Goatboy

http://www.codepublishing.com/CA/carmel.html sec 17.40 Yeah they are pretty brutal regulations. You can however have a 3 ft tall monument w/exterior illumination 6' max area o.O

Me either Sign...given their strong history, I'm guessing the franchise process is very selective and thorough.

Not so much so, but the ability to adjust to the lack of resources and the ability to get them cost effectively and efficiently. I'm sure Hawaii has the same issue (hence an even higher CoL than us). The few larger Alaskan sign companies that remain generally are an install source for lower 48 vendors. We can usually pick up the pylon/large fabrication, but channel letters/light construction rarely get made here. The cost to fabricate/ship vs our fabrication is generally the determining factor. Alaska's larger sign projects (6 to 7 figures) generally are lost to the lower 48. That leaves the locals to compete for the installs on those project and compete for the rest. I think if handed to the right people a Yesco would fair very well up here, even in just service/install.

They are doing stuff in places all over the world folks - Poland, France, New Zealand, UK, Canada, Italy...all over the USA. Keep in mind they play in Las Vegas - it is the most stringent code compliance requirements of anywhere in the world! Have you seen their outdoor LCD TV? It is awesome. That may be and I'm sure they are very successful. My curiousity is to see how they would adjust is all. Far too often major franchises will give Alaska a try and never really take off. I'm curious how well their technologies and methods translate to Alaska. In all reality I'd love to see them come up here.

I'd be curious how they would float up here....

Just used these last year....Signcomp was where we got them if I remember correctly.

The shop I work for "used" JS leds for a few years on some large projects and are currently retro-ing them out with sloan. They apparently went through an overhaul in their bin choice to higher grade leds and have offered to swap product for the pain in the ass created. We won't use em. I don't make the purchasing choices but I know they were used because of the price point. As shops, big and small get hungrier, I can see more products like JS coming to the surface and being used. Which at the point of all this, I agree it is sad.

Up here we get charged by the inspection, but also are required to show the valuation of the project. The muni uses our valuation sheet to add to the property value of the customer for property taxes. I generally do a background check on the address before I draw to pre-flight wht a client can and cannot have. Our allowable signage is based on zoning and with the enormous areas of "grey" areas, its often a debate when pulling a permit with zoning.

Congrats!

I dont deal with the inspector directly but will get some answers for you today.

We recently went to ETL after UL came in and started flagging every element down to the rivits that were not UL listed. Our Muni requires a listing of some sort. I believe and agree there should be a standard in our industry not only for the safety of legitimate sign shops but for the end users. But a label without enforcement is just a sticker.

I know Denco sales is the agent for sales but all of our tech support comes straight from Multicam

I've had employers send a crane and cutting torch as a source of payment inspiration.

Looks like we will be sending a crew down. I'm not sure what the total number will be yet but at least myself and probably Will. I'll find out in the next few days

Been implementing Sign Tracker the last few months to demo it more for project management, then retail/commercial. I really like it so far. Handles estimates well and gives you a pretty concise methodology if your lacking that structure. We recently went through a big restructure(mom and pop UL shop goes corporate) at the shop Im working at and its helped guide us through some of that transition. James with sign tracker is really cool about making things fit your particular shop. The latest version with improved inventory modules and some other improvements will be live and web based for beta around the first part of April with the actual release being right after the show.