International Sign and Printmakers Guild formed

"Forming the International Sign and Printmakers Guild is all about expanding the universe of sign and wide-format business", said Mark Blundell, CEO and chairman of SAi. "Many of our customers are sign and print providers who continue to face the challenge of bringing in business and maintaining healthy profits in this difficult business environment. Due to generous industry sponsorships, the Guild can directly reduce members' operating expenses. More importantly, SAi and the Guild will solicit and provide new customers to Guild members."

SAi intends to spend US$3m on advertising over the next few years to attract customers from the public at large who have sign and print needs. These customers will then be referred directly to Guild members who will be charged a modest fee for referrals.

SAi is dedicating www.sign.com as a central place for the public to design and buy custom signs, banners, posters and similar products. All jobs ordered through sign.com will be offered to Guild members to produce and deliver to a local customer.

Membership in the Guild gives sign and print providers the possibility of creating a Web storefront for their own business using sign.com templates and content. By having their own microsite, branded to their individual businesses, members can leverage the sign.com name and content to market their services directly to prospective customers.

Guild members will also be able to take advantage of a free job approval system, which works in conjunction with the Cloud version of SAi Flexi or SAi software. Guild members will be able to direct customers to a private, dedicated website where they can review, revise and approve artwork, with an audit trail of the process logged for each job.

Thanks to industry sponsorship, membership in the Guild is currently free and open to any sign or wide-format print business.

http://signprintguild.org/