The first is a brand new, custom parking sign. We produced a few of these for locations in both Tampa and Clearwater.

The second is a double-sided box. The box is an aluminum box, fabricated for a second face on the other side not pictures. The faces are acrylic, with several colors in cut vinyl.

The third is a new face for an existing monument out on the beach. We were tasked with replacing the bottom face of the existing monument, as part of our customers project to refurbish the sign. The old faces were reader faces that had yellowed over time, and looked their age. These brand new acrylic inserts certainly bring a brighter look to a great business along the beach.

If you have any upcoming signage projects, give us a call! We’d love to help.

727.327.7755

We were putting the final touches on a sign that was destined for Janet’s Antiques in downtown St. Petersburg.  The sign was a highly custom piece that included digital prints, vinyl, and some bright neon. It had a fun design that was inspired by the antique shops own in house “Price Fairy.” What is the Price Fairy you ask? We’ll, the owner of the antique shop carries a wand that lights up, and whenever she needs to negotiate pricing with one of her customers, she waves the wand over the item. For her, it is an effective strategy that seems to take the edge off of the negotiation and makes it fun for both her and her customers.

With such a highly custom sign and its goals (attracting new customers, increasing her brand awareness) in mind, there were a few challenges to overcome along the way.

The first challenge was material options. After some lengthy discussions, we decided to go with neon for the lighted wand, a tried and true way to include multiple colors that blink.  The sign industry has largely moved to LEDs as a way to accomplish this and we could have gone that route too, but with an antique shop, neon seemed to fit the mood.   The neon was created in the shape of a star-burst with a star in the middle and had to be 4 colors.   This part of the sign was only 24” in diameter, so bending the neon and achieving purple, pink, green and yellow was a challenge for our neon specialist with so many colors at such a small size.  The end product turned out great, though.

The next challenge was to take a very small image of a fairy that our customer had scanned from an old book and somehow make it at least 4’ tall and printable.   Initially we told our customer that it probably wouldn’t work and we set out looking for an image of a fairy that was of sufficient resolution for us to print.  We couldn’t find anything that both would work and that she liked, so our graphics specialist worked his magic and VOILA…a 4’ “Price Fairy” was redrawn/recreated based on the book image and sent to our wide-format digital printer. It was then applied to the black acrylic background in just the right position so that her wand “touched” the neon star-burst that had already been attached. Redesigning a logo is often an option, but we always like to explore other routes first, as often there are logos or images available that don’t require extensive art time.

After these challenges were overcome, all that was left to do was to apply two lines of vinyl lettering to announce that the antique shop is “The Home of The Price Fairy.”

Our production department might take exception with how easy typing out the steps in the assembly of this custom sign sounds, and they would be right to. A lot goes into a one-of-a-kind sign such as this, most of which never gets a second look, but is vital to the production of the sign. Things like hiding neon wires properly, pop-riveting standoffs, and balancing the signs weight so it hangs straight are all often overlooked aspects of production, but are essential in a quality sign.

NOW…for the exciting part, the reveal.  We were off to deliver the neon sign to our customer a few miles from our door in St. Petersburg.   We knew that they were excited to get their new sign….but we didn’t realize just HOW EXCITED.  I arrived in my wrapped truck, and our production crew arrived in our wrapped delivery van. SIGNARAMA had arrived in force!  What happened next was about to make our day, and apparently theirs too.

When the van door opened, we were greeted with cheers! To our surprise, the entire “event” was being videotaped by our excited customer, and ended up on YouTube later that night.   There were numerous outbursts from the crowd that awaited us at the door of the shop…”She’s beautiful”…”Great Job”…”OMG the blinking neon is fabulous”…”The Price Fairy has arrived at her new home!” Neighboring shop owners were summoned to give their opinions…all of who gave nice compliments for our work.

Getting a lot of kudos for our work on the custom neon sign was well worth the effort we put into it…but the thing that made our day was the contagious  enthusiasm that the owner and manager have for their business  and consequently for their new custom neon sign.  Our goal is to satisfy 100% of our  customers here at Sign A Rama Tampa Bay, but Wednesday’s delivery of The Price Fairy was one of the most memorable we have had!

If you are in the Downtown St. Pete area, make sure you stop by Janet’s Antiques on Central Ave. They run an awesome business and have 40 years of experience under their belt. Check them out at www.janetsantiquesstpete.com and give them a call today at 727-823-5700! Or give us a call if you want to talk about your own custom sign.

There are lots of ways to congratulate your grad, but one of the most popular ways is with a graduation banner! Grad banners are a great way to tell your graduate that you are proud of them.

Banners are often hung up at parties for both family and friends. They can be signed much like yearbook would be signed, and are full color. They can include photos of memorable events, graphics, and as much lettering as you want to fit on it!

Banners are a great way to tell your graduate that you are proud of them, so make sure you have one strung up at your graduation party.

