Signworks was started back in 1987
by Mike Lewis in Hill City, South Dakota as "Central Hills Signworks".
Mike moved his shop later that year to Custer. Over the years clients
called his sign shop everything but "Central Hills Signworks": "Mike's
signs"; "Custer Signs", "Mike's Signworks", "Southern Hills Signs", but
most of all "Custer Signworks"... after all these years Mike has finally
decided to go with the majority and just call his shop "Custer Signworks".
Mike was hired right out of high
school at Rosenbaum's Signs of Rapid City in 1983 as a "gopher" and did
just about everything that needed done. In the year that he worked there
he was able to learn a little about the art of hand lettering signs. When
he moved to Denver to attend a commercial art school he worked at a small
sign shop where he was able to learn more about signs, silk screening and
graphic design.
Mike moved back to the Black Hills in 1987 and started Signworks at
the age of 21.
Mike has mostly worked solo in his
business. At one point in 1997 he decided to hire an employee. It went
well but when the employee decided to move on after about 6 months Mike
just went back to going it solo. Over the years Mike has worked with a
number or very talented sign artists and does quite a bit of
subcontracting just so he can better manage the work flow. In the spring
of 2008 Mike decided it was time to hire someone with more than 20 years
experience in signs and graphic arts. Andy Hade will be doing the Majority
of the production work as Mike will be marketing the benefits of
well-designed signs and advertising to a public that is ripe for a
higher-class image than they have ever been offered.
Mike's goal is to enhance the
images of small businesses around the Black Hills area by making clean,
easy to read signs that get noticed... because if your sign gets noticed,
your business get noticed. There are all sorts of slogans for signs and
advertising out there: "A business with no sign is a sign of no business",
"quality isn't determined by how much you pay for something but by what
you get for what you pay", or "quality is remembered long after the price
is forgotten"... Mike's simple slogan is this:
When you're ready to make an
investment in a quality sign package give Mike a call and see what a
difference he can make in the image of your business
