Signal won in the following categories:

Gold Award in Out-of-Home Campaign for our redesign of the Durham Bulls Ballpark stadium signage

Silver Award in E-Mails/E-Cards for Performance Circle e-blast

Bronze Award in Site, Interior Static for Performance Circle environmental banners/signage

The ADDY Awards Competition is the advertising industry’s largest and most representative competition for creative excellence. Signal is honored to have our work selected among all the outstanding local creative talent on display in this year’s awards.

SPARKcon is a showcase of creativity, talent and ideas in the Triangle area, encompassing the creative fields of art, music, dance, film, fashion and more. The event has grown larger and more prestigious in each consecutive year since being independently founded in 2006. SPARKcon is now a program of Visual Art Exchange, a Raleigh non-profit whose mission is to support emerging artists and connect the community to the arts.

Signal has earned SPARKcon inclusion for our redesign of the stadium signage at the famous Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The project included upgrades to all permanent signs for seating sections, party decks and concessions. We also created new gate entry and archway signs, window banners, suite murals, and a series of hanging championship banners.

The winning pieces will be presented to the public at the Raleigh City Museum on the September 3 opening, and then exhibited for the duration of SPARKcon on the weekend of September 17-19. All friends of Signal are invited to attend the festivities at the Museum and throughout the public spaces of Raleigh’s Fayetteville Street to enjoy the celebration of local creative excellence.

Our thanks to the designSPARK organizing committee for making Signal an official part of it!

We're Branching Out!

Signal is pleased to announce the grand opening of our third studio in Nashville, Tennessee. We’re excited about the opportunity to bring our Creative Power to a whole new market in Music City USA.

Our Nashville operations will be led by Signal’s interactive director Adam Howard and account executive Ann Howard. Family connections and a yearning for new challenges got Adam and Ann interested in making the move from Wilmington to Nashville. After careful consideration and research, Signal came to the decision that the Nashville area would be a ideal place for us to do business.

“Nashville is a great market for Signal and we want to be a part of it,” says Signal president Rick Haynes. He expects the new venture to follow the successful example of Signal’s 1996 expansion into Wilmington, which was similarly pioneered by the husband and wife team John and Kristin Gibson.

Signal is finding that Nashville has a great entrepreneurial spirit.  Mere days after the move, Ann and Adam attended the Southeastern Regional SMPS (Society for Marketing Professional Services) conference, where they heard Economic Developer Janet Miller speak about the Music City Brand. As a city known for music, Nashville has created a creative, entrepreneurial environment that goes beyond the music industry and success stories abound.

Ann and Adam are working hard and finding that “America’s Friendliest City” is a great place to be in business. The new studio is located in the historic Stahlman Building in the heart of downtown Nashville. Got any advice for Ann and Adam? They’d love to hear from you!

The conference is March 24-26 at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Nashville.  The conference will bring together marketing professionals from service businesses in the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.  There will be many opportunities to learn the latest techniques in service marketing, including branding, social media marketing, and winning the pitch.

Signal will also be attending the conference.  We’re excited to be attending sessions, manning our booth, and giving out fabulous door prizes.

Come on down!

The Full Belly Project is a non-profit organization whose mission is to design and distribute income-generating agricultural devices to improve life in developing countries. Feast AGAINST Famine is a globally inspired evening of exotic cuisine, live music and auctions to benefit The Full Belly Project’s charitable efforts.

Signal donated our design services to create a set of promotional materials for the event, including a flyer, poster, tickets, program and email design. Among the local artists donating their work to be auctioned is Kristin Gibson, wife of Signal partner John Gibson.

To learn more, please visit The Full Belly Project.

Feast AGAINST Famine
Coastline Convention Center
501 Nutt Street, Wilmington, NC
Saturday, February 20, 2010
6 p.m. – 10 p.m.

We are pleased to announce that Ann Howard has joined Signal as an account executive at our Wilmington office. Although she’s our newest hire, Ann is a familiar longtime member of the Signal family as the wife of Interactive Director Adam Howard. So she already knows what we’re all about, and we already know what a huge contribution her talents will bring to the company.

“We are very excited to have Ann join our Signal team,” says Signal President Rick Haynes. “With Ann’s unique abilities and expertise we are confident that she will add tremendous value helping clients grow their business while helping us grow ours as well.”

Ann earned a BA in Journalism from Salem College and an MBA at UNCW’s Cameron School of Business. She previously served as a business counselor at the Small Business and Technology Development Center at UNCW’s Cameron School of Business. She also has experience as a marketing and public relations manager, and in business valuation and technology transfer.

