenly, the flames came down the hill and our backyard was on fire.”

The company’s shop was spared, fortunately, but the town it served was devastated. All of BDSG’s employees pitched in, printing signage for all of the burned areas, while also helping each other find ways to move forward as their homes had to be rebuilt.

“With all of that going on, it was hard at first to keep the shop rolling,” says production manager Kristyn Tremblett.

BDSG had always relied on Roland DGA large-format inkjet printer-cutters, starting with a VersaCamm model. After the fires, the company added a 1.6-m (64-in.) wide TrueVis VG-640.

“I remember thinking how this new printer was going to help get us all the way back,” says Tremblett.

Expanding from promotional branding

BDSG has its roots in a promotional product supply business, which was founded in 1992 and continues to operate today as Billboard Direct Promotional Services (BDPS), specializing in the likes of branded apparel, bags and drinkware. The expansion into large-format digital printing of graphics began in 2006.

The two sides of the same business offer a full range of branding options for local clients, with BDSG’s crew producing banners, decals, indoor and outdoor signage, partial and full wraps for single vehicles and fleets and floor, window and wall graphics.

“We like to say our graphics are like hot sauce, because we put them on everything!” says Tremblett. “It is incredible how many different kinds of projects we can run with our various printer-cutters.”

The signage crew is a team of seven, including Griffiths, Tremblett, her sons Kody and Kristoffer (who serve as vehicle graphics technician and sign specialist, respectively), quote specialist Shawna Smart and owners Christine and Don Campbell. They and BDPS occupy approximately 790 m² (8,500 sf) at the corner of Manning Avenue and Centennial Drive, which features a three-car bay that is perfect for accommodating vehicle graphic installations and other large jobs.

Handling projects large and small

Their clients include local real estate offices, grocery stores, hair salons, small shops, clubs and restaurants. They have also printed graphics for the municipal government, the MacDonald Island Park regional recreation centre, local fire and rescue vehicles, Fort McMurray Transit’s fleet of buses and the city’s Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) team, the Fort McMurray Oil Barons.

Of course, given Fort McMurray’s location in the middle of the Athabasca oil sands and its major role in Canada’s petroleum industry, it is unsurprising BDSG does a lot of work for industrial corporations in the area.

The company wraps and maintains graphics on fleets of vehicles for the industry, including steam trucks, oil tankers and pickup trucks. When wrapping water delivery trucks for such companies as Culligan and Water Pure & Simple, by way of example, the jobs are made more complex by the many slates on the sides of the vehicles.

There is also smaller-format work, including the printing of sample tags for miners to use when testing ore.

“We produce about 10,000 of those in a single run,” Tremblett explains.

Supporting local events

Having established itself as a top graphics provider in the area, BDSG has also landed work for some of the province’s largest events, including the Alberta Winter Games (AWG) and the annual three-day WinterPlay Festival, both of which took place this February across Fort McMurray’s regional municipality of Wood Buffalo.

For the AWG, Billboard Direct produced and installed all of the event signage, including 42 sponsors’ logos, wayfinding signs, banners, concession signage, stairwell trim, free-standing cutouts of the games’ mascots, wraps for event buses and even static-cling graphics for the restroom mirrors.

“When a big event like AWG comes in to town,
we have both of our inkjet printers running and the whole staff working to get everything done,” says Tremblett. “We print the little, itty-bitty stuff all the way up to the big event signs.”

For her part, she says she continues to enjoy working at BDSG on new projects.

“It’s the best little shop in town,” Tremblett says, “and whenever our clients need vivid colours, they can rest assured they’ll be there, thanks to our printers. These machines make our life a lot easier. There’s not a lot holding us back!”

Ginny Mumm is a freelance consultant for digital inkjet printer/cutter provider Roland DGA. For more information, visit www.rolanddga.com and www.billboarddirect.ca.

 

Source URL: https://www.signmedia.ca/profile-billboard-direct-signs-graphics/

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