signshop.com April 2016 // SignBuilderIllustrated 69

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When the brilliant Chicago Star rose into the air, and the fireworks began to welcome in 2016, sign

maker Eric Lazar could finally relax.“It was a big relief,” admits the owner

of a SpeedPro Imaging franchise in the Windy City.

Only two months earlier, Lazar had been awarded the contract to produce all the signage supporting the inaugural Chi-town Rising.

Planned as the Second City’s very pub-lic New Year’s Eve party, the Chi-town Rising event took over Chicago’s river-front between Michigan Avenue and Co-lumbus Drive with a full schedule of cel-ebratory performances and activities. The illuminated midnight star was literally the star of the show.

The contract charged Lazar with helping to brand the entire new event—from its main stage to scissor lifts, the hospitality area, and even the streets.

“We did everything from wraps, directional signage, menu boards, and stage banners to putting vinyl on tents,” he says, noting they produced and installed more than 7,000 square feet of printed graphics.

AMarine…forLifeGiven the high profile of Chi-Town Rising, this would be an ambitious un-dertaking for any sign shop.

But Lazar only entered the large fo-

Chicago’s Shining Star

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Chicago sign shop starts year with celebratory success.

Chi-town Rising’s illuminated midnight star was quite literally the star

of the show.

70 SignBuilderIllustrated // April 2016 signshop.com

mat graphics business last summer with an investment in a SpeedPro Imaging (speedpro.com) franchise. Based in Cen-tennial, Colorado, the company’s fran-chisees run local studios specializing in large format print solutions—including wall murals, event and window graphics,

tradeshow displays, and vehicle wraps.A former Marine, Lazar credits his

commitment to the Marine for Life program (marineforlife.org) as giving him the entrée which led to this project.

Marine for Life’s mission is to help Marines transition and prosper in pri-

vate life after service. The executive producer of Chi-Town Rising, John Murray, is also an ex-Marine and supporter of that cause. A mutual ac-quaintance and another ex-Marine in-troduced the two.

Lazar and Murray discussed the up-coming event and its need for graphics.After that meeting, Lazar worked up and submitted his bid, which was approved.

This was all standard procedures, but when Lazar took on the project, his SpeedPro Imaging storefront didn’t have any in-house print capability. His business at the time was basically the name, an address, and three employees (including himself).

Delivering all that signage to meet the December 28 deadline required a lot of outside help, and Lazar is quick to spread the credit for his success around.

“My background is in marketing and advertising,” he begins. “When I looked around to find a business aligned with my experience, the SpeedPro Imaging concept really resonated with me.”

After he bought into the program, he attended the company’s national con-

All graphic installations produced by SpeedPro Imaging for this event were handled by the event’s own crews.

signshop.com April 2016 // SignBuilderIllustrated 71

vention last summer. There he asked company officials to introduce him to the owners of the ten most successful SpeedPro Imaging locations.

LearningfromtheExpertsLazar asked each if they would be will-ing to host him for a few days so he could see their businesses in operation and learn from their experiences, and they agreed.

“All during June and July, I was flying around the country, spend-ing about a week with each, at my expense,” he says. “They taught me about the technology, how they did things, and their pricing philosophy.

“What they shared with me and the relationships we established allowed me to start building my business in Chicago and take on this project.”

The relationships he had established with these mentors gave him a net-work of wholesale providers within the SpeedPro Imaging group. He tapped all their capabilities to offer a diverse range of printed products as he estab-lished his business, based on what they

could produce.His experience working with them in

those early months gave him confidence he could deliver the Chi-Town Rising project—despite the deadline and lack of large format printers. Fortunately, he says, he had also made “the right hire at

the right time” when he added a client account manager to his staff just before he met with Murray.

“Once we understood the size of this project, we had to determine who had the capabilities and availability within the system to produce the different

Main stage headers helped brand the

new event.

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signs we needed, on time,” Lazar says. “We worked with three SpeedPro stu-dios on this project for the printing of coroplast and banners, including grand format and vinyl.”

AWellManagedProjectAdvance planning and project man-agement were critical because final art wouldn’t be delivered to his designer until the first week of December, barely three weeks from delivery date.

Seventy percent of the art was in hand by that initial deadline, but the project remained in flux through the Christmas holiday as some graphics were revised and more signs added.

“This was our project, but we had to work closely with each of the studios to make sure we could have the work back in time to meet our deadline,” says Lazar.

Lazar and his staff had some anxious days and long nights, but everything was delivered as promised, by the 28th. All installations were handled by the event’s own crews.

The remote possibility that some sign might be damaged or need to be replaced had Lazar on edge right up until the stroke of midnight, when the bright Chicago Star climbed into the night and lit up the sky.

Then, he could finally relax, proud of his small company’s contribution to such a big, successful event. “It was a great way to end the old year and start the New Year,” says Lazar. “It’s certainly the biggest project we’ve taken on to date, and an opportunity to show all we’re capable of, in a very visible way.”

The relationships Lazar

established with other

shops gave him a net-

work of wholesale pro-

viders within the Speed-

Pro Imaging group.