20 YEARS AGO…

April 6, 2020 By Mark Hackley

20 years ago exactly to the month I sold Tree Street Signs, the small sign company I founded in 1990 in Waynesboro, moving to Crimora in 1991. It was April 1, 2000. The Y2K scare had come and gone but the World Trade Center attack was yet to come. I was over-stressed, over-extended and needed to call it quits. Fortunately for me I had a buyer, the Wilcoxen family from Illinois who wanted to operate a business in a better place for their kids. I had placed an ad in a trade journal and they answered it.

One of the first sandblasted wood signs I made at age 30. Still standing after almost 30 years!

I could say things were all sunshine and roses for both me as the seller and Ted and Sandy as the new owners, but if I did, that would not be accurate. I bounced around in 8 different jobs over the next 15 years, but I always had a job except for a few months in 2001. Sandy discovered she had cancer days before closing the sale of my business and she passed away about 5 years later, and Ted passed away in 2009 marking the end of Tree Street Signs after 19 years in business.

A sign I designed and built for the late T.C. and Tim McDow. Danny Davis did the brick and stucco work !

I was super reluctant to get back into business because the original startup process sucked so much life out of me. I was afraid to get back into the pressure cooker again.

A chain of events in 2015 made my decision clear. My employer had to cut costs after several management changes occurred and I was let go. Immediately, I instinctively re-started my sign business where I left off. But this time, my plan was to be a one-man operation with an occasional helper to assist in more difficult lifting and installations versus a shop with 6 employees. So far my plan has worked, but it is now becoming extra challenging with all the work.

The two big signs I designed and made for Hollister in the 90’s are still doing their job in Stuarts Draft after at least 25 years!

Even with the recent Covid-19 Crisis I have been blessed with work, although many of my customers had to cancel projects or put them on hold for financial reasons resulting from forced shutdowns. I am currently involved with two large projects: building a custom electric church sign in Bridgewater and designing and manufacturing signage for the new Blue Ridge Tunnel Historic Park (Crozet Tunnel) up on Afton Mountain. I also have many smaller jobs that I am able to work on here and there in between the big jobs.

Colorful sandblasted cedar sign I made way back when in downtown Waynesboro!

It’s been an amazing re-start and I’m glad I was put into the position where it was easy to choose entreprenuership once again. Exactly 20 years ago I thought I’d never step back into the sign business as an owner, and here I’ve been back in the game again for almost 5 years!

I hope all my customers and fellow Virginians stay safe during this amazingly crazy and scary time. I’m still in business, still have plenty of work, and still have some capital left, but look forward to Post-Covid times! (And ready for maybe 5 or 10 more good years in business on my own in America.)

One of the first sign projects I undertook when re-starting my sign company in 2015. At this point I was still making signs in the dining room and living room of our house on Magnolia Avenue in Waynesboro!

Mark Hackley owns and operates AUGUSTA SIGN COMPANY, VA

540-943-9818, mark@augustasigncompany.com

Augusta Sign Company: Year in Pictures

January 1, 2020 By Mark Hackley

Here are highlights from a few of the many sign projects of 2019…

WINTER

Winter 2019 began by helping my friends at Skipping Rock Brewery open their doors for the first time. I also branded yet another van or two for the Vailes Brothers. Then I helped returning customer, Westminster Presbyterian Church, point visitors to the main sanctuary. Finally, I helped rebuild a brick sign that was knocked down in an ice storm by a wayward vehicle! I’m blessed to have so many friends out there who need me!

SPRING

Spring had sprung! What a grand old time helping brand yet another office for HammondTownsend; Then I built my very first carved plywood sign for a private residence in Rockbridge County; Then I helped my church with interior vinyl graphics and another with a carved wood sign!

SUMMER

Summertime and the living was easy!! I was able to tackle some interesting projects in the summer sunshine. I helped several dental practices renovate their exterior signs and lobbies, some by collaborating with a local commercial renovation contractor specializing in medical office updates; Then I enjoyed creating a beautiful carved and gilded wood sign for a new B&B in Staunton; And then EMU called with many projects getting ready for the new school year. Such a nice campus!

FALL

Autumn leaves began to fall, but I couldn’t slow down! It was a great season for Augusta Sign Company as I was able to coordinate several large projects: First- I provided the dimensional wall letters and emblem that adorn the entrance to Fishburne’s new field house; Then I was able to update signage at several residential housing units in Waynesboro; I also updated signs for several churches, including St. Mark’s Methodist, then capped it off by enlarging the entrance sign for Brite Transit in Fishersville.

