ARCHIVE: Category Archive for: Metro Sign & Awning

Inside Metro Signs – Corey Fisher, Partner, V.P. Operations

With a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Corey Fisher is a man who knows how to make things. He enjoys the challenges that come with the signage industry and takes pride in the products he helps create. Corey first started with Metro Sign and Awning about 10 years ago as a technician, a role which soon developed into an estimating position. About a year later, an opportunity arose for Corey to join in partnership with the existing owners: Brian Chipman and Tom Dunn. “Throughout school, I was always interested in CAD design and CNC machining, which just so happens to have many applications within the signage industry today,” says Corey, “so I asked Brian and Tom

Working With General Contractors – Our Safety Program

It’s a little bit too technical for the kind of blog this is primarily intended to be, but for a long time we have wanted to write up something about the extensive efforts we make to keep ourselves qualified for work with General Contractors. As you may know, GCs on major construction projects are subject to a wide range of standards and specifications that control not only how they operate, but how the subcontractors they hire (that would be us!) must also operate. If we don’t conform to their high standards, GCs simply cannot trust us with any work. So we here at Metro Sign and Awning spend a considerable amount of time, effort, and resources making sure we’re qualified

For Jamie Potvin, the process starts when information about a new project begins to trickle in through one of the sales team members. Over the next days and weeks, she steeps herself in the client’s history and strategy, various signage suggestions, client and team requests, and specific requirements, as well as any graphic elements such as client logos that are already available. She also likes to look at comparable signage of the same size and classifications that’s already “out there” in the community. Then she dives into the design process. With more than fifteen years of experience, Jamie likes to start a project by working on some “looks”: rough sketches and simplified renderings of the new sign’s essentials. She’s usually

To most of us, beautiful designs just spring full blown from nowhere in particular. But in reality, the polished look of all the objects we see – complete with all the associations each one brings to mind and the various messages and feelings each one conveys – are the result of much hard work by a visually-gifted group of people who work as “designers”. Metro Sign and Awning is well staffed with a group of designers who routinely make clients’ visions come to life in three dimensions. One of these is Susan MacGregor, Senior Designer, who is responsible for creating the drawings that will later be turned into signs, as well as for the presentation visuals shown to clients for

Cabinet maker, sign maker, account manager. Mark Vella is a “hands-on” kind of guy who very much enjoys working with Metro Sign and Awning’s customers, finding out what each one needs in the way of signage, and helping to deliver it. After a varied career first working with wood, then later with signage materials, Mark found his way to Metro Sign and learned his true calling: making contact and working with contractors, architects, building owners, and just about anyone who has a message to communicate and needs Metro Sign to give it solidity and dimension. Mark keeps his ear to the ground, searching out potential projects via a wide variety of industry channels. He also actively develops relationships through which

Anyone watching NECN, New England Cable News, on January 16, 2014, probably saw its featured story on the Boston metropolitan area’s future growth. Specifically, the cable news channel covered a Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) report on demographic and economic trends, which calculates the need for some 435,000 new housing units – including affordable apartments, single family homes, condos, townhouses, and even something called “micro units” – by 2040 if our region is going to sustain the record of strong economic and civic expansion we’ve establishing during the past couple of decades. Even if we fall short of “strong” economic growth, we’ll apparently still need some 300,000 additional housing units. Various experts and officials spoke about the need for additional

Metro Sign and Awning recently added two new talented members to our Project Management Team: Adam Brodeur and Tom Rogers. Adam comes to Metro with a strong background in the service industry, having previously supported a customer service team with great success. We like Adam’s unswerving attention to detail, along with his ability to ‘get the job done.’ With Adam on board, we further increase our confidence that our customers will receive the extremely high level of support we insist on from our Sales Team. Tom comes to Metro Sign with several years’ experience in various aspects of the signage industry. Having worked in project management at both Sunshine Sign and Viewpoint Sign, Tom is already highly knowledgeable in both

What a great year! Despite all the turmoil and difficulties for Boston, the northeastern U.S., and the world at large, we at Metro Sign and Awning have enjoyed the opportunity to meet the year’s challenges, to grow, to serve, and to do our bit to make the world a better place. Some of our more exciting and successful 2013 projects include: The Forum Restaurant: After the horrific events of Marathon Monday and the destruction that took place outside one of our valued customers, we did our small part to help them rebuild. Working with Boston Nightlight Ventures and the Back Bay Architectural Commission we put together a plan to reinvigorate the remodeled restaurant that included new awnings and face lit

Although the products rolling out the big door are nearly always “one of a kind,” and often highly artistic or creative, at the base of it all, Metro Sign and Awning operates around a factory. Every day, artisans and support staff deal in actual, physical goods that have to be cut, bent, shaped, carved, welded, sanded, finished, painted, and more. Nothing happens until that material and the requisite supplies for the various manufacturing processes are procured. So in a real sense, Craig Wondrasch sits at the very heart of the Metro Sign and Awning complex. Pricing the Materials and Supplies – Putting It All Together “In my purchasing role,” explains Craig, “I look at a complete set of drawings for

Signage Scam Stresses Small Business Owner If you can’t trust your sign-maker, who can you trust? That’s what Shay Kindle, owner of a do-it-yourself workshop in Lubbock, TX, is wondering after a run-in with a sales rep who scammed her, big time, on what should have been a simple, affordable, and effective signage project. In May, 2013, Shay found herself targeted by local representatives of Signtronix, a national company. The smooth-talking sales rep proposed to fabricate and install an electronic sign to promote her business, Pinspired, which is conveniently located on a high-traffic corner lot. Intrigued, Ms. Kindle listened carefully while the shady operator waxed poetic about how Signtronix wanted her business so bad it would discount the cost of