Bruce Janssen: Custom dimensional signs in Michigan’s North Country

For nearly five decades, Bruce Janssen has been making custom signs for the resort towns around Lake Charlevoix in northern Michigan. His shop, The Wood Shop, in Boyne City, Michigan, turned 48 years old on Memorial Day—last May 30^th.

“We’re still focused on doing interesting dimensional signs for our market,” says Bruce. “We’re in a resort area and there’s a demand for cool signs. They help make the area unique, right along with the scenery and all the recreational things.

“The people who visit here want to see things that are different from what they see along the street at home. They don’t come here to have the same experience that they have at home. That’s important. Unique signs play a big part in that.

“We have Walmart and the big box stores 20 miles away, but in the small towns around here the downtowns are very much alive. There are plenty of small businesses—stores, shops and restaurants. The towns that allow franchise restaurants like McDonald’s, limit their signs so that they fit in. It all makes for a very different feel. You know you’re in a place that is unique. It’s taken time to develop this, and I hope the next generation protects it.”

 

Signs that do more than identify

In a resort area, an interesting, unique sign is a valuable marketing tool. Many visitors are not familiar with the area, and they are looking for shops to visit or places to eat. A sign that gets a second look can make the difference between them passing by or coming into a business.

“We do a lot of custom signs for small businesses and cottage signs for private residences,” says Bruce. “We also have three or four large resort accounts that make up 40 or 50 percent of our work. They have been clients for over 35 years. We give great service, and we come up with creative solutions, and they value that. A good business is built both on your product and on the relationships that you build with customers.”

A lot of the shop’s projects take quite a bit of time so Bruce doesn’t turn out the quantity of signs that a commercial shop does. A job can be in the shop for weeks instead of a few days like many commercial signs.

Along with storefront shop signs and high-end cottage signs, they also handle custom identification projects—like 20 street signs or dozens of door numbers for a resort hotel. Beyond that, though, Bruce refers away work that he can’t do profitably or practically. “Years ago,” he says, “I might have taken on some of the jobs that I pass on now, but now I focus on what we do best.”

One issue that Bruce deals with is familiar to most sign people: customer-designed layouts. Explaining that their design might not be effective has added a step to the sales process.

“Everyone is a designer these days,” he says. “So often someone comes in that is opening a little shop, and they have a design they made up on the computer. You can’t read it from three feet away, and you know it won’t serve them well. So you try to explain that you can start there and do something that will work better. You might also do a second design that is completely different than their idea. Sometimes once they see something better, they’re willing to let go of their version.”

Signs that are an even better value

When he opened his doors back in 1974, Bruce was doing a mix of signs, furniture repair and antique restoration. It was all woodworking, hence the shop name. But the chiropractor across the street came over one day and asked if Bruce could make him a sign. Before long, signs displaced the woodworking. Over time, other materials came into play.

“We make signs to last,” he says. “We’ve gotten even better at that and have found materials that work great and are super durable—SignFoam HDU board, PVC and aluminum. We’ve redone a lot of our signs lately that were 25-plus years old. Back then, most everything was wood. Eventually the posts start to rot and fail. Now we’re replacing many of them with signs that will last even longer. They are an even better value for the businesses.”

A product-driven approach

The shop is housed in two buildings that total 5000 square feet. The 3800-sq.-ft. original building includes the office/computer space, layout and design room, and the woodworking shop. Bruce later built an adjacent 1200-sq.-ft. building that is divided for sandblasting and finishing.

Over the years, Bruce’s staff has gone up and down and currently is at three. “I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of excellent staff over the years. I don’t think I’m necessarily great to work for,” he says, laughing, “but they put up with me, and I continue to challenge them with unique projects.

“I have three great guys here,” he says. “Chandler Roberts does the drafting and design, Tim Shulick handles the painting, and Kevin Coon takes care of the woodworking. All are outstanding craftsmen. Kevin started here when he was 14 and he’s been here over 20 years. Chandler started here at 13 and he’s been here over 12 years.”

Bruce’s marketing approach has always been to be a custom sign shop. He’s not tried to provide every type of sign that the market needs nor has he competed with commercial sign shops for everyday sign projects.

Over the years, there has been recognition for the work The Wood Shop turns out—plenty of awards and articles—including these early features in the January/February 1988 and March/April 1993 issues of SignCraft magazine.

“When you’re starting out,” says Bruce, “you have a little bit of ego and that attention feeds it. It helps you get things going. But at some point, you have to let that go. You settle back and realize this is just what you do. It’s nice to have had a career where I can look back at all the interesting projects that we’ve done. I didn’t do it for the money. That wasn’t my primary focus.

“Hopefully,” he says, “I’ll eventually be able to find someone to take over here and continue what we’re doing. It can be hard to find someone who wants to own a niche business, yet really, that’s precisely the kind of business that you want to own today. It’s a unique business. It’s also less likely that some larger company will want to compete with you because it’s custom. It’s not a cookie-cutter product. If you’re creative and can make a nice custom sign, why compete with vinyl sign franchises for banners and flat signs?”

Bruce Janssen, Tim Shulick (Finisher), Kevin Coon (Woodwook/Manager), Chandler Roberts(Designer)

In 2013, Bruce designed a series of unique bike racks for Boyne City and had them fabricated from stainless steel. “It was a fun project,” he says. “One rack was a giant fork and on the one for in front of the library, we added some big books. We image of blues/jazz singer Tom Waits on the cover The Library book entitled ‘Lean on Me’.”