Congrats Class of 2012!

Make sure you capitalize on its awesomeness with signs and banners that can help your business make the most out of the warmer months!

If you are a business near the beach, you go through the same song and dance every year. You have your busy seasons, your tourist seasons, your slow periods, and then the sitting around and waiting for the phone to ring periods. Make sure you are fully capitalizing on your busy tourist seasons with the proper signage! Something as simple as a promotional banner or A-frame sign can help bring you thousands of dollars in business that you might not otherwise have received. As the locals flock back to the beach, and the tourists wander about looking for neat things to do while in town, make sure your business in on their list of stops. Announce your special, promote your products, entice them with pictures of cool drinks on a hot summer day; you should be doing everything you can make the most out of the warm months ahead!

So let us help you grow your business in the next few months. Give us a call and we’ll talk through a few options and decide how we can best help your business flourish.

So enjoy the remaining hours of 2011, and look forward to 2012 like we are. Hopefully, it brings us all great things, and allows us all to be happy, healthy, and successful.

Happy New Year from Sign A Rama Tampa Bay.

Reflective vinyl on an A-frame with a camera flash

Alumimum sign helps save the birds at sunset

No Parking Reflective

Large scale wraps really help get you noticed!

Large interior banners have a huge impact

I was in line at a local grocery store the other day and they were selling boxes of food for people in need during the holidays.  The boxes were about $15 per box. I wondered for a moment how successful their efforts were, considering that funds might be a little scarce for donations this holiday season with the financial situation many are in.

As it turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong…at least in this instance. There was a nice couple in front of me in line purchasing their groceries and the gentleman inquired about the food donation boxes, and asked how many they had left to sell.  The young lady at the register informed him that they had gotten 500 from their home office and all that was left were the ones on the display, which was about 10.  Selling 490 boxes is impressive in itself, but what happened next got me feeling all warm and tingly inside.

The gentlemen in front of me in line asked if they could make up more boxes, but she informed him that they couldn’t since it was a corporate program and they were sent directly from their distribution center.  Without hesitation, he then said that he would purchase all of the remaining boxes, and asked if the store could call him and his wife if they received anymore before the holiday was over.

It was a great experience and really put a smile on my face. Any donation large or small to those in need this time of year is greatly appreciated. It was a really cool experience I won’t soon forget.

I passed the couple in the parking lot as they loaded their groceries into their car and stopped to complement their holiday spirit….They smiled and simply said “It’s Christmas…..hope you have a Merry one!”

From all of us here at Sign A Rama Tampa Bay, we wish you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

The game can be loads of fun, and in the end you usually get a pretty neat gift. Often, the game is played at an office party. Unfortunately, our office only consists of a few people. It would not be much fun, and the game wouldn’t last long. That’s why this year; we’re choosing to include our customers! We are changing the game up a bit too, and we think it will be loads of fun.

Order a sign from us this holiday season. When you show up to pick up your sign, you’ll have the option to steal another customer’s sign! If, when you are standing in our lobby, you see an awfully nice “No Parking” sign that you think you could make use of, go ahead and take it! Maybe you order a holiday banner, but upon arriving see some really nice business cards. Who cares if your name isn’t on them, take them! It is in the spirit of Christmas. Of course, you’ll have to leave the holiday banner you ordered here for another one of our customer to take, but at least you get to check business cards off your list (one less item for Santa to put in your stocking).

We think it is a fantastic idea that, if you play your cards right, could really net you a great, custom sign (although that sign will almost certainly have someone else’s company name and information on it). We’re the only sign company in St. Petersburg allowing our customers to steal other customer’s signs, so take advantage of our White Elephant Sign Swap this Christmas!

(please do not really, it isn’t an actual sale)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Sign A Rama Tampa Bay.

Here in the sign business in West Central Florida, we had our own leaf show recently, as we printed and installed a 10-foot-tall by 18-foot-wide leaf wall mural for our customer Mission Aveda Salon at Countryside Mall.

Our customer had a vision for this dramatic statement in this beautiful salon.  The huge digital image of a single leaf was paneled into a mural that spans one main wall of the salon and wraps around several unique wall contours.  The result creates a ‘wow’ factor for guests and is in perfect harmony with Aveda’s mission to be a leader in environmental responsibility.

The image was printed on our Mimaki JV3 with adhesive-backed material engineered specifically for murals.  It has terrific color pop, and a luster finish that has minimal reflction under interior lighting.

This is one Fall leaf that won’t be getting raked up anytime soon.

Yes, we love fall leaves.  And winter leaves.  And spring leaves.  And summer leaves.  It’s Florida, after all.  And here – where we enjoy leaves all year long – we sometimes even print them and hang them on the walls.

To learn more about how a wall mural and other large format graphics can support your business objectives, call us at 727-327-7755.