As always, I’ve booked generous layovers to ensure flight delays along my way home don’t make it hard to get there in one day without stress. And as is often the case, my first flight of the day was an hour late leaving the Orlando terminal. The good news is that the delay made my Dallas layover a little shorter. As I waited in both terminals, I made the best of my downtime and did three concept drawings for my next year’s entries in the Sign Invitational. One of the event’s supporters is IBEX, our new routing software, and so I wanted to make a killer piece for their display. The piece will be a wonderful challenge to help me learn this new software and will be an eye-catching showpiece of what is possible. Stay tuned for the fun…
Sign Invitational 2026
It isn’t often that I get to spend time with others in the creative world who really understand the passion I have for my art. The Sign Invitational is a wonderful opportunity to spend time with others who are equally passionate about their craft. And the bonus is that we get to share our love of this fun business with hundreds of others at the ISA EXPO who were attracted to our creations on display. We answered countless questions about the pieces on display and how we incorporate this magic into our daily jobs. We hoped to inspire others to join in the fun. This year’s Sign Invitational was a wonderful success with nine imaginative pieces on display. About eight hundred visitors to the booth took the time to vote for their personal favourite. Jim Dawson (Ohio) garnered the most votes, with Rusty and Amanda Gibbs (Washington) in second place. Dave Nolan (Alberta) came a close third. Thanks to our sponsors, Specialty Machinery Inc. X-Edge Tools Ibex Software and Coastal Enterprises Company for helping to make this fun event possible!
Next year's challenge
The primary purpose of the Sign Invitational is to encourage and inspire other sign makers to do more creative projects in their work. The small display signs they create for the contest will hang in their studios and hopefully sell creative projects in years to come. I know this to be true because we have about 135 such samples on the walls of our shop and studio, and it is the reason we sell much of our work. The Sign Invitational pieces on display attract a huge following at the show. Each time I hear someone wish they could sell work like this, I throw them a challenge to enter next year’s contest and, in the process, take a positive step towards their stated wish. It works!
This year’s show is still in progress, but we have begun planning for next year's event. The first step was for the creative group to pick a theme, which yesterday was decided to be ‘dinosaurs’. And being that this is a sign invitational, I had to throw down a gauntlet to my fellow competitors. I stayed up a teeny bit last night and worked up a quick sketch. Today, in a quiet moment, I went over to a printer with a booth on the EXPO floor, and they quickly printed me a t-shirt with my next year’s sign design featuring a T-rex playing an accordion. When I got back to the booth, no words needed to be spoken about next year’s challenge. The contest is on!
