Sign of success

[Erik Sine]

Sign of success

Johnny’s Signs celebrates 70 years as a family business

BEDFORD — Jay Fiddler was 8 years old when his dad put a 4-inch paintbrush in his hand and let him start coating panels that would be used in the family’s sign business.

“We’d go set scaffolds and I’d spot letters out,” said Jay Fiddler, president and owner with wife Janet of Johnny’s Signs. “My dad paid me $3 a week.”

Ten years later, John R. Fiddler, Johnny’s namesake, handed the sign business over to Jay. Meanwhile, John became a builder of homes and bowling alleys, including Bedford’s Broadview Bowl and homes in the Broadview neighborhood.

Even today, Jay said it’s hard to imagine handing a business over to a teenager.

“I’d worked for him for 10 years, so he figured I knew the business pretty well,” he said. “In the beginning, it was hard to trust an 18-year-old kid to do signage, but we muddled through and were able to build a pretty good business.”

That ‘pretty good business’ is celebrating 70 years of custom sign work and installation this year. In 1938, John R. Fiddler started Johnny’s Signs, painting signs and cars. Except for a short time on 16th Street, Johnny’s Signs has always been in the Englewood area.

Four generations of Fiddlers have worked in the business. Jay’s grandfather worked there when the business was just getting started, Jay’s wife Janet handled the phones and customer service for 18 years. His son Bob, company vice president, has worked there since high school and oversees design and production and most of the custom design work. Son-in-law Larry Ikerd is the office manager. The company has 10 employees, whose skill level and dedication to their work have played a major role in the success of Johnny’s Signs.

BEDFORD — Brad Abel, left, discusses a new sign for Dunn Memorial

Hospital with Johnny’s Signs owner Jay Fiddler Wednesday.

(Times-Mail photos / GARET COBB)

Jay said his dad, who will turn 87 this year, “is pretty proud of what we do.”

The work of Johnny’s Signs extends far beyond sign work.

“We do lots of work that’s not sign-related,” Jay said.

“We install architectural mouldings on buildings, we’ve produced parts that went to NASA and the wraps you see on the city buses,” Bob said.

The company does installation work for corporations and assists customers with locating utility lines that could be damaged when installing large signs. Workers install electronic message signs and produce interior decor packages, (signage used in retail stores) and exterior signage for businesses.

They still do hands on pin-striping, airbrushing, lettering etc., on custom painted applications. Their customers are as diverse as their business, Bob said. They deal with corporate customers who have strict sign specifications and racing teams that want something fresh and creative.

“Bob has taken the business to a different level because of the art work he does,” Jay said.

Bob was trained in hand-drawn production. Even though technology has streamlined the process, Bob’s artistry is still in demand, Jay said.

“Bob is probably the most capable sign person I’ve ever worked with. It’s an inherent talent. My dad had it. I always hoped he’d have that ability,” Jay said. “By the time he was 21, I couldn’t believe the advancement. But he’d always been around it.”

Bob said it took him years to learn all aspects of the business.

“There’s nowhere you can go to learn this field,” he said.

Paint brushes, once the main tools of sign making, are relics of the past. Jay has seen sign trends come and go, from road signs and hand-lettered signs to neon signs that dominated the 1950s.

“We had our own tube bender,” said Jay, who remains one of the few neon tube benders in the area.

Signs from many eras decorate Johnny’s Signs, including the Greystone

Hotel sign, for which a special panel was created in the ceiling to house it.

Technology has revolutionized the sign business. In fact, when it comes to sign making, the Fiddler name is about the only thing that hasn’t changed in 70 years of Johnny’s Signs.

“The work we do now in hours used to take days,” Jay said. “Everything was done by hand from the proposed sketch to the finished product.”

Thanks to computer technology, that has changed.

“The end product is better now than it’s ever been,” Bob said.

The father-son team have about 90 years of experience between them.

“I’ve always enjoyed it,” Jay said. “There are a lot of different trades involved in our shop, from carpentry to fine art, sheet metal to electronics.”

Jay and Bob agreed, mastering the trades are second to the real secret to Johnny’s Signs’ longevity — customer service. The past and future success of Johnny’s Signs is tied to the success and satisfaction of the customer.

“We do the little work on up to the big work and each customer’s job is just as important as another,” Jay said. “We have continually worked for the same customers for years.

“The customer is what’s important; otherwise, we wouldn’t have a job.”

Working with family has more advantages than disadvantages, Jay said.

“The best part is we think alike,” he said. “You get aggravated at times, but you look at it as a business … you never take it home.”

For Jay, he enjoys the sign business as much as he did the day he painted his first sign with a 4-inch brush.

“I’ve always enjoyed working. I’ll stay until I decide to leave or I get run out of here,” he joked.