decades after his grandfather helped reform the association in the 70s.
Lawrence Green was one of two appointments to the BSGA board at the recent AGM. For Greens The Signmakers this is a family tradition, because the company was one of the founding members of the association and two generations of Greens held office before him.
The business was properly founded in 1963, although the work started well before that. Reg Green, Lawrence’s grandfather, was a signwriter who began by painting registration plates for motorbikes and moved on to coach pinstriping. “We say 1963, but actually he was going a long time before that,” says Lawrence, who only recently discovered that Reg spent part of the war stationed near Scarborough, making signs.
A name chosen on purpose
The choice of Signmakers in the company name was a commercial decision. “We were the ones that made everything in-house, so it was quite a key choice of words when he set up the business,” Lawrence explains.
Lawrence’s father joined straight from school and took the company through its biggest period of growth. “He jokes about having a gap weekend. He finished his exams on the Friday and was straight into work on the Monday,” says Lawrence. “He was very hands-on, personally writing the job sheets and specifications behind most of the work.”
Overhead projectors and wide scrapers
The factory still carries the evidence of how the trade used to work. Windows beside the old cleaning baths are still marked with screen print ink. Skylights are blocked out above one area because that was where overhead projectors threw drawings onto sheets of acrylic, which were then drawn round and cut by hand. Even by 2004, when Lawrence started on the factory floor, flex face signs were cut vinyl, applied wet by hand with wide scrapers on a flat bench.
Before that, a young Lawerence was cutting his teeth in the industry by colouring in drawings at weekends in the early nineties and sweeping the yard through the summers. The decision to make a career of it came later, “It was the first summer of university that my sister literally knocked mine and my dad’s heads together and said, just have a think, will you?” he recalls. He switched several university modules to business subjects and eventually became managing director in 2018. Coaching has filled the gap the workshop could not. “I know how to make any sign and I’m very good at that, but running a business was not something that came fully naturally,” he admits.
That continuity runs well beyond the family. At least half a dozen staff have forty years of service behind them and a similar number have passed thirty. “If we did a tally it would probably be in the thousands of years,” Lawrence reckons. A few have tested the market and come back. “We have had people leave and think the grass is greener, and it’s always nice when they come knocking.”
Doing the right thing
The BSGA connection runs just as deep. Reg Green was national President within the association and Lawrence’s father was area chairman in the same year, when Lawrence was one year old. “My granddad was very keen and very active, and I’ve heard lovely stories from people saying how he went out and supported them and coached them into becoming a member,” Lawrence says.
The board appointment formalises help he has been offering for some time. “I’ve been hovering in the wings a while, so it’s nice that they know I’m there if a project needs working on.” He would encourage other members to do the same, on the basis that the time involved is smaller than most people assume and the return is immediate.
His pitch to companies still outside the association is commercial rather than sentimental. “The information already sitting within the BSGA protects firms and helps them understand and meet industry standards. The paperwork behind those standards earns its keep on the day something goes wrong.” Six decades on from Reg Green going out and talking other signmakers into joining, the argument has remained a solid one.
“There is a wealth of information there to support you and to make sure you are doing the right thing, rather than simply saying, ‘this is how we’ve always done it’. Quick and easy improvements can be made to give a better service and a better product, and if anything does happen, you have that grounding of paperwork behind you,” Lawrence concludes.