Sign of the times

[Erik Sine]

Sign of the times

Craig McEwen, The Forum

Published Saturday, December 29, 2007

Tom Nelson looks over a finished University of North Dakota neon

clock at Indigo Signworks. Photos by David Samson / The Forum

Creating a railroad crossing sign for school vehicles drove Tom Nelson into the sign business.

Nelson and two former partners launched Indigo Signworks in 1996. They sold and serviced signs from a 2,000-square-foot shop in Fargo.

Today, Indigo Signworks’ corporate shingle hangs on a 30,000-square-foot, multifaceted production facility at 1622 Main Ave.

Indigo has more than 50 employees spread among the Fargo headquarters and branches in Bismarck and Grand Forks, N.D., and Alexandria, Minn.

Its fleet of vehicles includes 11 sign-erection cranes and 15 service trucks.

“The first job we did, that was significant, was for Arvid Benson Furniture. We didn’t even have a crane-truck at the time,” said Nelson, who worked for the Moorhead School District’s transportation department while attending college.

While working for the district, Nelson devised a permanently mounted vehicle sign announcing stops at railroad crossings, which replaced magnetic signs that kept disappearing.

Nelson eventually decided to get into the sign business.

Now, after nearly 12 years, Indigo Signworks produces all types of signs – from traditional electric signs to engraved, vinyl, neon, digital and LED (light-emitting diode) signs.

The size of signs ranges from small realty signs and custom boat and snowmobile licensing graphics to massive cornerstones such as the three-pillar, 85-foot-tall West Acres mall sign with a 10-foot-by-23-foot electronic message center, said CEO Bernie Dardis.

The first “decent-sized” sign Nelson sold carried a $13,552 price tag. “Some of these structures are approaching a couple hundred-thousand dollars,” he said.

As Fargo-Moorhead grew, so did Indigo.

“We made a conscious decision to become a full-service sign company,” said Dardis, who has logged nearly three decades in the industry and more than three years with Indigo.

“As the evolution took place, customers realized that we had all of the offerings that were needed to support their needs as consumers of sign products,” he said.

A changing industry

“Twenty-five years ago, everything was hand-painted,” said Indigo service and installation manager Luke Schlosser, a former farm boy who has installed signs from California to Florida for a quarter-century.

“All of a sudden, it was vinyl,” he said. “Now it’s gone another step, and digital prints is what they want.”

Sign production has progressed from being a small box on a stick to becoming an architectural element, Nelson said.

“If anything, we’ve become a branding tool for companies,” he said. “It’s become way more sophisticated than it was 10 years ago.”

Addictive profession

Nelson had no sign industry experience when he launched Indigo Signworks.

“I was supposed to be an elementary education teacher,” he said. “Once I got a taste of this disease we call the sign business, I couldn’t get rid of it.”

Production manager Dave Barker quit farming in Gardner, N.D., in 2001 and brought his welding skills to Indigo.

Several Indigo employees speak of the profession’s addictive nature.

After one year of installing signs during the winter, Schlosser said he was ready to quit.

That was 25 years ago.

Signs of all shapes and sizes are fabricated in the workshop at Indigo Signworks in Fargo.

“I’m still doing the same thing in the same cold environment,” he said.

“I can remember the moment I got hooked,” he said. Schlosser helped install the neon-lit Budweiser sign near Fargo’s Interstate 29-Interstate 94 interchange.

“They were going to light it up that night, and all the big shots were coming in from St. Louis,” Schlosser said. “It came on and I said, ‘Wow, that was cool.’ The reward of seeing the finished product is what keeps you here.”

Indigo is a “melting pot” of experienced sign industry workers, Nelson said.

Estimator Jeff Douglas grew up in the sign business in Ashland, Wis., where his family owned and operated Douglas Signs.

Fabricator Tom Clary has been in the sign business for two decades, Nelson said.

Purchasing department director Doug Wolf has 15 years under his belt, including time in sales, fabrication and sign installation.

Recently hired graphics manager Jesse Liedberg has 13 years in the industry.

Fabricator Tom Clary assembles the framework for a sign in the

workshop of Indigo Signworks in Fargo. David Samson / The Forum

His staff of seven includes three graphic designers and several technicians.

“We produce the conceptual drawings for sales people,” Liedberg said. “It’s a prototype every time we produce something. There’s never the same thing twice when it comes to sign work.”