Company history
Dave Painter developed the inspiration for a new kind of display sign while he was working in retail.
I worked for a number of year on the retail shop floor, enjoying the varied challenges the job brought. From my first days, I saw first-hand the benefits of good presentation, using clear point of sale to add to the shopping experience.
We had many presentation methods at our disposal, but printed signs caused problems. We could create our own signs using a desktop printer and MS Word, but the results would look basic compared to our commercial point of sale packages.
Even with the supplied POS materials, displaying on windows was troublesome and I would spend many a day removing the yucky residue left behind from sticky tape!
After four years in the job, Dave went on to study in the areas of IT and graphic design.
I was seeing some of the possibilities offered by emerging web technologies, which were pretty exciting. In terms of retail signage it meant that retailers of all sizes could have easy access to professional sign solution with a click of the mouse button. The top-tier grocery retailers have their own POS print systems, but there's very little in the way of good solutions for the smaller business.
After a number of years working for an IT services company, Dave left to go freelance, while researching the market for retail sign products.
I first started making customised opening hour signs and selling them via eBay. A key feature of the solution was that it had an interchangeable mount which meant the sign could be mounted flat on to glass, without any hastle and without leaving any mess on the surface.
The initial response was very positive, which gave me the encouragement I was looking for to to provide the solution as a full-time proposition.
Many gradual changes were made to improve the product offerinh. Monochrome elements become colour, the landscape orientation was changed to portrait and new styles of 'opening hours' headers were added...
Making signs appear.. instantly!
The most challenging part of the process was developing the web site's build sign feature which allowed people to instantly view their personalised sign on screen. An incredible amount of work went in to this - we wanted to offer the best quality finish, whilst also making sure it was very easy for everybody to use.
Your website is great, your service is terrific and you sound like really nice people...