Signs of the Times - December 2017 - 37

Lesson Learned:
'Payoff is Tremendous'

Lesson Learned:
Turning Lemons into Lemonade

Accessing the resources and expertise of
ISA has proven invaluable-and the results
have made a tremendous difference in the
products sign, graphics and visual communications companies can offer. "I've seen
some of the cities go from hard-to-understand
codes to ones that are much easier to read,"
Hurd said. "Cities and towns that had very
restrictive sign codes are becoming more
aware of the importance of signage as a whole."

For Creative Sign Designs, serving the customer
always comes first. Though the company's
specialty is in architectural signs, it occasionally is asked to create an electronic message
center.

But involvement of all facets of the industry-
ISA, the state association, companies and
suppliers/distributors-is key, she said. "The
earlier we can get into the cities and get them
to understand that the signage is just as
important as their site map and their architecture and get the codes to allow more creativity,
that's what we strive for."
In the end, it's a winning formula, one that
enhances the strength of the sign, graphics
and visual communications industry while
also benefiting individual communities and
businesses.
"ISA's support of the affiliates in this respect
has 100 times more value than anyone
dreams, and I see it every day," King said.
"I'm so proud that we're at this point. "

2
Resources

You Need

NOW

Sign, graphics and visual
communications professionals
don't have to go it alone.
ISA has developed a number
of resources to help.

3
4

That throws the company into unfamiliar
territory. But it rises to the occasion, delivering
a creative, customer-focused project. That
said, it also means entry into the complex
world of navigating sign codes. One project
for a local bank included a "nebulous" sign
code that led to bad information, says Jamie
Harden, the company's president and CEO.
Soon after the sign went up, the bank was
flagged by local codes enforcement officers
for changing too frequently.
"I felt like we did the wrong thing for our
client by not giving them the right advice up
front," Harden said.
Setting out to right the wrong, he found the
opportunity to work on changing the sign
code in Tampa, Fla. Local officials were already
in the process of rewriting the code to comply
with the 2015 case, Reed v. Town of Gilbert,
in which the Supreme Court of the U.S. ruled
that communities cannot regulate signs
based on content. "It just worked out that
the timing to talk about this was good."

While his willingness to take on the work
involved a code overhaul, the results benefited
both his client and the entire community.
After much work, the city changed the hold
time on EMCs from five minutes to eight
seconds.
"We were able to show them that the nature
of these products is not Las Vegas," he said.
It was a true team effort. He brought in some
of his customers, along with ISA and Watchfire,
who supplied the technical expertise. Explaining what the technology can do and how it
can be monitored "was very comforting to the
council," Harden said. "They were concerned
about EMCs flashing and crazy moving images.
We were able to show them that, if the code
is structured properly, you don't have flashing,
obnoxious things out there."
Part of it is in having the right perspective.
Harden was trying to do the right thing by his
client, but he also understood the concerns
of the elected officials. "I found that if you can
really sit down and talk with elected officials,
they're all very reasonable people."
Working to find that balance aligned with his
company's philosophy. "We heavily incentivize
our team to be in the community, to volunteer.
We do a lot of company outreach efforts. At
the end of the day, our people live here. Our
vendors live here." |

Night-time Brightness Level Recommendations for On-Premise Electronic Message
Centers, available free at signs.org/local. Over 250 communities have adopted these recommendations, providing a reasonable solution to the hot-button issue of EMC brightness.
More guidance on the Reed decision also is available at signs.org/local. Guidance published
by the Sign Research Foundation can help communities understand the court decision and
what they must do to comply.
A free resource for your planners, ISA's quarterly newsletter, Vital Signs, includes information
and resources to help planners understand more about developing reasonable and beneficial
sign codes. Let them know that can read the most current issue and sign up to receive the email
quarterly at newsroom.signs.org/vitalsigns.
Help with your specific issue is available by contacting signhelp@signs.org.

graphics and communications company loses more than $107,000 in revenue due to restrictive sign regulations. *
WWW.SIGNS.ORG * * *

http://www.signs.org/local http://www.signs.org/local http://newsroom.signs.org/vitalsigns http://WWW.SIGNS.ORG

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signs of the Times - December 2017