All in all, it was a great year for signs! I am blessed and I hope you are too! Please enjoy a BRAND NEW DECADE with me as we enter 2020…and don’t forget to make sure your signs are effective out there in the year ahead…I can always use the work!

Mark Hackley owns and operates Augusta Sign Company near Middlebrook, Virginia. You can e-mail him ideas for your next sign project at mark@augustasigncompany.com, or call him at 540-943-9818.

Providing Entrance Signage for Fishburne’s Hitt-Millar Field House

September 11, 2019 By Mark Hackley

www.augustasigncompany.com-waynesboro-va-22980-fishburne-military-school-signage-gemini-letters

Augusta Signs recently provided entrance signage for Fishburne Military School’s Hitt-Millar Field House in downtown Waynesboro, Virginia. My customer’s representative was Carl Kerby, chairman of Fishburne’s Building and Grounds Committee. Carl Kerby, a life-long Waynesboro building developer, owns Westhills Company Builders, a quality Waynesboro developer who has built twelve to fifteen homes a year that range in size from 1,600 to 12,000 square feet and in price from $250,000 to $1 million.

www.augustasigncompany.com-waynesboro-va-22980-wall-letters-signs

Carl has a vested interest in Fishburne Military School. A 1955 graduate of Fishburne himself, Carl has proudly served the Fishburne-Hudgins Educational Foundation, Inc., the Board of Trustees for Fishburne Military School, since 1996. Only a few months ago my company made a sign at Fishburne’s Alumni House that was re-named in his honor!

www.augustasigncompany.com-waynesboro-va-22980-making-patterns-for-wall-letters-signs

Many people don’t realize that Carl was one of my first customers when I opened Tree Street Signs way back in 1990. I had just left a career in engineering and architecture to venture into a full-time signage career and Carl contacted me to do a rendering of one of his new spec homes on Summit Drive in Waynesboro. He also had my company design brick monument signs for several of his residential and commercial developments including Stratford Commons, Pelham Knolls, and Village Green at the Lake, in which he was heavily involved. I also remember doing signs for Carl a little later over at the Eagle’s Nest community at Waynesboro Airport.

The days of working with Carl did not end with Tree Street Signs. When I re-opened my sign business as Augusta Sign Company in 2015, Carl was calling me again for signs. Since I re-opened for business I have helped him with multiple vehicle signage projects, branding a work trailer, yard advertising signs, and I even replaced the road sign in front of his office on Pelham Drive.

www.augustasigncompany.com-waynesboro-va-22980-signage-installation-services-Virginia

Then, several months, ago Carl called me for pricing on signage to brand the entrance to Fishburne’s new field house in Waynesboro. It was a little tricky designing and pricing lettering for a wall that was not there yet, but after looking at the architectural drawings and coordinating things with Carl and the general contractor, I was able to offer several proposals for consideration.

Carl opted for 1″thick painted cast aluminum material for both the letters and the large insignia that now enhance the main entrance. As always I reached out to Gemini, a family-owned letter and plaque manufacturer based in Minnesota, for the quality lettering needed for this project. Once the letters were cast, painted, and shipped, I laid out a paper pattern on my shop tables that would be used to position the graphics on the wall.

Carl arranged to allow my company to use the lift equipment on site which made the installation process very smooth. My part-time helper, Marshall Carpenter, and I carefully positioned the pattern, drilled the holes, and installed the lettering with aluminum studs, each sunk into the brick wall with silicone adhesive and epoxy.

www.augustasigncompany.com-waynesboro-va-metal-letters-insignias-plaques-wall-signage

The end-result was just as planned! Carl was a happy customer and we felt proud that we could contribute our talents to help one of the area’s most prestigeous and historic private schools. It will be interesting to see how it will look when all the construction work is complete later this fall; when the roads and walkways are paved, when the landscaping is added; when the students begin to use it as a functional place! It will be just another successful project chalked up to Carl Kerby! Thanks Carl for all the work over the years!

Mark Hackley is owner of Augusta Sign Co., Staunton, VA 540-943-9818

Branding Buildings in Virginia

February 3, 2019 By Mark Hackley

Branding buildings in Virginia is one thing I do on a regular basis. Come to think of it, I’ve been branding buildings with custom signs since I was 19! That’s all the way back to the 1980’s! Whether it’s a church, a veterinary hospital, or a beer factory, I have probably done it somewhere along the line.

In this blog, I will highlight three projects I have completed in the last several months. All three sign jobs have a few things in common: They all incorporate dimensional wall letters; they all utilize some form of high-performance vinyl graphics; they all use lettering systems with a lifetime warranty against fading and breakage.

