Festival Sign Service, Gainesville, Florida, USA

Internationally Renowned Sign Company and Sign Manufacturer.

With more than 30 years experience in the custom sign industry, Festival Sign Service is a leading provider of high quality dimensional signs. Located just minutes from the University of Florida Campus, we have the pleasure of providing custom signage solutions to companies through out the United States. Our community signs, commercial signs, building signs and office signs have been used by companies all over the country. Most custom signs we create can be shipped anywhere in the world. We specialize in V-carved, sand blasted, and dimensional letters for all types of commercial and community signs, exterior or interior.  Whether your company needs just one sign or hundreds, Festival Sign Service will make the entire process of ordering a sign easy for you.  Call us at (352) 376-0003 or email us today to discuss your next signage project. 

From an article that appeared in Building Trends Magazine September 2008 

Festival Signs: Making Signs Beautiful

By Anjalee Khemlani

If you travel anywhere in Gainesville and the surrounding counties and wonder who makes those unique beautiful signs?  Odds are you’re looking at a Festival Sign Service creation! For the last 30 years the mission of Festival Signs has been “beautifying Gainesville one sign at a time.”

Founder, Robbie and Janet Rucker, began the sign shop in 1978, bringing dimensional signs to Gainesville and providing  unique designs to such notable clients as Sunstate Federal Credit Union, The Hippodrome, and literally thousands of other business and individuals in and around Gainesville. The unique combination of hand painting, sand blasting, and 23k gold lettering has added radiance to many companies and communities. The sign shop can create carved letters, etched glass and stone, and three dimensional carvings.  Recently Festival has added  LED lights to back light their creations. This is partly to complete their mission to be as “green” as possible, and add yet another dimension to their awesome creations. Additionally they have recently completed a job for “Indigo” the green store using their environmentally safe paints.

Recently Robby and his wife Janet turned over the shop to Janet’s sister and brother-in-law, Stephanie and Larry Hagstrom. Robby is now free to work at the shop and be creative and work on special projects, while allowing the shop to be run efficiently with new systems, tools, and front office experience. Larry is a talented artist and Stephanie has 25 years of corporate experience.

“We have made some changes that have enabled us to meet our deadlines on time and still be creative with an eye on detail. Although a “Sand Blasted” hand painted custom routed sign may take 4 to 6 weeks to create, due to its complexity,  it is well worth the wait.” The sign shop is full service and can create simple vinyl real estate signs or giant monuments seen at many of the nicest communities in the county.

Their newest addition is a sign maintenance program or SMP. Most signs are made to be durable, but every sign will need to be cleaned after a couple of years. The program provides clients with a written 20 point inspection report as well as cleaning and light touchup on the sign two times per year, and recommends any maintenance or issues that need to be fixed. Festival Sign Services understands that a sign is large marketing investment for their customers and the maintenance program will add years to the life of a sign.  They also offer sign repair services covering any damage due to vandalism, weather, or age of the sign.

“No project is ever the same,” said Hagstrom, reflecting on the history of the company.

Every sign, created by hand, has different elements and styles of the artist.

The process of making the sign seems simple, but can be daunting at times. Every project starts with sketches and estimates, the client can fine tune their design while, in most cases, the sign shop navigates the myriad of obstacles for submitting engineering drawings to the building department for permits. Once the permit has been approved and the sketch has been signed off, then the sign goes in to production. The material has to be cut and routed then sand blasted. Every sign has two to four coats of primer, two to three coats of base finish color, and then two coats of the accent colors. Site prep is also handled by Festival Signs from masonry monuments to simple posts.

            “Remember a sign is the first impression of  a business or community and is the least amount of  advertising dollars they will ever spend when you consider a well made sign may have a life of 10, 20, or 30 years”.   There are still some sand blasted signs in Gainesville we did in the late 70’s that have been maintained and repainted and kept in good condition and still look beautiful.

To learn more about the products and services offered by Festival Sign Services, go online to www.festivalsignservice.com, or call (352) 376-0003.

 History prior to 2000 (from our old web site)

 Festival Sign Service History:

Festival Sign Service was created by Robby and Janet Rucker (with a lot of help from their two sons, Jake & Rainy) in Gainesville, Florida, in 1979. Robby and Janet migrated to Gainesville in 1978 from Denver, Colorado. Robby was already an accomplished artist and sign painter, with knowledge of gold-leafing, etching and other fine crafts which have continued to enhance their work.

Janet brought her business ability to the shop."In those days we hand painted every letter of every sign! An unbelievable task compared to this age of computer graphics," recalls Janet. A simple four foot by eight foot marketing sign could take two to three days! Their first location was in a historical downtown building next to the Hippodrome State Theater (a situation which has fostered continuing support throughout the years for the Hippodrome programs). In 1986 the business moved to the North East Industrial park, renovating a 7700 sq. ft. building in which they currently do business.

They purchased their first computer-driven sign maker in 1988, a Gerber IVB. They have continued to upgrade to their current system, the Omega system, which drives several vinyl cutters as well as a brand new Gerber Sabre Router. The new router is really remarkable. It can be used for 3-dimensional signs such as V-carved Signs, prismatic letters, stencils & cutout letters of any type. We are only now beginning to discover its many possibilities.

The owners have always considered it their goal to help beautify the city they call home, to blend art & signage to create unusual & attractive signs. At a recent ceremony for the City Beautification Awards, many of the businesses who received the awards cited a Festival Sign as part of their overall project. "For even the simplest jobs, say a little real estate sign," Robby explains, "we try to give the customer something attractive and a little special, using our experience of layout and a little extra care to enhance it."

In 2001, they received First Place in a prestigious International Sign contest sponsored by Signs of the Times magazine for a hand carved, gold leafed sign for Suburban Animal Hospital on Newberry Road in Gainesville. "We would love to be able to do more signs of this quality & beauty! Lots of people have called us to comment on that sign, and also the Downtown Plaza marquis we made that year," recalls Robby, "We are grateful to be able to do a little bit to make this a better place to live."

After more than thirty years in the sign business, Festival Sign Service is still making some of the best signs in the industry. While the majority of their customers are from Alachua County, Festival Sign Service often does work for people all over the country. From Texas to Illinois to South Florida this sign shop has left its mark with a unique ability to blend artistic design and practical marketability.