ID Signsystems shapes Rochester’s visual landscape

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Their work can be found all across Rochester, from the top of some of the tallest buildings to the interior and exterior of landmark facilities.

That giant illuminated Five Star Bank sign on atop the four sides of Five Star Bank Plaza in the heart of downtown? ID Signsystems designed and made it.

The digital messaging sign outside the Rochester Museum and Science Center? That was an ID Signsystems creation.

The sign that welcomes visitors to the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport? Yep, the Rochester-based company did that work as well.

From what’s-ahead signage on biking and hiking trails to wayfinding on area hospital and college campuses, for 20 years ID Signsystems has been enhancing images for companies and institutions while ensuring people get where they need to go.

But it’s not just done with logos and arrows on an acrylic background or with LED lights. Wayfinding architecture is much more.

“It’s how you move around space,” said Paul Dudley, who is president of the company. His wife, Katrina Beatty, is the CEO. “And with that there’s all the design aspects around it. We’re integrating a company’s brand. But we’re also trying to make the space usage as sufficient as possible.

“If someone is walking through a hospital, they’re stressed out, they’re worried, it’s a strange environment, so getting from the main entrance to, say, X-ray, has to be handled in a really sensitive and direct manner. We try to develop systems that get people, in a whole variety of emotional states, from A to B as effectively as possible. When people arrive, it should be a natural experience.”

Beatty and Dudley founded ID Signsystems in 2005. It had been their plan all along to launch their own architectural signage company. They just moved into the marketplace a little sooner when the firm Dudley was working for, Total Identity Group, went out of business.

With its corporate offices and manufacturing facility just off Atlantic Avenue, ID Signsystems specializes in signage for university and high school campuses, hospitals, municipal clients and some retail businesses.

There are about 27,000 sign companies in the United States, Dudley said. “Only about 500 specialize in our market sector, and we’re one of the few in the Northeast that focus on this kind of work,” he said.

The company essentially makes first impressions, since the sign on the side of the building or at the entryway is usually the first thing visitors or potential customers see.

Thus, that sign needs to be special, Beatty said.

“It is the first representation of your company, and it catalyzes everything about your company into a sculptural element,” she said. “A lot of companies don’t want to be represented by something that it looks like it came off of Amazon out of a catalogue.”

When they began, retail clients accounted for better than half of the annual revenue, and the business grew quickly. In their first 10 years in business, ID Signsystems earned a spot on the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce Top 100 fastest-growing companies list five times.

Growth continues to be steady, and the company does work for national clients such as Cadillac, but a greater percentage of revenue comes from institutional and municipal clients.

“Every hospital in the world, every college campus in the world has a specially developed sign system,” Dudley said.

For a university, wayfinding signage must make a trip across campus painless.

“But they’re very focused on their brand and their image as well,” Dudley said. “They way that they are seen, the signage plays a integral role in the whole ambiance of the campus.”

As a result, schools are much more environment-focused and experienced-focused, he said.

“And Instagram-focused,” Beatty said. “Since everyone is taking photos and sending them all around, they want everything to look great. Everything has become more visual in that sense.”

Signage is designed and manufactured at the company’s 36,000-square-foot facility. Of the 19 employees, several have been with the company more than 10 years, Beatty said.

“They really are the backbone of our business,” Beatty said. “We could not do the level of complexity that we are able to do without them.”

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