By Aaron Babcock

The opportunity to create an original look for this sign was one of those rare pleasures a sign designer looks forward to. Most of a signmaker’s work is done for corporate clients who already have a well-developed brand identity. While rewarding in its own right, such work demands a certain level of creative restraint. This was not so for a recent project Mattatall Signs Ltd., in Dartmouth, N.S., completed for Wilson’s Shopping Centre.

When its current owner, Mike Wilson and his wife Kerri, approached Mattatall Signs to build a new pylon sign to celebrate the company’s 95^th year in business, there was little in the way of an existing brand standard to follow. There was, however, the compelling story of what is considered today to be a vanishing breed: a hometown business that has been owned and operated by the same family for generations.