Business Spotlight: Garage Graphics and Visuals Inc.

Owner: Steve Tindle

Founded: 1995

Address: 2625 N. Neergard Ave., Springfield, MO 65803

Phone: (417) 831-7570

Fax: (417) 831-7537

Web site: www.ggandv.com

E-mail: dmoore@ggandv.com

Services: Custom dimensional design and fabrication

Employees: 76

There is never a dull moment on the floor at Garage Graphics and Visuals.

In 2007, the Springfield-based custom dimensional sign shop helped Bass Pro Shops open nine stores. Garage Graphics’ 76 employees produced 7,372 signs for the nationwide retailer of outdoor goods.

The signs and structures GG&V designs and fabricates are quite intricate and often are very large. For example, at Titanic Museum in Branson, GG&V’s 18-foot propeller is strung to the ceiling, its 12-foot coal boiler is an interactive program for guests and its 8-foot anchor hangs off the ship.

The company’s craftsmen often use foam and fiberglass to recreate the look of natural materials, such as wood, stone, clay and metal. Clients include retailers, restaurants, casinos, libraries and governments.

“I’m an artist basically,” owner Steve Tindle says, noting that his creative instinct drew him to the sign business. “(It’s) a good place for an artist to start and make money.”

Tindle was working for Payne Sign Co. when the impending arrival of twins encouraged him to moonlight and take on more of his own work.

“When you make as much at night as you do by day, it makes it easy to go out on your own,” Tindle recounts.

Bass Pro to Disney

Bass Pro Shops became an early and large client.

“We started to do a few pieces for the store here in Springfield,” Tindle says. “In fact, the Hemingway’s sign is the first sign I did for them.”

Anywhere from 600 to 900 signs go through the shop in the three weeks GG&V crews spend on a Bass Pro project.

It’s a tight schedule, according to Tindle.

“We tend to be the last step in a construction process,” Tindle says. “To be able to work under that pressure and create under that pressure takes a different kind of artist.”

Larry Owen, who oversees Bass Pro Shops’ fabrication department, has watched Tindle and company grow.

“When I came to Bass Pro, he was in a small shop on Kathryn in a small strip mall in Nixa,” Owen says. “He expanded from one chunk of that to two by the end of that first year and has continued to upgrade.”

One recent upgrade was in the creative sense. Dale Moore went from GG&V client to creative director earlier this year. Moore used Tindle’s work when he was a senior designer and art director for Disney Imagineering.

“I started using him on a lot of theme signs for Castaway Cay, which is Disney Cruise Line’s private island,” Moore says. “He did a lot of fixtures for the cruise line itself – desks, podiums and things like that.”

In October 2005 and again in October 2006, GG&V worked on remodeling restaurants aboard the Disney cruise ships Magic and Wonder, while they were in dry dock.

Through the years, the business has become both larger and more focused on production.

“What I admire and respect about Steve in the business world is that he is not afraid to grow his business,” Bass Pro’s Owen says. “He is talented in his own right, but he hires good people and he’s not afraid to spend money on the necessary equipment or machinery.”

The diverse clientele GG&V has attracted include Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, Grizzly Industrial tools in Pennsylvania and Gillioz Theatre in Springfield.

Tindle takes the growth in stride.

“It’s been a pretty steady increase,” he says, declining to disclose revenues. “Of course, companies grow in steps, they don’t grow in a straight line. The first year or two, it seemed we doubled the business every year.”

Tindle says finding good talent in the Ozarks is easy due to a crafty regional heritage and a critical mass of outlets teaching the basic materials trades in fiberglass and welding. Tindle says all he has to do is let people be creative.

Extreme break

Things are looking good around the corner. Garage Graphics and Visuals will be a part of “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” airing Jan. 13 on ABC.

The work on a dragon-themed furniture piece for that show illustrates the GG&V process. Beginning with a drawing, a maquette, or scale model, is created. The crew then builds up the sculpture with foam, coating it in fiberglass. For the TV show, this all happened in a matter of days.

“The dragon was pretty impressive,” Tindle says. “Really, to happen so fast and to work as well as it did was really impressive. That was a good piece. We had a lot of people who put in an all-nighter those first couple of nights.”

Tindle hopes to capitalize on the excitement around the TV show.

“We’re kind of at the bottom of the next big step,” he says. “We are doing a lot of marketing because we need to get more big clients. We are so production oriented now that you need to keep that fed.”

SBJ.net Extra

Garage Graphics and Visuals built a dragon chair that will be unveiled during the 7 p.m. Jan. 13 airing of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover Home Edition.” Click here to see photos of the fabrication and installation of GG&V’s dragon chair on the TV set.