How this sign company became a storytelling company

Inside one of the many industrial buildings off Fort Smallwood Road in Curtis Bay, the lights are definitely on.
In one corner of the room, giant screens play ESPN. One screen is being generated by a projection system that doesn’t require turning down the lights, which has made it just as valuable to colleges as sports bars. Underneath, the floor lights up with multi-colored, flashing lights. It’s been used to display cars, and provide a dance floor.
In another corner, a cylindrical tower flashes different colors and patterns.
“You can build it as high as your imagination and wallet can dream,” says GableSigns Chief Operating Officer Matt Gable.

In the GableVision showroom, the company wants the possibilities for digital signs to come into full focus. The technology has changed rapidly, and now the leaders of the 35-year-old company think the future is as bright and rapidly moving as the signs.
Recently, the company has worked on an LED display at the Tampa International Airport, and displays for Verizon on the Miracle Mile in Chicago. They were also behind a package of digital video displays at Horseshoe Casino in Cincinnati. The centerpiece is a rotating, animated horseshoe at the top of a 60-foot sign that features 400,000 LED lights. Closer to home, the company is also working on a project at M&T Bank Stadium. They also put up a digital cross at Church on the Rock in Millersville.

After years of making static signs, it took an internal decision — and the hiring of VP of Products Stephen Gottlich — to embrace innovation.
More than five years ago, an internal team called Innov8 was charged with coming up with new ideas. The digital team’s first product was the app SignGuru, an encyclopedia-style resource that sign-industry players could use as a reference point.
The app was successful, but around the time it was released the industry itself was also changing. But around 2010, the team located a provider in China who was making digital signs with a higher resolution than anything available in America to that point, and, equally important, the cost to make such displays was going down.
It was at this point that the Gable team realized that the shift to digital represented a shift in how to convey a company’s message, said Gottlich.
“When you can tell stories, it changes everything,” Gottlich said. “It changes us from a static sign company to something where we’re dynamic, and where we can influence people from the stories we tell.”
They also see the power of connecting what’s on the display with social media as a chance to expand the storytelling to smartphones and other devices, he said.
“We have a place where we have a captive audience,” Gottlich said. “As long as what we put on there is interesting, they have no choice but to look at our media, whereas with most other media they have a choice.”

GableVision isn’t just in the technology of the signs. The company also offers expertise in marketing and design to develop content, and manufactures stands and surrounds that accompany the displays. Once the signs are up, the company also has a command center that runs operations for the signs for clients. “We’re getting emails where our we know before our client if something goes wrong,” Gable said. Some clients have their own agencies to run these areas, and the company works with a variety of partners to source materials.
Gable said digital is the fastest growing area of the business.
“Five out of every ten calls want digital,” Gable said.
Beyond signs and displays, the company also makes kiosks, smart boards and other interactive tools. It’s also working on a system to make finding your car easier in parking garages.
“Everything we touch and see can change to digital,” Gottlich said.

Internally, the rapid change continues to affect the company. The company opened its showroom about a year-and-a-half ago, and is building out a new showroom that’s designed to show off the company’s lights. Over the next couple of months, they’re also changing their name. GableVision will likely retain its name, but to reflect the visual communications company it has become, “signs” will be dropped from the parent company’s name.
In the sign industry, Gottlich said, “nonstop innovation” is the norm.