SGIA Kicks Off

The Specialty Graphics Imaging Assn.’s (SGIA) annual Expo tradeshow began today at Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center. The show floor, which is open 9:30-5:00 today and Thursday, and 9:30-4:30 Friday, will feature more than 500 purveyors of inkjet printers, consumables, finishing equipment and other print-shop essentials. The SGIA Expo floor will feature three educational zones: the Digital Textile Printing Zone will be likely most applicable to the majority of signmakers. It will include such topics as Dye Sublimation: Direct Print vs. Transfer, Fabric Graphics for POP, Retail and Display and Textile Cutting: Paths to Success. The SGIA Sustainability Zone and the Garment Zone are the other topic- or application-specific areas. Other educational sessions taking place outside the show floor will cover such tracks as Graphics & Design, Garment Decoration, Business Management, Graphics Installation and Color Management and Workflow.
The more successful our industry’s tradeshows are, the more successful our industry becomes. The associations that sponsor these tradeshows advocate for regulations amenable to our industry, and help educate providers on emerging market trends. Hopefully, you’re reading this on your tablet or smartphone on the SGIA floor; if not, please make an effort to attend next September’s show in Las Vegas.
And now, on to the occasionally confounding world of sign-code news:
• Naples, ME Code Enforcement Officer Renee Carter has ruled that a sign and its support structure can stay, according to www.bridgton.com.The 16-ft.-tall sign, encased within a wood-frame support structure, identifies The Naples Barn, an antique store, that had initially received a violation notice in September because the entire structure exceeded permitted signage square footage. The shop’s owner, Dan Lajoie, countered that several member of the City Council committee that wrote the sign ordinance had commended The Napes Barn sign as a “model” sign. On October 9, an attorney acting on Lajoie’s behalf appealed the violation, and it was ultimately lifted.
• Liberty Lake, WA’s City Council has voted to easy sign restrictions along the City’s corridor and I-90, according to the Liberty Lake Splash. Following up on a proposal initially issued in August, the Council agreed to dissolve a code-overlay area around the Harvard Rd.-Liberty Lake Rd. intersection, and increase the sign-height limit to 30 ft. The Council also agreed to allow electronic message centers to be installed within 250 ft. of the freeway, though the city retains the authority to regulate brightness and dwell time.
• Cocoa Beach, FL business owners are being compelled to make their signs compliant with a 12-year-old, sign-ordinance revision that’s only begun to be enforced, according to FloridaToday.com. The regulations require signs adjacent to the street to measure no more than 94 sq. ft., and stand no more than 15 ft. tall. Also, the ordinance stipulates that signs stand at least 25 ft. from the property line, unless such placement will impede traffic. The regulations were approved by Cocoa Beach’s City Council in 2003, but it suspended them to prevent economic hardship. Businesses with their signs closest to the street were required to comply by May; those further away have until May 2018. Also, the ordinance grandfathers signs less than 20 years old.