Creative Sign Designs Featured on FOX 13 News Series
Charley Belcher visits the 'King of Sign Design' at their Tampa national headquarters as part of his 'Made in Tampa Bay' series.
Tampa, Fla. (November 10, 2011) – Just before the holiday season, FOX 13’s Charley Belcher visited businesses in the Tampa Bay area as part of his week-long series, ‘Made in Tampa Bay’. The series focuses on small businesses in the Tampa Bay area who manufacture products in-house. Charley went behind the scenes for a sneak peek into Creative Sign Designs, a national leader in architectural sign solutions.
Creative provides consultation, design, fabrication and installation services for a full line of interior and exterior sign products. The company recently celebrated its 25th Anniversary and was named Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year. Charley spoke with Creative’s President & CEO, Jamie Harden, on the exciting work going on in the shop these days:
“Going back to the ‘Made in Tampa Bay’ theme, we make just about any kind of signage you can imagine. We fabricate everything from large illuminated signs you might see on or in front of a building, to a full line of interior signs. We have provided ADA interior signage for many educational institutions, medical facilities, highly recognized organizations and municipalities. Our ADA signage has been one of our hallmark product lines for years.”
In addition to an array of exterior, interior and wayfinding signs, Creative Sign Designs specializes in designing, fabricating and installing custom residential and commercial mailboxes. Charley spent some time in Creative’s sand-cast foundry, where original mailbox parts are made from melted-down aluminum recyclables, with Vice President and General Manager, Jeff Croskey:
“We make mailbox parts here; sand-casting is an oddity in the southeast anymore, but we still do it. Most of these parts are imported from off-shores but we still cast a lot of our parts here in-house. It gives us control over production, delivery, and quality.
“We offer a lot of custom parts in the mailbox and residential side, and our in-house foundry lets us offer these parts to our customers without having to go off-shore. Twenty-five years ago we started as a mailbox company and that’s still a big part of our business.”
In the third segment of ‘Made in Tampa Bay’ Charley asks, “How does the design and fabrication process work? Does the client come to you and say ‘I need a new sign’ and you say ‘How about an aluminum one…or how about this?’ Or do they come to you with a design?” Creative’s Director of Installation, Chris Custer, explains:
“Most of the time we’ll do the design concept. We present the design concept to the customer and they may tweak it or make some changes, and ultimately we end up with a final design and begin the fabrication process. We are a manufacturing company, but we are also consultants for our customers.”
Creative Sign Designs is proud to share its products and services with Tampa Bay viewers. Creative was first featured on ‘Good Day, Tampa Bay’ when Charley visited the Tampa National Headquarters facility in December 2010. Charley went behind the scenes to see exactly how the Creative team manufactured custom LED illuminated pan-faced stars for one of its largest projects, the Straz Center for the Performing Arts.
Charley Belcher’s stories air Monday thru Friday mornings on Good Day Tampa Bay on FOX 13 News. They are stories about people and events in the Tampa Bay area all told from Charley’s creative perspective. Channel 13 is an owned and operated station of the Fox Broadcasting Company.
About Creative Sign Designs:
Creative Sign Designs, with national headquarters in Tampa, specializes in turnkey architectural signage solutions. Creative Sign Designs provides consultation, design, project management, fabrication, and installation services for a full line of interior, exterior and digital sign products. With more than 25 years experience providing architectural sign solutions, Creative Sign Designs is capable of successfully managing local, regional, and national projects. For more information, visit www.CreativeSignDesigns.com or call (888) 713-7620.