It’s hard to believe but next month I will have been making signs professionally for forty-one years!I started out painting seasonal window plashes when I was in high school and made the lofty sum of $700 the first year I tried it... after school and in only a couple of weeks. Not too shabby for as pimply-faced kid who had to hitch hike into town because I was far too young to drive. I sure liked the work a LOT better than mowing lawns or shoveling driveways!

The seasonal splashes made way for graphic design and a career in fine art for the better part of a decade, then on to painting larger than life historical murals - all over North America. Signs were always part of the mix. Themed building design and construction which came next changed the way I thought about signs in the next phase of my career and our projects suddenly got a lot larger too!

This led to theme park design and construction. I enjoyed this the most of all! We formed our current company Sawatzky’s Imagination Corporation in 1992 and were off to some pretty exciting projects in the next decade!

In 2003 we built our dream shop in the tiny town of Yarrow, British Columbia. The shop is equipped with a myriad of wonderful tools. Everything is finally organized with a place of its own. Most of the construction is now done in our shop allowing us to minimize our time on the road.

The studio and shop walls are full of panels, projects, souvenirs, memories, and awards which we have gathered through the years. Everything has a story to tell. It has been one exciting ride! Mostly it has been about great people. I look forward to some great times ahead!

-grampa dan