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.
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!
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.
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.
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
LONG PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP
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.
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.
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.
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!
Applying vinyl lettering and logos on interior walls is an easy and relatively inexpensive way to draw attention to your brand as customers enter your organization. A few weeks ago I was hired to do exactly that for a local Waynesboro, Virginia business expanding into Winchester.
This particular customer has had me incorporate their brand into their fleet of vehicles, their front door and also on their interior entry walls. The benefits of using the same sign company for all your sign branding include: a) colors and typestyles and proportions are consistent across the various places you post your branding signage; b) you have a good idea on upcoming costs when budgeting your sign marketing for new offices, or new vehicles; c) if a sign or letter gets damaged in the future for some reason, you have a source of the original design artwork used to cut your designs, saving a lot of time and potential cost in repairs and maintenance.
Budding Artist
(now Middle School) where I was the artist for the school newspaper and yearbook. So it only made sense that by the time I reached High School it was appropriate that I be hired to paint the bass drum, which was a pretty challenging task for a guy used to pencil or pen and ink as a medium. I remember researching the proper paint to use for plastic surfaces. I wish I had a picture of the drum, but I don’t; But I do remember it was a success. The first of many successful sign projects!
scholarship to attend Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, but declined to take a position as a sign apprentice instead with the US Navy in Bethesda, Maryland.
billboards, airport taxiways, insignias, vehicles, you name it!
needing to get noticed and be profitable by increasing revenues; It has helped me realize and share this great gift, a gift that leaves a lasting impression everywhere I go. I’m forever passing signs all over the place that I put into service decades ago! It’s humbling to see all the work I was blessed with the ability to complete.