Inside the Digital Signage Market with Indigo Signs

Signs are everywhere we look and digital signage has evolved along with the signage industry over the years. From static signage and traditional billboards to neon lights and LED displays, there are a lot of different ways to capture people’s attention and share messages. To hear about the digital signage market using LED technology, Jill Gustofson, sales at Indigo Signs, recently joined Justin Ochsner and Matt Anderson on the Daktronics Experience Podcast. The following is a highlight from their conversation.

Matt Anderson: Could you talk maybe a little bit about how things were handled when you started out in the business?

Jill Gustofson: Absolutely. Early on, back in the day, everything was hand-painted onto a sign. So, you went back and forth with a customer a number of times with hand drawing. And with those hand drawings, you would come back to your artist and they would hand paint a sign for the billboard. I entered the OOH world at the end of that and they were getting into everything on a computer and so forth.

The next big step was having a sketch that was computer generated and moved from hand painting into the world of vinyl wraps. From there, it went into electronic displays and the electronic technology unfolded while I was in the business as part of both on and off premise. So, the electronic message centers have made a huge difference on who can be in the sign industry and who isn’t in the industry anymore.

Matt Anderson: So, definitely a lot of changes. How about the size of the boards themselves? Has that changed throughout the years or how do you work with display sizes?

Jill Gustofson: There were typically two sizes, but now with the evolution of electronic signs on the off-premise side of things, you just follow code and can have a lot more options for sign sizes. That’s probably the biggest change I’ve seen. And now that I’m in the world of on-premise, there’s not one particular size. It’s whatever fits or whatever looks great or however unique you can be – it’s a whole different dynamic.

Justin Ochsner: And with that different dynamic – you’re at Indigo Signs now – how does the company fit within that space?

Jill Gustofson: So, Indigo Signs began in 1996 and we are a custom, full-service sign shop with our headquarters in Fargo, North Dakota, and another fabrication shop in Chanhassen. We have offices throughout the states of Minnesota and North Dakota, so that’s kind of our footprint in the area – from North Dakota to South Dakota, all of Minnesota and into the edges of Iowa and Wisconsin.

For the signs and projects we deliver for our customers, we take everything from concept to completion. I oftentimes come back to our office and go to my estimating staff or my fabricators and say, “Hey, I sold this.” And they look at me and then say, “And how are we going to do that?” And they always figure it out. So, the more unique the sign and project, the more fun it is to work on and deliver.

We have a great team here. Many, many years of experience. It’s fun to bring back things that are not just a square box and say, “Can we do this?” and they typically always find a way. We have a lot of talent in our fabrication shop where they can make somebody’s dream or image become a reality and they can bring it to life.

So, it’s a lot of fun. That’s not a sign off a shelf, it’s indeed custom and it’s built right here by our craftsmen.

To hear the full interview as the conversation dives into a specific project, go to Episode #184 of the Daktronics Experience Podcast by clicking here.