First, a job I did for Ridgeway Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, VA. The customer worked with an architectural firm to build a much-needed addition and they needed a main ID sign on their brick wall along with several free-standing directional signs out in the parking lot. Working with the church’s building committee, we were able to come up with a good system that was both functional, attractive, and reasonably priced.

Second, a project for a local Veterinary Hospital that outgrew their old location and built a new facility on the other side of town. The owners of Waynesboro Animal Hospital along with their General Contractor reached out to Augusta Sign Company for help in branding their new location. The building was situated on a busy street in town, so a good signage system was very important to them. The contractor built the building and the free-standing road-side sign structure, and I came behind them and installed the signage. In this case, the signage consisted of formed plastic letters and also flat-cut-out acrylic. The letters were mounted into EIFS which is synthetic stucco finish that many building designers choose for construction.

The third project was signage provided for Skipping Rock Beer Company in Staunton, VA. The owner provided architectural drawings and we were able to collaborate on signage design that was within the local sign codes. On one part of the building I provided fabricated metal letters, and at the entrance area I provided ACM panels that accommodated the company’s logo.

Branding buildings in Virginia and making complimentary way-finding signs goes along with my passion and experience in architectural design. You see, before plunging full-time into the signage field, I worked as an engineering technician in Bethesda, MD, and an intern-architect in Charlottesville, VA. The experience gained has helped tremendously in making quality, functional signage for my customers.

Mark Hackley is President of Augusta Sign Company, PO Box 519, Waynesboro, VA 22980. 540-943-9818, mark@augustasigncompany.com.

Why I Like Making Signs for Eastern Mennonite University

December 5, 2018 By Mark Hackley

Why I Like Making Signs for Eastern Mennonite University

LONG PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP

It’s been going on for decades! Why I like making signs for Eastern Mennonite University, that is.

You see, back in the mid-90’s when I owned and operated Tree Street Signs, I did a few sign jobs for their Facilities Management Department. You know I can’t even remember the jobs from way back then, but at that point I was used as a pinch-hitter when they were having some issues with their usual sign supplier.

CENTRAL LOCATION FOR MANY SIGN SHOPS

Harrisonburg is in a great spot for any organization needing quality signs and service. For large projects and custom electric signs, Eddie Edwards Signs is right there in town. For quality trophies, plaques, banners, and just about any type of custom commercial signage, there’s Signs USA, where I worked on jobs for Eastern Mennonite once again in the mid to late 2000’s (…that’s always a weird decade to denote, the decade from 2000-2009, I hope I got that right!) At any rate, back then I did several custom wall lettering jobs. I remember designing and installing dimensional letters that commemorated a major donor, naming a new wing in his honor. Also, I remember lettering room names with dimensional wall letters after new construction.

COLLABORATING WITH MARKETING AND FACILITIES MANAGERS

Then, from 2011-2015 when I was an account executive with Holiday Signs of Chester, Virginia, I worked with the university again to design, manufacture and install an entire exterior wayfinding system after discussing their signage needs with their Director of Marketing. It was at this point that I began to serve them with pole banners,large banners for their athletic fields and events, and yet more exterior directional type signs.

A CONTINUING BOND

After a year of being back in full-time business for myself with Augusta Signs I continued serving up custom signage for the school. Banners, site signs, wall signs, displays, office signs, window signs, light pole banners, dimensional letters, vehicle lettering. These are some of the types of sign projects I’ve been involved with.

My expertise in making signs for campus-type customers goes all the way back to my beginnings in the sign industry,when I worked as an intern at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center’s 44-acre campus in Maryland. After that I was a signpainter at Joint Base Andrews where I developed my skills in signs and customer service at a facilities management level. Eventually I made it back to the Bethesda Naval Hospital where I morphed into an engineering technician for many years. It was in this role that I developed my skills in signage design on a facilities management level.

I moved to Waynesboro, Virginia in 1988 and worked for two years as an intern architect in Charlottesville, further developing my skills in design. It was in April 1990 when I plunged full-time in the sign biz. At Tree Street Signs I was active in the design, manufacture, installation, and maintenance of many sign products for colleges as well as lower education facilities. I produced signs for BRCC, WWRC, EMU, and more public high schools, middle schools and elementary schools than I could even think of listing!

But to answer the question of why I like making signs for Eastern Mennonite University: because I enjoy making signs that fulfill the combined needs of facilities and marketing managers. Marketing people want their school brand to be recognized across the campus while facilities managers want people to be able to find their way around campus and also want them to be safe out there. I believe my signs help. And that’s why I enjoy making signs for Eastern Mennonite University. Many thanks to my college sign customers there and across Virginia!

Mark Hackley is owner of Augusta Sign Company located in Staunton, VA