“I call upon Ray when needed,” she says. “His staff of skilled painters and contractors will come in and take over production in the shop. Everyone involved has a certain area of focus, for each aspect of a project. And the staff’s positive camaraderie and passion for excellence complement my goals for my business.”
Even her two daughters have helped make signs.
“They are always eager to get their hands dirty in the shop, especially when the time comes for gold leaf application,” she says. “They love painting their nails with the leftover gold leaf!”
Planting the seed
Industry awards—including an International Sign Contest prize in 2010, when Wildrose Designs placed third in the commercial free-standing signs category—have helped broaden awareness of Zimmer-Zschogner’s work, but her clients are still mostly based near her.
“I haven’t done much to market my services elsewhere, it’s mainly word-of-mouth,” she says. “I have made cottage signs for customers down in Florida, for example.”
While her father also continues to live and work in Parry Sound, her mother and stepfather are still based in Calgary, so she flies out west regularly. Those visits have led to new projects for Wildrose Designs. At press time, for example, she was just flying home after bidding on a job for a prospective client in Canmore, Alta.
“I hope to end up living out there full-time again in a few more years,” she says. “I still consider myself an Albertan, uprooted and temporarily based in Ontario. One of my daughters says she would like to go to the Banff Centre to study performing arts and I would love to get back into biathlons and mountain bike racing, which I was doing in Canmore 20 years ago. I’ve planted the seed of work there and next I want to water it.”
