How to succeed in the sign business for 47 years (or longer)

Fifty years ago, David Showalter was a young housepainter. While painting a house next door to a sign shop, he mentioned to the homeowner that he would like to paint signs instead of houses. That homeowner turned out to be a retired sign painter, and he offered to help David get started.

In the years that followed, David painted signs in and around his hometown of Bryan, Ohio, which has a population of about 9,000. It’s about an hour west of Toledo in an area of many other small towns. His work first appeared in the May/June 1985 issue of SignCraft and has many times since.

As computers moved into the sign business, David added cut vinyl and digital printing to his list of services. He’s watched the sign business change over the years, and his business evolved with it. At the same time, he believes that some things haven’t changed. He believes creative sign people can still develop a market for their work in the business he has enjoyed for nearly five decades.