Sign Shop Profile: Wildrose Designs

by all | 4 February 2013 8:30 am

[1]By Peter Saunders
Ingrid Sophia Zimmer-Zschogner was born in Toronto and has lived all over Canada, from Baffin Island, Nunavut, to Calgary to Rosseau, Ont. Today, she is the director of Wildrose Designs, a sign and graphic design company that has been able to serve clients in both eastern and western provinces.

“I just take my laptop computer wherever I go,” she says. “I can design anywhere.”

A background in art
Zimmer-Zschogner’s earliest encounter with signmaking took place when she was 13 years old. She helped her father, Dietmar Zschogner, hand-paint a billboard to advertise his airline service in Parry Sound, Ont.

She began her professional art career while in high school in Calgary, when at just 14 years old she landed her first corporately commissioned project. This and other early pieces in her portfolio earned her a scholarship to study at the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD).

She left Alberta in 1999 after her first of two daughters was born, as her husband at the time was from Ontario. While raising the girls as a stay-at-home mom, she pursued a part-time career as a wildlife and portrait artist, opening her own private gallery in the village of Rosseau.

“All people, pets and wild animals are filled with vitality and emotion,” she says. “Each personality bears its own distinctive mark. I try to capture that fleeting, honest expression and gesture. Whether commissioned or personal, my art was a direct response to the beauty and sensitivity of each subject’s spirit.”

[2]The art helped Zimmer-Zschogner to flourish after she had tried working in aircraft maintenance—where her sister followed in their father’s footsteps—and carpentry, where she felt discouraged by sexism in a male-dominated culture.

“That always turned me off,” she says. “I got a lot of negative comments and I felt isolated.”

She befriended a local signmaker, Mike Laver, who owns and operates Bay Street Graphics in Parry Sound. As she expanded her artistic talents through self-teaching and branching into graphic design, he taught her a variety of signmaking skills, ranging from cutting paint masks and stretching photos on canvas to using signmaking software.

“He provided me with a wealth of knowledge and inspiration,” she says. ”He gave me a book about designing and hand-carving wooden signs the old-fashioned way. When I researched sign shops in the area, however, I learned they were all sandblasting cedar, which I’m allergic to! So, I decided to use epoxy resins, like my father uses in the aircraft industry, and high-density urethane (HDU), which does not rot or warp like cedar can.”

She consulted with other sign shops, as well as signmaking equipment distributors, and attended trade shows to learn more about what was possible.

[3]Building a client base
As a result of this research, in 2004, Zimmer-Zschogner became the first signmaker in her region to use HDU sign foam—and the only one to also specialize in the traditional application of 23-kt gold leaf.

“The area I was living in needed a lot of sign facelifts,” she says. “I started Wildrose Designs and obtained contracts with nearby towns. While it was hard to sell at first and this was another male-dominated industry, at least it was a type of work I could do on my own. I just had to prove myself by focusing on quality and customer service. It was exhausting at first, getting people’s approval, but once I had a bunch of successful projects under my belt, it became easier.”

Emphasizing long-lasting and water-resistant materials, she also began working with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), ultraviolet-resistant (UV-resistant) clearcoats, laminated steel, fibreglass and manufacturer-warrantied channel letters. The riveting and aircraft modification skills she had acquired at an early age in her father’s airport hangars gave her confidence using power tools.

“My clients’ specific interest in signage depends on the area,” she says. “Cottagers like the hand-carved dimensional elements, for example, while professionals operating businesses in Northern Ontario recognize durable building-identification signage as an investment that makes their locations look more permanent. Townships commission ‘Welcome to …’ signs and I’ve also done work for schools.”

Another factor affecting the signmaking process is the local climate. While Alberta’s air tends to be dry, Ontario’s is often humid, requiring coated signs to be dried for much longer before use.

“As mentioned, quality and customer service are my top priorities, but sometimes timelines throw a monkey wrench into the works,” she says. “I remember one day when we had multiple clogged spray guns, hazardous materials (hazmat) spills on sign supply trucks and transportation issues. Every problem has a solution, but I won’t rush a job. And my clients tend to appreciate it’s worth the wait.”

[4]Working with others
In 2009, Zimmer-Zschogner was awarded a contract to design, fabricate and install signage and wayfinding components at Canada’s only J.W. Marriott Hotel and Resort, located on Ontario’s Lake Rosseau. It was a big job, emphasizing the need for a co-operative effort.

“It took my team three months to develop a 200-page wayfinding, signage and branding guide,” she says, “with designs for 220 interior bronze signs, resort trail signs, maps, interpretive signs and traffic signs, requiring the approval of two local townships.”

Indeed, Zimmer-Zschogner is not alone in her efforts. With a history going back to woodcarvers in Germany’s Black Forest and relatives who have built everything from clocks to furniture, her family includes painters, carpenters and welders who have worked in and near Parry Sound for more than 20 years, many of whom now help her build signs.

“I’m the project manager,” she explains. “While I specialize in hand-carving dimensional signs with a chisel and applying gold leaf, the work I do by myself depends on the job. I’m allergic to chemicals and laminates used in some processes, for example, so I leave those up to a professional crew led by my cousin, Ray Reschke, who owns Northern Lights Painting and Decorating.”

Another reason to call upon others’ help is the large scale of some projects.

[5]“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.”

[6]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.”

Source URL: https://www.signmedia.ca/profile-wildrose-designs/

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