Signs of success in Lincoln: Creativity helps bring customers through the doors

For the South Alabama game last season, "someone did 356-9 or something like that," manager Jeff Melichar said.

That's why when thinking of the Super Bowl, Melichar put up the team names — but not the score — until closer to the game: Chiefs 31, 49ers 24.

Melichar thinks it's good for business to have the sign. "It makes it a conversation piece."

Those in the industry agree that signs can bring customers through the door.

"It can be a make-and-break for some of them," Sign Solutions owner Ian Moreland said. Businesses need "an edge," and signage pays for itself over and over, he added.

Archrival managing director Clint! Runge said signs set the "personality, the essence, the spirit" of a business. 

"A really good sign needs to gravitate toward the audience you want," Runge said, saying "here's who we are."

Marketing communications firm Firespring has signs that show the company's vibe. A sign out front tells people to go right for client parking and deliveries, around for the "endless loop" (roundabout) and down to go "straight to hell (route not recommended)."

"The culture is definitely a work-hard, play-hard kind of thing," print design director Brophy Ringdahl said. The firm's exterior and interior signage provides examples for clients of what the firm can do.

"You're going to remember it" when you see a creative sign, he said.

The lead signage specialist at Firespring, Amanda Russell, loves the sign in her room at the company of the Kool-Aid man breaking through a brick wall. She also cited two staircase signs as favorites: a quote at the HobbyTown headquarters in Lincoln, "If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction you could dominate any industry in any market against any competition at any time," and one at Nebraska Innovation Campus from Martin Luther King Jr., "You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." 

Runge's firm specializes in advertising targeting the youth market and did seasonal street signs for the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce in the early 2010s — “I like that boom, boom, pow!” and more — to create buzz about the city as part of a rebranding campaign.

The firm also did signage during the 2015 construction season telling drivers in work zones that it's time for a "slow ride" and to "take it easy."

Runge thinks Lincoln has room to up its game on signs. He and his crew said the signs from the old Knolls Country Club, Arnold's Tavern in Havelock and Marz Bar are great examples, some of which become iconic and are referred to in other places.

"Some signs have the ability to rise above the noise." 

Noticeable signs aren't always what's outside a building. Some are in motion, such as one that Sign Solutions did for Anderson Auto on a truck that shows a road going through the company's logo.

"We use dimension and color to make it stand out," Moreland said. 

Firespring's Russell, who has been bringing signs to life for 14 years, agreed that having a cool vehicle wrap "really draws attention. You can't go wrong with that kind of exposure."

Her colleague, Ringdahl, said his favorite sign is one made for History Nebraska with a cutout of the chimney in Chimney Rock, making for a striking sign. Most of the signs are a group effort with people sometimes tossing out crazy ideas, "budget be damned," before the final product emerges.

Melichar and his crew at the service station at Ninth and P also make its sign a group effort, tossing around scores and what the spread will be before putting up their prediction. With Husker games, "I will never predict a loss," he said. 

Owner Bruce Melichar said the service station has been putting up predictions since it opened 50 years ago. "We started picking a score, and people loved it," he said. His favorite was probably the "Duck soup" sign they did about the Oregon game a few years back. They like to "tease the opponents a little bit … that gets the most reaction."

Jeff Melichar added that sometimes they "get razzed by opposing fans, but everyone's pretty good-natured about it."

They don't always do score predictions. One time, he went down to the station late at night so his dad would see a new sign first thing the next morning, "Melichar baby due this April."

The one thing they don't do: politics.

Photos: Eye-catching signs in Lincoln