This article was first published in the May 2021 issue of Australian Printer

For the past 28 years, Sign Here Signs’ team of sign makers have helped businesses in Perth – and all over Australia – look their absolute best. How? By custom crafting signs that have increased its customers’ visibility.

Sign Here Signs is a full manufacturing signage company with a steel fabrication department and print department. It does plastic fabrication, laser routers, and install, in addition to other services. Its clients include tradies, SMEs, mining and resource companies, retailers and builders who need quality signage for many different reasons.

“We do everything when it comes to signage,” Sign Here Signs managing director Russell Friedman said.  

“We do a lot of work for mining companies, as well as for retail and shop fitters. Many of our builders need safety signs for job sites. Tradies want vehicle wraps that turn their car or fleet into a traveling billboard.

“Retailers want signage that matches the look and feel of their store. Land developers need eye-catching billboards. So, we develop all kinds of signage for different applications, like pylons and lightboxes, wayfarer signage, digital signs, fascias, illuminated signs and so much more.”

Housing a team of 45 staff, the company operates from its facility in Malaga, Western Australia.  

“We are serious about making signs that are built to last a really long time. That means we only source quality materials designed to withstand WA’s unique climate conditions. So, our signs look good, even after lots of sun,” Friedman said.  

“We’re also big geeks about new kinds of sign technology, like touch screens and other digital signs that make customers feel like they’ve got something different, that really stands out and gets their business noticed.”

Sign Here Signs has been delivering on its promise with its suite of presses. The company owns machines including two HP 560 roll-to-roll latex printers, which are the most used within the business to print stock-standard logos and decals, and a HP R2000, a latex flatbed which it uses to create unique solutions.  

The HP 560 roll-to-roll latex printers have been running at Sign Here Signs for about three years, while the R2000 has been at the company for about two years. Friedman said a press lasts in the company for about five years before they get upgraded.

“The R2000 has a more retail focus to it. The 560s do logos in fleet numbers for mining companies – such as general stickers, safety signage and other basic stuff. What the R2000 does is more prints for architects and designers who want to try something new – it works on the fun stuff,” Friedman said.

“For example, we had a designer who was working on a new shopfront. She wanted to match wallpaper that was used on the inside to try and get the same print on the outside of the shop for continuity. However, the outside of the shop is concrete and our challenge was to get that effect on it without it looking like a sticker.”

Sign Here Signs used medium-density fibreboard (MDF) with rendered concrete over it, then used the HP R2000 to direct print the design over the material.

“This way, we could still get the concrete look but at the same time, we were able to get the graphic on the outside of the shopfront.”

The R2000 also worked in another instance where a shopkeeper was building a bubble-tea kiosk. Sign Here Signs used the printer to print onto Caesarstone, showcasing the flexibility of the press to be able to print on a variety of media.

Standing apart from the rest

From a print perspective, Friedman said the R2000 is what sets the business apart from its competitors.

“The other signage companies run with UVs or solvents. However, these technologies can’t achieve the same look as what can be achieved on the R2000. The press is not your usual flatbed – it has a conveyor belt. It also doubles up as a roll-to-roll machine that prints up to 2.5m wide,” Friedman mentioned.

“We only use HP latex inks. So, if you’re printing on oxyclear, you can print white and the grain behind the print is still visible as the ink used is quite thin. We’ve also used it to print colour on clear acrylic, then white over it and colour as the last coat on top – all on one run so you can see colour on both sides without having to reverse print.

“When the white ink is not in use, it sits in an offline chamber as well, so the heads never ‘settle’, meaning you don’t have to replace heads if you haven’t printed white ink for a while.”

Friedman said the R2000 enables the company to sell to architects and designers who aren’t looking for stock-standard signage.

“It was the printer that got us into a different area of play. Before we go this press, we didn’t have a play with architecture,” he said.

“We are now able to offer this service to customers who are looking for something different and this press opens the doorway for us to be able to do that. It allows us to print onto stone, concrete, gloss, wood, and a variety of other substrates.

“Architects and designers now come to us, asking for samples and builds. It has allowed us to make our move in building and construction and retail.”

Unlike some other sign companies, Sign Here Sign’s in-house design team also works with customers’ existing branding to help them develop a style of signage that gets their business noticed.

“We have the capability to develop signs from scratch, even if a customer is not exactly sure what they need, or don’t have an existing ‘brand identity’. When it comes to manufacturing, we use only the latest equipment and quality materials. As a result, the quality assurance on our signs is second to none,” Friedman stated.

Built for success

In addition to the two HP 560 roll-to-roll latex printers and the HP R2000 latex flatbed, the company also has two entry-level HP 370s and a Gerber foil transfer printer which is about 20 years old.

“The HP R2000 printer complements all the other machines we have at Sign Here Signs. It colour matches to all other roll-to-roll machines, and where we can’t achieve what we want on our other printers, we use the R2000 to get the desired effect,” Friedman mentioned.

“Most of the time, the press works hand-in-hand with our other machines, complementing each other.”

Moving forward, Friedman said Sign Here Sign’s strategy is to keep offering unique signage solutions.

“We have the ability to offer the fill spectrum of solutions – so we don’t have to outsource anything. That’s our unique capability. We just want to be able to keep doing what we’re doing at the moment, just better and more efficiently,” he said.

“The R2000 will support us through, along with our other presses, and stay ahead of what our competitors are doing in this space.” 

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