Owner, Ken Spencer, is a second generation sign guy with more than 39 years experience in the sign industry, who is competent in all phases of sign design and construction, screen printing and vehicle lettering.

“I literally grew up in the sign business. When I was a kid growing up in New Jersey, my dad brought me to work with him at his sign shop every Saturday.” Including his apprenticeship in England, he worked for nearly 50 years before he retired, and he taught me about signs and design starting from an early age.”

Spencer officially began working with his father, Brian Spencer, at Artistic Signs in Salem—where the family had moved in the early 1980’s—at age 19, while studying for an associate’s degree in Visual Communications at Chemeketa Community College. After graduating from the program, he opened his own business in 1990, specializing in flat stock screen printing.

“The focus of my first business was screen printing because I fell in love with the art and the science of the screen-printing process during my first class at Chemeketa,” says Spencer.

In 1992, when his dad retired, Spencer absorbed the sign making portion of the business, and began designing commercial signage for new and existing customers, including logos, banners, and permanent building and sandblasted signs. He also gained extensive experience in vehicle lettering and fleet graphics.

“Commercial vehicles are like rolling billboards,” said Spencer. “Your company name and logo are displayed in front of the public’s eye all day, everyday, everywhere you go. Vehicle graphics are a great value, because they last for years, but you only pay for them once, unlike other forms of advertising.” (reprint from the Newport News Times 9/23/09)