Carolina Signworks celebrates 30 years in business
Dec. 12—ROCKINGHAM — Whether you're replacing your air filter with Supreme Filter Service, Inc., grabbing a burger from Burger Bros, buying a home through Platinum Plus Realty or stopping by Kountry Kitchen in Rockingham, they all have one thing in common — their logo came from the same artist.
Carolina Signworks has served thousands of clients in creating logos, signs, banners and graphics for various business organizations, primarily in Richmond County and the surrounding areas. They recently celebrated 30 years in business at their location at 704 South Hancock Street in Rockingham.
Operated by the husband and wife team of Dean 'Dino' and Christine Lawrence, they moved to North Carolina from Connecticut in 1993. Dino had worked as a part-time designer since he was in high school in the mid '60s, in addition to previous jobs as an announcer at a drag racing strip and an advertising manager for a chain of rock clubs about 70 miles north of Manhattan. When they moved to North Carolina, Dino already had about 14 of experience operating Dean's Artworks Signs & Graphics in Danbury, CT.
"When you have a logo, it's your business branding, it's your signature," Dino said. "It shouldn't look like everyone else thrown together with point and click. It should be a one of a kind image and the personality of the graphics should match the personality of the product of service. It's about first impressions."
Dino custom hand-designs all of the lettering and fonts for his clients. It not simply copy and paste, but built by a hand from a designer with over 50 years of experience. They don't use clip art or logo templates, but design from scratch using black and white vector imaging, not in a digital bitmap format.
"That's the whole problem nowadays," Dino said, noting their former logo 'Changing the business community one sign at a time'. "Everything looks the same now."
Dino formerly served on Rockingham's Community Appearance Commission. A Richmond County Daily Journal article from 1996 noted that some of Dino's clients included Swink Quality Oil Co., Richmond county Chamber of Commerce, Richmond Tourist Authority, City of Hamlet, Progressive Insurers, Magnolia's Kitchen and Champion Ford Lincoln Mercury.
"Half this stuff you can't make with a computer program. You just can't," Lawrence said, pointing to a wall with hundreds of his logos on display. "And that's the whole idea." Dino has the option to choose from over 7,000 fonts, but tailors each of his logos to the needs and desires of each specific client.
A large portion of Dino's business used to be hot-rod designs and lettering, although that has declined over the years. Dino's work has been showcased in publications including Sign Craft Magazine, Sign Business Magazine with two covers, Auto Art Magazine and seven 1st, 2nd & 3rd place awards In Sign Business Magazine's annual Auto Art Contest
Dino is quick to point out that it's a family business, and his wife Chris is her own unique artist with sign-making experience. Dino shared that Chris is an award-winning pencil portrait artist and her portrait of the Who bass player John Entwistle hung in the musician's England home.
Looking over some of his most-recognizable designs, Dino shares a confidence that comes through in all of his work — "I built that."
"Through 30 years, we've generated some wonderful business friendships of people that always come back to me and we just thank everyone for their trust and confidence with us," Dino said.
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