Chicagoland-Area Sign Shop Hosts Grand Opening This Week

Bensenville, Illinois-based Sign Artist, a full-service, independent sign and graphics shop that is an affiliate of Signworld, announces a grand opening/open house this Thursday, February 21.

Sign Artist is a family-owned business founded last year by Ed Bartholomew and his wife, Marianna. Ed Bartholomew says his background is quite varied, including stints in health care, electronics and music, and along the way he earned his Master of Business Administration degree from Elmhurst College.

The idea of working with his family in their own family-run business appealed to him, and that’s how he became affiliated with Signworld, which is not a franchisor but rather an alliance of business owners all operating their own shops-some 330 of them around the U.S. and Canada, Bartholomew says.

Along with the husband-and-wife owners, daughter Erin is Sign Artist’s designer, and son Dan handles production and photography.

Through their affiliation with Signworld, they’re sometimes able to land work with national clients, Ed Bartholomew says, although the bulk of their customers are in the Chicago area, and they sometimes pull in work from surrounding areas such as Wisconsin or Indiana.

Sign Artist is located at 108 E. Devon Ave., Bensenville, and their ribbon cutting will take place at 11 a.m. Thursday with the open house running 11-3 p.m. Refreshments will be served.