Ann’s duties include working closely with clients to reach their revenue goals using Signal’s creative and technological strength. She will also play a key role in the company’s future expansion to new markets.

“I have always admired Signal’s rare balance of strong design, technical chops, and strategic expertise,” Ann says. “I look forward to working with clients to use these strengths to create growth and profit in the ‘new’ economy.”

We are pleased to welcome Robin Vuchnich back to Signal as creative director in our Raleigh office. Having previously served as a graphic designer from 2001 to 2005, Robin rejoins our team in her new role and has already delivered immediate results with her fresh thinking and creative inspiration.

“I am very excited about Robin’s return to Signal,” says Signal President Rick Haynes. “We are so fortunate to add such a talented and accomplished artist to our team. We couldn’t be happier to have her lead our creative efforts in Raleigh and our clients are already taking notice of her efforts.

Robin graduated from East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., with a BFA in Communication Arts/Graphic Design. In addition to her prior experience with Signal, she served as a senior designer at Raleigh-based Capstrat as well as principal of her own design firm. Robin’s creativity has earned her more than a dozen design awards from juried competitions including the ADDYs, the Webbys, AIGA and PRINT Magazine. Her recent work includes branding for the new Raleigh Convention Center and the Raleigh Arts Commission as well as leading creative development for The NC Health & Wellness Trust Fund’s “T.R.U.” (Tobacco Reality Unfiltered) campaigns. Other notable clients include GlaxoSmithKline, Blue Cross Blue Shield, UNC, Duke University, Quintiles and Duke Raleigh Hospital.

Robin’s duties as creative director include working closely with the creative staff to inspire and help maintain the highest quality standards. She also communicates closely with clients to make certain their project objectives and production schedules are met.

“One of the biggest things that brought me back to Signal was the integrity of the company, specifically the close-knit business family,” Robin says. “My first job out of college was as a designer for Signal. Although I thoroughly enjoyed my work with other companies it didn’t compare to the feeling I had at Signal. I am proud to see my career come full circle as I continue on with my Signal family.”

Rick Haynes, President

“From baseball cards to Internet sites…” Signal was recently featured in Triangle Business Journal. From our beginnings designing trading cards and sports collectibles, to our current  interactive design and web marketing work, the article discusses the evolution and diversification of the agency over the past 17 years. Take a gander!

The Signal Gang

Starting as a traditional graphic design company, Signal designed its first web site in 1994 for the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau. Over the past 17 years, the agency has evolved to approximately 30 full-time professionals and launched a variety of new service offerings to keep pace with the changing needs of its clients. This includes the rollout of video and multimedia capabilities in 2001, email marketing in 2003, and marketing/brand strategy and a variety of web marketing services (including search engine optimization) in 2004.

“We are proud that our business family has reached this agency milestone. Our diversification of services was essential in enabling Signal to continually grow and evolve into a full-service creative agency that provides clients with integrated design, marketing and technology solutions,” said Rick Haynes, president of Signal.

One key differentiator for Signal is its technology team, which has grown to encompass both traditional web developers and application developers. The technology team is responsible for creating custom web applications for clients. Much of their work focuses on integrating databases with web sites, complex tracking and analytics for marketing campaigns, building intranets/extranets, working with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, surveying tools and mobile applications.

Signal has worked with a broad range of clients and brands throughout the years. The agency got its start designing trading cards and a variety of sports entertainment products for Marvel Comics (“X-Men”), DC Comics, NFL, NBA, Disney (“Toy Story”) and James Bond 007. Signal’s current client roster is diverse and includes industry leaders such as John Deere, GlaxoSmithKline, Bald Head Island, Alma Lasers, Medical Mutual Insurance Group, North Carolina Medical Society, ExperienceOne Homes, Highwoods Properties, Quintiles, McKim & Creed and Syngenta, in association with Gibbs & Soell.

“Signal has been working with many of its core clients for over a decade. A lot has changed during that time. As new technologies and the Internet transform the way our clients connect with their audience, we will continue to evolve to help deliver their message and reach their business goals,” stated Bryan Kristof, Signal’s director of marketing.

“Signal isn’t just another vendor to us, they are a direct extension of our marketing team. They put serious time and effort into getting to know us and our target audience. Year after year, they consistently produce quality creative solutions and fresh thinking for both our print and web efforts. No other creative firm has delivered results in the way that Signal has,” commented Shawn Scott, associate deputy executive vice president for the North Carolina Medical Society.