Business Focuses On Sign Language

[Erik Sine]

Business focuses on sign language

By Ryan Foust

NEWS-TIMES CORRESPONDENT

The News-Times/Michael Duffy

Jeremy Schaller is owner of Write Way Signs and Designs at 30 Bridge St. in New Milford.

"People either love it or hate it, but everyone knows about it," said Jeremy Schaller, referring to the large sign that announces the address of the recently renovated Beach Building at 30 Bridge St.

Schaller, for one, loves it — he designed it.

The sign is just one of the many his company, Write Way Signs and Designs, has created for businesses around town.

But this one has special meaning. Earlier this year, Schaller's company, based in Torrington, opened an office in the building.

The sign, a large "30" over the gray image of a bridge, is probably one of Schaller's most well-known works in New Milford.

"It's become quite a monument. Everybody knows where 30 Bridge St. is. It's a huge sign," he said. "People either loved it or hated it, but everybody knew about it."

That sign is just one of the latest in a series of signs dating back 50 years.

The business, originally called Right Way Signs, was started in 1956 by Schaller's great-uncle and two other men.

Schaller's father, Charlie, went to work there when he was 16, then again after leaving the service. After a 20-year break from the sign business, he then purchased the company in 1989.

Schaller purchased the business from his father in 2001, coming full circle from the time when he was just a kid helping his father paint signs.

"One of my first memories is watching my old man painting a truck and wanting to do that," he said.

And it wasn't long before he was. By the age of 4 or 5, Schaller's father had him doing "fill-ins" — painting the solid colors of the insides of designs and lettering that his father had outlined.

Later, though, Schaller wasn't so enthused about such work.

Heading off to art school, he said, "I felt I was above that ... I felt I was only going to do graphic design."

For a while that's what he did, working for marketing firms in Florida and Oregon.

When he returned to Connecticut to spend a summer working for his father, though, that changed.

"I kind of fell in love with signs," he said.

Even after returning to Oregon, he said, "I was still doing a lot of print work but always found myself going back to signs."

Despite making a decent living in marketing, Schaller said he found much more satisfaction in signs.

"There's this satisfaction I get from driving by my work, or seeing it drive by me," he said.

Schaller is getting that satisfaction more and more in the New Milford area.

His signs grace businesses throughout town, from signs on Bank Street and Route 7 to signs for local contractors.

Signs aren't Schaller's only business, though.

"We're a full service identity company. We do business identity for professionals who take their business seriously," he said. "We have a lot of clients where he handle everything for them — promotional materials, T-shirts, ads, fliers."

That, Schaller believes, is where his graphic design background comes into play.

"How you design for a sign is different than how you design for a T-shirt," he said. "I have the advantage of being able to think in both sign terms and graphic design," he said, noting both require different approaches.

Schaller believes that by helping businesses come up with an identity, Write Way is filling a niche in the sign market.

"People come to sign companies looking for signs but they don't have any idea what their business identity is," he said. "A lot of people come in for a sign and they come away with a new marketing philosophy."

Growing up around the business, Schaller has seen all of the technological changes.

For the most part, he said, they have been for the better, such as allowing him to letter six vehicles in the time it used to take to do one.

"Now that everything's digital we can transfer any image, no matter how complex, and put it on anything," he said. "It's much more than the standard peel and stick."

Schaller said the company has also been exploring more projects on the electrical side of things, such as illuminated cabinets and signs incorporating LEDs.

But, he said, there is still room for the old methods.

"We still use old techniques like gold gilding, hand-carved work, hand painting and airbrush work," he said.

For Nicholas/Tobin Insurance on Route 7, Schaller drew on many of these classic techniques to create a sign with raised gold lettering which sits on custom posts.

"He did an excellent, excellent job. He made life easy," said Nicholas/Tobin vice president Jeff Kilberg.

Kilberg said that when they went to Write Way, Nicholas/Tobin was already working with somebody in an effort to create a business identity.

"He coordinated all of that with her and from what I know now he could have done the whole thing," he said. "He gave us a lot of ideas and really helped us with building our identity."

Even though he was impressed while working with Write Way, Kilberg was even more impressed once the job was done and, much to his surprise, his company's sign was drawing attention.

"People are driving by all the time and telling us how beautiful our sign looks. We've been located here 20 years and we always had a nice sign, but now we're getting great comments," he said. "You don't think people notice our sign, but after we got this we realized they do."

It's a lesson Schaller learned a long time ago and one he hopes more business owners will learn, hopefully with his help.

"People underestimate the power of the sign," he said, "but we're all influenced by the cover of the book."

Write Way Signs and Designs is at 30 Bridge St., Suite 101, in New Milford. Office hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Friday by appointment.