From Crissa Bakery to COVID-19, Owen Signcraft has reflected the changing times of Barrie for more than 50 years.
Originally started by Joe Owen in 1955 and then taken over by his son Joe Jr., the company has evolved over the decades, just like Barrie has. Back in the day, there were storefront signs, office signs, highway billboards. Pretty much like today.
But back then, sign makers didn’t have the benefit of computers and other fandangled machines to ply their craft, according to Gary Caulfield, who bought the company 13 years ago this month.
After several years in Alberta’s tech industry, he decided to move back to Ontario with his family and ease into retirement.
“I wanted something creative and landed on a blind ad for Signcraft. I met with the Owen family and proceeded to purchase the company,” he says.
Coming into such a well-established business was great, Caulfield says.
“That was very important. That’s one of the things that appealed to me,” he says of Owen Signcraft’s reputation. “I didn’t want to rebrand because Owen had the name. It was really about that brand that I was purchasing and the client base.”
That brand grew in the 1950s and '60s on the strength of Owen’s — and his team's — artistic talent, says Caulfield.
“A lot of it was by hand,” he says. “It was hand-drawn and for the graphics you might see on a truck (in the day), they would have to cut all those. They didn’t have the (computer-assisted) plotters and cutters we use today.
“They did a lot of billboards and a lot of trucks back in the early days and the hand-carved signs as well,” Caulfield says. “That’s why he used to sketch artistically because then he could replicate his own design. They had the blank (wooden) template they would work with and carve it.
“Now it’s all sandblasted and with a computer program we send the cut file over, they lay it out and blast it and then we do the final finishing for painting.”
While the manufacturing of the signs has changed, the commitment to customer needs has not, Caulfield says, adding large clients include the County of Simcoe, City of Barrie and Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre.
“The small business is still very much custom stuff,” he says. “What has changed there is a lot of stuff used to be done on wood as a substrate. Now we use an aluminum-composite panel, so the substrates have changed over the years. They’re a lot cheaper, a lot more durable.
“It’s the same concept (as decades ago); there’s still customization involved. You’re still involving some hand stuff, but not nearly to the same extent as it was before. Now a lot of it is done with software and printers and cutters and laminators.”
These days, as in the 1950s, signs describe a business and transmit a message.
“People are still into branding their products, are still into storefront signage requirements. There is still definitely a need for signs,” Caulfield says. “We’ve been doing a ton of COVID signs.”
The company’s tag line — ‘Start with a paintbrush and a dream’ — was the creation of Joe Sr., and still applies today, Caulfield says.
“I wouldn’t even pretend to have the artistic talent that he had,” Caulfield says. “He decided to use his artistic abilities to get into signage and that led to the growth of Owen Signcraft.
“You support the city you’re in, which is something Joe Sr. did. It’s been important since the beginning.”
