If you live in Northeast Ohio, the chances are good that you’ve taken a photograph, or perhaps a selfie, with one of the Cleveland script signs that dot the landscape.
Designed by Destination Cleveland, the signs were built by the Signature Sign Co. in the city’s Midtown district.
“We build icons,” said Johnathan Webb, the company's vice president and general manager. “We like building things that are gonna outlive us, represent the city and everybody's gonna recognize it.”
Since 1987, Signature Sign Co. has created some of the most iconic signs in Cleveland — from restaurant signs along East 4th Street to the Flats East Bank sign that towers over the Cuyahoga River.
The company’s latest creation is for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: a new, free-standing sign welcoming visitors to the revamped museum.
“It’s a big deal for us,” said Bruce Farkas, the company’s founder and president.
Farkas is a self-described “art school dropout” who started painting murals in Boston and later moved back home to Cleveland to work for the Buddy Sign Co. on Carnegie Avenue.
“I ended up staying there for eight years,” he said. “Buddy passed away. I stayed with the company for a couple of years and then decided to start my own outfit.”
While many Signature Sign Co. signs can be found throughout Downtown Cleveland, there are some popular signs that lost their purpose once businesses closed.
“Nothing lasts forever and ... eventually, some [places] close down and so we need to remove the sign." He gestured to the lowercase letters that once marked fire, Doug Katz's popular Shaker Square restaurant. "(That's) one that I wanted to keep for sure."
One current sign that looms large is the Flats East Bank sign that’s often seen during national TV broadcasts of Cleveland’s major sports teams.
“We really tried hard to make that look like a classic New York, Manhattan rooftop sign,” he said. “It takes a lot because you wanna get the scale exactly right. You don't want it to be too big or too small. We built samples to light up. We lit them up across the river, went across to the Music Box, looked at them, made sure they were lit correctly.”
The Rock Hall sign is the latest iconic Cleveland emblem that might end up in scenic television promos for the city.
But it’s the Cleveland script signs — found in Tremont and at Edgewater Park, Euclid Beach, the Foundry rowing and sailing center in the Flats, East 9th Street Pier and Cleveland Hopkins Airport — that seem to be fan favorites.
“Everybody knows that sign,” Farkas said. “There's a whole lot of brides and grooms that like to get their picture taken in front of it, including cousins of mine. It makes people happy."
Farkas said calling himself and his team artists “sounds a little haughty to me, but we try our best to do what we do.”
He added: “We've been fortunate enough to have great designers here over the years. It gives everybody a lot of pride. Everybody that works here, to be able to walk down a street in your hometown and look up and see something that you built or were a part of, it's good stuff.”
