Homemade Signs

“It’s a Ford Ranger ‘95,” she says. “I thought it would be good for marketing, and it is. A lot of people say, ‘Hey, I saw your truck!’”

Schmid creates everything from Realtor yard signs to subdivision entrance signs; banners for special events and trade shows; and window, wall and door signs.

Schmid began making signs 16 years ago in Naperville, Ill., 35 miles southwest of downtown Chicago.

“I went to this girl’s shop, and she had a home-based business in a four-car garage,” Schmid recalls. “I knew when I walked in that this was the work I wanted to do.”

To learn the business, Schmid offered to help in the shop for free. The owner agreed, and eventually put her on the payroll. Schmid learned sign layout and vinyl and coat board applications, door lettering, shop-window lettering and graphics, truck lettering and pinstripe work.

Single, working mom

A single mother, Schmid moved to Springfield in 1992 with her son, Adam. She looked for “a house on a busy street with at least a two-car garage and a big back yard for Adam,” she said. “I wanted to raise him myself and not have him raised by babysitters.”

She found the right house at 2234 E. Cherry St., set up shop, put an ad in the Yellow Pages and waited for the phone to ring.

“I also used (Springfield) Business Journal and read that Hamilton Properties was going to build a new apartment complex,” she recalls. “I made an appointment. I had to screw up my courage and go in there and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to do your sign for your new project.’ Mr. Hamilton was so nice. He looked at my portfolio and let me do a sketch. I ended up getting the job. Since then, I’ve been doing site signs for their new apartment complexes.”

Ken Hamilton, owner of the Hamilton real estate development and property management firm, describes Schmid as “very creative.” He adds, “She knows the art of it and how to put things together. And she’s very efficient – she gets the work done.”

Custom signs

Schmid’s client list now includes Bass Pro Shops, Big Cedar Lodge, Dogwood Canyon, Panera Bread and Lambert’s Restaurant. Armed with an Illinois State University bachelor’s degree in art, she works in several sign media, including paints; vinyl, plastic or cast-metal letters; and metal, wood, glass and sign foam surfaces.

“I do a lot of custom graphics,” she says. “I like hand lettering. If someone has a custom-letter style I don’t have on the computer, I’ll make a pattern for it and hand letter it. I’ve even done boat lettering in my driveway.”

Schmid painted a wood grain on steel doors and file cabinets for Lambert’s Restaurant for a more natural look.

“I do vinyl lettering on storefronts, trucks and other vehicles – anything you can stick a letter on,” Schmid says.

Adam’s work

Signs with plastic or cast-metal letters set in brick or stone are another specialty. Backed with metal studs, the letters are set into holes drilled into the walls with an impact drill and fixed with silicone adhesive.

“Where you have to drill a lot of holes for the studs,” Schmid says, “Adam does that. In the last year or two, he’s been doing signs on his own. I would do the layout, cut the vinyl and give him a scale drawing, and he would take it from there. He’s done really well.”

Adam Schmid, now a 16-year-old Central High School student, said, “I’ve been her only employee since I was a little kid. I really like my Mom’s business. We’re very non-big-business, and I like that.”

New mediums

Amy Schmid is especially enthusiastic about the new sign foam medium, which she said is saving trees by replacing redwood.

“Redwood is very hard to get any more – and also expensive,” she said. “With sign foam you can even put a grain on it, and it looks great when it’s sandblasted. It’s made of little balls of polyurethane compressed into different densities and thicknesses. It’s a closed-cell construction, so there’s no moisture inside, and when the sign is blasted and painted, it doesn’t expand and contract, so it lasts longer. I love to do signs in blasted foam.”

Digital photography also has been a step forward for the business.

“When I got my digital camera, it was almost too good to be true,” she recalls. “I could then go out and take a picture of a location ... then bring it into Corel Draw and design the sign and set it right on the picture and e-mail it to the customer, who could then see exactly what it would look like in the right size and scale.”

Schmid intends to stay current with new techniques and products, but she has no plans to expand Amy’SIGNS.

“I was always afraid that if I hired employees, I would be stuck with the management work, and they would be doing the fun stuff out in the shop,” she said. “My main objective has been to do the work I like and to be here for Adam while he was growing up, so it’s worked out well for both of us.

“I love having a home-based business.”

Amy’SIGNS

Founded: 1993

Owner: Amy Schmid

Address: 2234 E. Cherry St., Springfield, MO 65802

Phone: (417) 863-6864

Fax: same

Services: Custom-made signs

Employees: 2