 |
|
Sign Expo co-owner Edgar Guttzeit
|
In this town, it's impossible to miss the flashing neon signs, hanging vinyl banners, and canvas awnings draped over storefronts. Big, colorful, and luminous, they're designed to reel in customers. It's a business known as visual merchandising, and the folks at Tribeca's Sign Expo are experts at it. From Sotheby's to Modell's, Ferre to Target, the design shop has helped businesses mark their territory with pizzazz while beefing up sales.
"If you can visualize it, we can do it," says co-owner Edgar Guttzeit, reciting the Sign Expo motto. If you can't, they will envision it for you by drawing on the expertise of the creative staff at work in the studio. After an image is created (or recreated from an existing image or photograph), designers play around with its size and composition using computer graphics programs. When they've got it just right, the image can be applied to any number of materials -- from the standard canvas banners, metal swing signs, and Styrofoam posters to more unconventional surfaces, like shower curtains, concrete slabs, and cars. Combining graphic flair with a technical edge, Sign Expo helps merchants catch potential buyers' eyes by highlighting companies' names, logos, and/or locations.
After September 11, 2001, longtime friends Guttzeit and Offer Sharaby decided to become business partners, taking over an existing sign shop on Laight Street to open Sign Expo. They handle every aspect of the process -- coming up with compelling ideas for signs, designing them in their spacious Tribeca studio, manufacturing them in a New Jersey warehouse, and installing them on site. The company also produces backdrops for movies, commercials, and photo shoots, as well as promotional materials for various events.
Serving businesses citywide and indeed throughout the country, they also focus their creative efforts on helping community organizations -- like Wall Street Rising, Tribeca Film Festival, the Public Art Fund, and LowerManhattan.info -- to promote the downtown area, often doing the work for cost or no charge at all. Recently, they designed pro bono marketing material for a cheese tasting event held to raise money for I.S. 89, a middle school in Battery Park City.
"We believe in the area and in developing downtown," Guttzeit said.
 |
| Banner printed by Sign Expo for LowerManhattan.info |
For the LowerManhattan.info campaign, Sign Expo printed banners letting people know where to find information about construction and other projects taking place in the downtown area. And they don't just make the signs; they perform site searches to locate the best spots to place them, and, once displayed, they periodically check to make sure the signs haven't been vandalized.
The "more than just a sign shop" also supports local artists, Guttzeit explains. Photographers who need their portfolios printed or work mounted, painters and sculptures who need flyers for a gallery exhibit, and theater directors with upcoming shows to promote all turn to Sign Expo for help. "I have no money, but I have an exhibit coming up," is a plea often heard, he says. Staunch supporters of the arts, Sharaby and Guttzeit have a difficult time refusing and often agree to provide assistance at highly reduced prices. In fact, they are devoted to working closely with the artists to display and promote their work in the most creative and exciting ways possible.
Fortunately, a steady stream of business from highly profitable companies makes it possible for Sign Expo to offer these generous discounts to small businesses, local artists, and downtown groups, as well as a flat 15 percent off to anyone south of Canal Street.
"We are the Robin Hood of the sign business," Guttzeit said. "We just hope that our philosophy pays off."
Sign Expo
13-17 Laight Street
(212) 925-8585
www.signexpo.com
|
