I saw the sign, have you?

Erik Sine · February 18, 2007

I saw the sign, have you?

By Heidi Cenac (Contact)

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Every week, well almost every week, I go by the Anderson County Development Standards Department to see if any new developments might be headed our way.

I normally skip over entries for sign permits when I’m skimming the project-listing book, but this week there were just too many to ignore.

I handed the book back to Debra LaGroone, one of the planning technicians, mentioning that there didn’t seem to be anything other than signs lately.

“Signs have been booming,” Ms. LaGroone said.

There were 113 sign permits filed in Anderson County in 2006 and about 17 filed already this year. Turns out the sign industry isn’t growing just here.

A study from “Signs of the Times” magazine shows a steady increase of economic growth in the sign industry over the past nine years. According to its report, the industry had grown from about $3 billion in sales in 1996 to more than $5 billion by 2004.

Local sign companies say their business ebbs and flows like any other industry. But it has remained steady through the Christmas season.

Some of the apparent increase might be a result of increased enforcement, they said. The City of Anderson hired Sherrie Williams as its zoning administrator in 2005. She’s spent most of her time since then making sure businesses get permits for temporary signs and don’t provide off-site advertising.

But Anderson County also is experiencing a substantial amount of commercial growth and that means big business for sign makers.

Half of a business’ customers learn about it from an on-premise sign, according to an International Sign Association survey. And on any given day 35 percent of the people passing by a business are seeing its sign for the first time.

“This is a booming area,” said Chad Ridgeway, operations manager at Electric City Signs & Neon Inc. “Everything you build needs a sign and a permit.”

Established businesses are getting new signs as well. When one company buys another, they have to adapt everything from their letterhead to the sign on the building. Others are changing their signs as technology advances.

Ryan Burnette of East Coast Signs and Lighting in Anderson said the technology available has changed tremendously in the past eight years compared to the past 28 years.

LED signs are one of the best examples. After running advertisements on the LED sign at SpeeDee Oil Change, Plant-It Nursery on S.C. 28 Bypass decided they wanted one to replace their wooden sign.

Since new sign went up, several people passing by have stopped to ask how long Plant-It Nursery has been there, Mr. Burnette said.

In case you’re wondering, it’s been 12 years.