Sign Shop Profile: Comsign

by all | 17 May 2016 3:55 pm

By Peter Saunders
Comsign is a small shop in Edmonton with roots dating back to the 1940s and which has passed through many owners’ hands over the years. Originally known as Commercial Signs, its name was shortened in 2001 after a change in direction to focus on the architectural signage market, as well as to distribute standoff mounting systems and related components to other sign companies across Canada.

Building the business
Comsign’s current owner, Duncan Wilkie, has been part of the sign industry since 1972, when he began studying commercial signwriting at Edmonton’s Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) and also built signs part-time with Murray MacDonald in Flin Flon, Man.

“I joined Commercial Signs after graduating from NAIT in 1973 and then moved on to other shops, doing electrical sign design for about five years,” he says. “Back then, everything was painted by hand. There were no computers yet.”

During that stint of his career, Wilkie met his wife Laurie and started his own shop in their backyard, known as Wilkie Signs & Graphics. When he was offered an opportunity to buy half of Commercial Signs in 1980, he jumped at it, as he felt it was one of the more economically solid sign businesses in the city. Laurie came on-board as office administrator. And two years in, they bought out the other half of the business from Wilkie’s partner.

“Changes needed to be made, but basically, we built the business from there,” Wilkie says. “Some of our customers from back then are still with us now.”

Indeed, the company’s long history helped keep work coming in through referrals and repeat business. Over time, to meet these customers’ changing needs, Comsign added new equipment, evolved from sign fabrication by hand to computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) and moved to new facilities on several occasions.

“We were able to constantly adapt to the changes in our industry,” says Wilkie. “We’ve been faced with technology that changed everything we know about signmaking and we’ve seen wide-ranging ups and downs in the economy, but we continued to be focused and positive about our place in the industry.”

A shift in focus
Today, the 511-m² (5,500-sf) shop where Comsign has been based for more than 20 years combines traditional signmaking skills with computer-aided design (CAD) software, vinyl plotters, inkjet printer-cutters and thermal printers. A millwork and fabrication space is equipped with a computer numerical control (CNC) router and certified spray booth.

Comsign primarily serves commercial, institutional and government clients in Edmonton, Red Deer and Northern Alberta. Its shift in focus toward architectural signage (see example below) was born out of these clients’ needs.

“Many of our customers are property managers and owners who had challenges maintaining their wayfinding signs and asked if we could help,” Wilkie explains. “Architectural signage wasn’t really a ‘thing’ yet, so we looked at systems from various manufacturers and matched the form and function of their components together. As we became very good at duplicating this process, the demand for our services grew, until we were asked to design and supply custom logos and wayfinding systems for new and renovated buildings.”

The shift turned out to be well-timed, as Alberta’s economic boom brought with it many new commercial buildings, condominium towers and apartment buildings, all needing their own wayfinding systems, logos and monument signs. Meanwhile, other sign and display companies began to outsource the same specialized tasks to Comsign, rather than trying to handle it themselves in-house.

“We developed our reputation by supplying standoffs and rod and wire suspension components to them,” says Wilkie, “then we expanded that relationship to include interior signage and custom routing services.”

While the custom work tended to involve a two- to three-
week turnaround for client orders, the standoff distribution side of the business was much faster-paced, with daily shipments of off-the-shelf products. This dichotomy of customer-facing services has helped keep Comsign busy at all times.

Empowered by specialization
As Comsign’s services have become more specialized, it has both grown in terms of productivity and shrunk in terms of in-house capacity.

“It was hard to hire employees during Alberta’s boom years, so we streamlined our operations instead,” Wilkie explains. “We now have half the staff we used to—five today compared to 10 about a decade ago—and we have chosen to form new relationships with other companies in the industry. This means working closely with many organizations one might otherwise think of as our competitors. We subcontract out a lot of digital printing of banners, specialized processes like metal fabrication, screenprinting and most of our installations. We’ve learned not to try to be everything to everybody. And because we are well-established and ‘lean,’ we have the luxury of being able to say no when a project isn’t a fit for us. It is very empowering when you can pick your battles.”

For one thing, Comsign does not attempt to fulfil wayfinding programs for large-scale facilities like hospitals.

“We like 10 floors or less, as we mainly focus on custom-fabricating one-of-a-kind signs systems and displays,” says Wilkie. “With digital signage, for example, we’ll house a video display directory within a surround that’s visually appealing. The result looks a lot nicer than a typical screen on a wall. You can present more of a ‘value add’ when you have skills other companies do not offer.”

Passing on the baton
Looking to the future, Wilkie is planning to retire and pass Comsign along into yet another owner’s hands. Lately, he has tapped into outside professional advice to help gear up the business for sale.

“We’ve had lots of challenges over time and our biggest success is we’re still around after all of these years,” he says. “We see a bright future for Comsign, but the process of preparing for succession is a new type of challenge we continue to work through. We don’t yet know who will step in.”

Selling the business, however, will not mean an end to signmaking for Wilkie. Rather, he says he plans to help the new owner(s) and carry on making more traditional signs throughout his retirement.

Crafting Architectural Signage

Source URL: https://www.signmedia.ca/sign-shop-profile-comsign/

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