We’ve made a lot of signs and a lot of memories in the last (almost) decade. Today, we celebrate the last nine years of too many signs to count, hundreds of companies worked with, thousands of hours dedicated to serving this community and endless amounts of hard work and perseverance as we perfected the art of sign making.
In a recent survey of Office Sign Company employees, we asked our team “What’s one word that we want our company and brand to be known for?” The overwhelming answer to this question was quality. We must say, this is a word we have stuck by since the beginning (just ask the boss….) and we have always made it our goal to make the best signs and deliver a product that is unrivaled in craftsmanship, quality and service.
And while our ability to produce beautiful and professional signage is the reason we exist, our devotion to serving our community and our employees is really Office Sign Company’s greater purpose. So, with today being such a big day for the OSC fam, we wanted to take a walk down memory lane and share our favorite projects and memories as seen through the eyes of the Office Sign Company team. Without further ado, here’s what the our team had to say about their favorite projects, memories and from some of our veterans, just how much OSC has changed in the last nine years.
Memories….
“I recall when we had a team of 3, we had a large order from L’Oreal – it was fun and crazy and even quite frustrating. It was for our teeny 1×4 slider signs. Also, we were interviewing for our third employee, a girl said the job sounded so cool, but she sent a photo of my home in her inquiry email (this is when I ran the business in my basement) and I said “Yes! That’s where the business is at, could you meet me in my basement tonight at 8?” and she emailed back in giant letters “CREEPY.”
“My favorite OSC memory so far is the Olympics from this year. It was an awesome day and I had a lot of fun.”
“OSC has definitely changed in the time I’ve worked here. We had 8 employees when I started and now we have close to 40. Besides doing our daily job, we also did artwork, installs, cleaning, maintenance, snow removal, and other various tasks. Today our roles are more defined as we have more people and hire out the cleaning and landscape work. I also knew we were growing when brand name companies, known worldwide, were ordering from us.”
“My favorite OSC memories are the Redhawks games and also when we all helped with moving over to production – bittersweet!”
“When I first started, we were all in one building in downtown Fargo, which is pretty crazy to look back on now (I don’t know how we all fit!). Although we now are in two locations, I would certainly say the tight-knit culture has not changed too much from when I first walked in. I remember feeling overwhelmed by some of the personalities when I was new to the company, but now I’m just another one of them! We also have changed quite a bit in our growth locally. When I was first here, Office Sign Company was not yet a household name in the business community, and we still didn’t have too many local clients. Now, we have a pretty strong local presence and get out to quite a few events in town, and have been blessed with the opportunity to create signage for a multitude of businesses around the area. The local growth, in part, helped launch us into the new building and expanded operations. It’s been fun!”
“My favorite memory was shutting down production early and playing Beerpong and grilling in the back. Looking back, I’m not sure if that was OSHA approved.”
“Volunteering at the RMHC of Fargo-Moorhead by cooking a meal with my co-workers for families in our community. Seeing the faces of the family that walked in and knowing their fragile, yet exceptional little girl would have a healthy, warm meal that night was worth it a thousands of times over.”
“When I beat Creep at arm wrestling during OSClympics.”
“My first year, there were only 11 of us, including Ryan. We used to grill and chill on Friday afternoons in the summer at 310 and just get to know each other better. It was great team building! It’s harder now with so many people and a bigger operation, but we still manage to have fun outings like OSC Olympics and our annual picnic and such to keep nurturing our culture. The other great thing about OSC is that we have a lot of people who work hard every day and really care about the service we give and the quality of the product we put out even when we’re swamped. I think that’s what really sets us apart from other sign companies.”
“Some early year orders from Google, Ben & Jerrys and Northrup Grumman to name a few.”
“OSC has changed a lot. When I started, I was only the 7th employee. And the company was on a small 6 room office suite over behind Chuck E. Cheeses. My window actually looked out to there. When we moved to 310, it was alot more space. Even more than we really needed, at the time. We didn’t have a breakroom of any kind, so a few us took it job ourselves to turn an old spray booth into a makeshift breakroom, equipped with a small table and 4 chairs. The company than began to grow from there. And over my 6 years, I’ve seen employees come and go and the company grow larger than even I could have imagined by this time. And I’m excited for where the company can/will grow to over the next few years as well. I’ve seen orders come through from Yahoo, NBC, Google, and plenty of local business.”“When we toured the 310 Building I thought we would never fill the entire building…”
“When we officed by Bucks and Wendys we carried our Epilog laser up two flights of stairs.”
Projects….
“My favorite sign/product was when we made the Bison Nation signs for Zorbaz! That was super fun and creative project I got to be a part of.”
“My favorite project was the banner for the Red River Market, and also the fork-shaped Food Truck Festival awards.”
“My favorite project was the mini golf course we made for Streets Alive. It had some unique engineering, design, and building aspects that were really challenging.”
“My favorite project was probably all of the signage we did for TrinSpin.”
“It’s very hard to choose just one! The very first project I ever worked on, as an Account Manager, was the door vinyl for the Prairie Den. Then, still new to downtown, we were able to help them beautify their home with some front door vinyl, and etched window vinyl for their office door. You always remember the first one. I enjoyed getting to meet the Prairie Den team, and collaborate with them on this project (both of us learning together about signage). I also really enjoyed the TEDx project we worked on for TEDxFargo 2016. The selection of signage was literally a three-month-long project, and I was able to help provide some ideas, be involved in the design phase, and attend the event and see the signage in action. There have been so many fond memories working with different clients around town, it’s hard to choose one single favorite.”
“A cake topper! It said “i love fargo” in a script-y font. Not a big project, but new, challenging, and I love cake.” “I’ve seen a lot of cool projects come, but one of my favorites are the large wooden Bison signs we did for Zorbaz last zummer! But I may be biased, since all my kids’ names start with a “Z”, and we’re Bison fans.”
Well folks, there ya have it….a little peak into the last nine years at Office Sign Company. It’s been a ride, that’s for sure. One with lots of memories and a lot of amazing signs. Thanks for following along on this journey with us….we do what we do because of people like you.
“I have to say that my favorite project at OSC again so far is probably seeing one of those round bamboo Fargo North Dakota Dimensional signs get made. Those things are neat!”
Happy Anniversary OSC!
