Waynesboro Florist,
Downtown Retail Signage

Back in the mid-nineties I created a new sign for Webber Payne, owner of Waynesboro Florist. I used to fabricate all my own cedar and redwood sign panels. Now, being a smaller shop, I sometimes order panels already glued up and ready to route, carve, or sandblast. The three-foot high by five-foot tall wood sign we made for Webber’s shop has served him well over the years.
Last month, Webber contracted a painting company to repaint his downtown shop. At that point, he decided to hire me to restore his sign back to its earlier glamour while he was at it.
An important feature of well-made cedar and redwood signs is durability: the wood is naturally rot and insect resistant and it holds up for a lifetime of service when regularly maintained. Augusta Sign Company repainted the sign and custom ceiling bracket, carefully restoring the colorful entry sign for another twenty years of faithful service attracting customers into the store!

Waynesboro Mennonite,
Dimensional Wall Graphics

Sometimes sign projects don’t have to be glamorous. Such was the case when I provided a set of dimensional injection-molded plastic wall letters for a local church back in the early 1990’s. The letters are pretty standard– made from a standard mold in a standard plastic color with standard mounting hardware! Although they were basic letters they still had to be custom-fit to the wall in which they were mounted.
The manufacturer of the letters on this project is one of the premier letter suppliers in my industry. Chances are, if you order dimensional letters from a local shop, they will come from the same place. An important benefit of using dimensional letters from this supplier is that all their products have a lifetime warranty against breakage, cracking, fading, and so on. Therefore, if you use dimensional letters from Augusta Sign Company for your entrance signage, you are guaranteed to have a long-lasting product!

Hollister, Stuarts Draft:
Plant Entrance Signage

When I owned and operated Tree Street Signs in Crimora I placed many plant entrance signs in service. Back in the 1990’s we made the signs for the DuPont Lycra facility which is no longer there; we made the sign for McKee that still stands; we made the signage at Rental Uniform Service, now Cintas, and we made the corporate entrance signs for Hollister in Stuarts Draft, among many others.
The Hollister signs were made in the mid-90’s and to my knowledge, have not been maintained since. The painted aluminum signs are still doing their job, but they are at the point where restoration should be considered.
The architectural metal signs were finished with acrylic enamel, the same paints used for auto finishes, and lettered with high performance 3M vinyl graphics, which have an expected 10-year outdoor lifetime. Needless to say, both the paint and vinyl graphics have outlasted expectations. Augusta Sign Company was born from a company that understood long-term sign construction so you can trust that your signs will be built to last!

McDow Funeral Home,
Architectural Monument Sign

Buried deep beneath the McDow Funeral Home sign is a cache of extra brick that matches the sign. The buyer, now deceased, Tim McDow, requested that the brick be buried to ensure a good match if they ever decided to expand the sign later.
The sign, constructed in the early nineties, still looks great! I provided minimal maintanence in 2011 when the organization added a crematory and I updated the lettering and painted the stucco to refresh the sign background.
With training in architectural design, I offer a level of design service that other local competitors may not be capable to do. I enjoy working with customers and local masons to come up with long-lasting aesthetic sign designs.
It may sound weird, but I am confident that many of the sign structures I have made will outlast me here on this earth. Maybe that’s why we call them monument signs!

Waynesboro Free Methodist,
Custom Cedar Signage

Wood signs make great options for churches. They look nice and last a very long time when proper materials are utilized. The sign I built for the Waynesboro Free Methodist Church was one of the first redwood signs I put in place.
Not long after taking a week-long sign-building workshop in Vermont, I began building quality custom wood signs around Waynesboro and the Shenandoah Valley. And these signs still stand to this day, a living testament of their quality.
The long, monolithic, horizontal sign design was something I patterned to the looks of signage I had begun to build for Wintergreen Resort in the early 1990’s. These types of sign designs are easy to light and look great in colorful landscaping beds.
This sign has been well-maintained by church members. The location of this particular sign at a busy intersection has gotten loads of attention over the past 25 years and I hope it has helped attract new members and visitors to the church!

Gypsy Hill Park,
Sandblasted Park Signs

Unique sign shapes and typefaces add eye-appeal to signs. Back in the early 1990’s I had the opportunity to help design the signage for Gypsy Hill Park, and later helped with Montgomery Hall Park which used a similar design theme.
Steve DeVenny, Superintendent of Parks and Recreation, hired me to make the signs originally. A few years ago, Steve hired me again to maintain and update the signs. The City changed logos so we came up with a way to add the new logo to existing signs by fabricating painted metal ovals that covered the old dimensional lettering while providing a background for the new brand.
After twenty years, the old signs were battered and mildewed, but after restoration they were as good as new. I treated the surfaces with bleach before repainting and used a two-part epoxy to fill big defects. The project involved multiple signs and I took great care to make sure colors were consistent on all the signs throughout the two parks. I believe the signs are good for another twenty years. I wonder if Steve and I will be around the next time maintenance is required? Only time will tell.

Mark Hackley owns and operates Augusta Sign Company in Waynesboro,  was founder of Tree Street Signs of Crimora in the 1990’s, and served as an account representative for Holiday Signs of Chester. He began his sign career as a civil servant in the Department of Defense, learning the trade at the National Naval Medical Center and Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.