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Owning several sign companies over the past 30 years has lead me to have a little bit of  a soft spot for old vintage signs in any condition. I recently took a road trip for vintage signs with a friend to photograph some old signs and fell upon a town smack dab halfway between San Diego and Las Vegas, called Yermo. A town mostly abandoned and so quiet that you can hear the wind  blowing rusted metals together and squeaking with each breeze.
This first of the vintage signs, cafe sign sits atop a couple of telescoping steel poles at around 75’ and still has this amazing beauty to it, although the restaurant is long gone. Note the faded pink and blue colors of mid century fashion. Mostly missing neon tubes, some still dangling and blowing in the wind due to the elements.

As the sun warmed our bones, we continued to walk down the dirt roads and tumble weeded surrounds excitedly seeking out worn signs. Some just age gracefully due to the elements of their environment, paint peeling off, full rust exposure and well, burnt out lighting as if the signs say “Hey!, look at me”.

From Yermo we headed through Nevada and up into Utah stopping to shoot pics of all the vintage signs we could find along the way.

We arrived in Price, Utah just before dark and passed by this old theater marquee that was illuminated, but when we came back 30 minutes later the sign was turned off much to our dismay. But we could see the lights still on and someone in the concession. We knocked on the glass and pleaded our case to turn the sign back on. The employee said that it was the last show so no need to keep the sign turned on, lol. but he obliged for us, and we quickly snapped a few of this burnt out relic, certainly not up to it’s old glory.

But this vintage sign across the street turned out to be much more appealing with it mid century bulb lights at the Silver Dollar bar

The return route was to take us through Vegas and a tour of the Sign Museum. Ten minutes prior to the scheduled tour a lightning storm came thundering through canceling it. There’s a reason for everything. Look at the shot looking up the strip from the window of the car.

One of the questions that I hear other business owners talk about a lot is, the pros and cons of ordering online as opposed to buying from a brick and mortar. And ordering online, time and again, is always winning out. So lets look at the pros and cons and the practicality of ordering online signs.

The truth is in the pudding (well the internet), that more and more people are preferring to purchase products online as opposed to some of the challenges we now incur going to a brick and mortar regional store. (results). According to Acquity Group LLC’s  2013 State of B2B Procurement Study. The digital marketing firm based its findings on an online survey of more than 200 business buyers with annual procurement budgets of $100,000 or more. Acquity fielded the survey in March and April. Of business buyers who shop online, 58.5% said they’ve made a purchase of $5,000 or more via the web. Of those buying online, the survey found that 31.9% said they spend 50%-89% of their budgets online.
It’s simple, it is now easier to shop online, more convenient and leads to greater cost savings.
Remember when convenience had its’ costs? Well that is now just about history. What can be more convenient than staying in your office, shopping online via  your laptop or desktop while having your coffee, multi-tasking and then having UPS deliver it to your door? Oh yeah, and lets not forget, it has probably saved you some serious money as well!
But, let’s just take a quick look back at going to a brick in mortar. We still need the internet to find our supplier. Then we must make an additional allowance of time just to leave the office for an hour or more, sit in traffic(yep! every place has traffic) now your are driving on expensive gas. Finding a parking space. Visiting a business only to find out they don’t really have what you want, and usually being faced more and more with some less than ambitious staff member or shop owner. Should we stop here? Oh, and you have to drive back to the office in traffic  of course again. No, I can’t stop here. How about your actual time where you could be doing something else more important? How about the fact you are probably paying more for the product, because you can’t really spend more time, driving around looking at what the other competitors have to offer. Enough said!
Well, it’s obvious. Order online. Quick, convenient, confidential and it will save you money!
Now businesses owners can even order their own lobby or reception signs online. It’s all of the above, quick, convenient, confidential and it will save you money! Potential customers or visitors can simply choose the style of sign they like from the idea gallery, mix and match cool parts from a simple and logical step-by-step process, upload art and after confirming the price, it comes shipped to your door. The sign components are put together in such a simple form, you can hang your lobby sign yourself in minutes or just shout out to your handyman. It’s the World Easiest Sign Kit™  Wham, it’s convenient and just saves you both time and money.