When Stone Creek Coffee Roasters wanted to build a huge coffee cup for the sign at its new Factory Store in Milwaukee, Sign Effectz Inc. was up to the task.
Sign Effectz is a custom electrical sign manufacturer in Milwaukee. It works with businesses to translate designs into the final advertising product using a variety of methods and materials.
The giant coffee cup, which is seven feet in diameter and four feet and six inches tall, was created by welding an aluminum frame, coating it with foam and then wrapping it in a fiberglass composite, said President Adam Brown.
Sign Effectz installed the cup in November on a chimney at the Fifth Street store, with high visibility to drivers on Interstate 794.
For most businesses, the company makes pylon, monument, channel letter, wall, neon and high-rise signs. It also manufactures awnings.
The products are made using aluminum, steel, copper, stainless, plastic, fiberglass and other materials. Sign Effectz also installs them.
A pylon sign, one that is raised above street level by a pole, is common for retail stores, but the recent trend has been toward monument signs, which are not elevated, Brown said.
“They try to get away from pylon signs, most communities, because they think the monument signs are more professional looking, lower, smaller,” he said.
Sign Effectz often works with chain restaurants, gas stations and fitness centers, but also had a hand in local projects like the artist-designed wind leaf sculptures at Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
The most common sign is channel letters, which are welded aluminum letter bodies covered with an acrylic lens made with the company’s CNC machines. Sign Effectz puts neon or LED lights inside the channel letters so they light up at night.
Sign Effectz rarely says no to a project, and Brown prides himself on finding innovative ways to manufacture each sign.
“The biggest part of it is the thirst for knowledge,” he said. “If I don’t have any experience with it, I’m going to learn how to do it.”
Founded by Brown in 1996, Sign Effectz now has 15 employees. It makes between 300 and 400 signs per year and has annual revenue of $2 million.
In 2005, Brown founded a division called AFX to make creative architectural objects like the giant coffee cup. The projects are heavy on research and development to achieve the vision of an artist.
“An artist will come with a conceptual idea but not have any clue how to get there,” Brown said. “We have people paying us to design and build strange, wacked out ideas.”
He expects Sign Effectz to hit $2.5 million in revenue in 2013, driven mainly by growth in the AFX division.
Brown has purchased the one-acre lot next door to Sign Effectz’ 17,000-square-foot facility, where he plans to build a 7,500-square-foot building to house the company’s trucks and construction equipment. The 4,500 square feet of truck space in the current facility will become part of the manufacturing floor.
There’s no such thing as a standard sign, since each one must convey a different look and message, Brown said.
“Signs are sculptural interpretations of graphic art,” he said. “Good design strikes emotion.”
