Small Business Profile: Shingle Minded
Two-year-old ForSight Creations has boosted its profile by
landing some of the premier signage assignments in L.A.
By DARRELL SATZMAN
Staff Reporter
Erecting a sign is not a simple process for ForSight Creations.
After getting the contract to build a replica of the original Grauman’s Chinese Theatre signs, the Pasadena design and installation company spent months on research. Using old photographs, post cards and film clips, designers created historically accurate replicas of the two-sided theater signs down to the exact depth of the woodcarvings that run along their sides.
“We’re not a typical sign provider where we’re going to build a plastic facade for a mom and pop operation,” said Ron Jobson, who started ForSight with his wife, LM Jobson, two years ago (Jobson changed her name to LM several years ago because she likes the way it sounds).
“I love graphic art and graphic identity and corporate identity. I wanted to work with architects and developers on projects that we could get really excited about,” said Jobson, who describes ForSight as a “visual communications company.”
That means coming up with unusual signs for restaurants, hotels and show business venues, such as a scale representation of two knights jousting atop horseback that protrudes from the Medieval Times restaurant in Buena Park.
ForSight works on several dozen projects per year, with most jobs running from $10,000 to $100,000. As business picks up the Jobsons say $2 million in revenues is a realistic goal for 2002 ForSight might add an employee or two, but major expansion is not in the cards.
“I’m not interested in becoming a $50 million a year sign company,” Jobson said. “We want to grow, but we’re more interested in doing stuff that’s exciting.”
Going Hollywood
The Grauman’s Chinese project (which also included lighting and displays for the Mann Chinese 6, the new multiplex adjacent to the original theater) was the big break that almost didn’t happen.
Although it was one of two finalists, developer TrizecHahn didn’t hide the fact that it was leaning toward a larger company, Ad Art Electric Signs of Stockton. But ForSight kept pushing, and architect Andrew Althaus of Behr Browers Architects, the Westlake Village company that designed the Mann project, said the smaller company demonstrated it wanted the project more.
“We looked at the stuff they had done and they had the creativity, but we also liked the eagerness they showed,” said Althaus, who felt that a larger firm might not provide as much individual attention.
At more than $1 million, it was the most lucrative deal to date for ForSight. The original 35-foot art deco neon blade signs that graced the Chinese Theatre when it was built in 1928 were taken down in the 1950s and replaced with a dragon-themed marquis.
The company worked with Mann, the architects and the city of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, which had approval power because the Chinese Theatre is a National Historic Monument.
“It was worth going out on a limb to give these guys a shot. They turned out to be a great choice for the job,” said Jeff Hicks, Mann’s director of construction. “Ron and I sat across the table from each other with some very difficult questions, both financially and physically. And together we came up with some good solutions.”
LM Jobson credits the company’s success in part to persistence.
“We really pride ourselves on our attention to detail,” LM Jobson said. “We have a saying, ‘if we don’t get the project the first time, we’ll get it the second time around.’ People hire us after they’ve run into problems with other companies.”
Signing on
As an advertising student at Cal State Fullerton, Jobson, who grew up in Saratoga in the Bay Area, took a job with C & C; Signs of Garden Grove.
“I quickly discovered that I liked to design the signage and the graphics, and also that I liked to sell the products and services,” he said.
Jobson soon started his own company, Corporate Sign Systems, which evolved into ForSight after Jobson met LM, who had been director of worldwide business developments for Iwerks Entertainment. The Jobsons now own a small stake in C & C; and use it as a manufacturing facility, cutting down on overhead for ForSight.
Among its upcoming projects is a contract with the city of Azusa (the result of winning a design competition) to build signs at four entrances to the San Gabriel Valley town. Replaceable panels on four sides will represent the history and culture of Azusa and mechanical suns will rise and set over mountains on top of the signs.
“There are companies out there that design environmental signs, but they aren’t fabricators and they aren’t installers like we are,” Jobson said. “A sign is your identity. It’s your 365-day-a-year advertiser and it represents the heart and soul of your company.”
PROFILE:
ForSight Creations
Year Founded: 1999
Core Business: Concept, design, production and project management for signs, logos and environmental art.
Revenues 1999: $500,000
Revenues 2001: $1.6 million
Employees in 1999: 3
Employees in 2001: 6
Goal: To grow to $2 million in revenues this year.
Driving Force: Finding creative projects that employees can be passionate about.
