Sign Industry Careers (With Average Pay and Job Responsibilities)

In many organizations, signage is crucial since it serves to communicate important information to audiences. Professionals in the sign industry careers design and create high-quality signs by combining technology, creativity, and precision. An occupation in the sign and graphics sector can be ideal for you if you have design and communication skills. In this post, we’ll cover 12 occupations in the sign industry and provide the national average pay for each to help you with your job hunt.

12 sign industry careers

These are 12 sign industry careers that can be a good fit for you:

1. A production designer

Nationwide average yearly salary: $34,832

Primary responsibilities: A production designer with a sign industry career oversees the art department on a set for a motion picture, television program, or stage performance. They also prepare locations, props, and sets for every episode’s scenario while supervising the shooting crew. They work along with the authors, producers, and directors to define and uphold the production’s general visual aesthetic to the period, location, character arcs, and other elements. They are occasionally in charge of creating and constructing graphics and signs that will be added to the set or used to promote the show.

2. Industrial painter

Nationwide average yearly salary: $43,111

Primary responsibilities: An industrial painter with a sign industry career is in charge of cleaning, painting, and covering a variety of industrial surfaces. They utilize paint to provide structures, homes, cars, signs, and gear color and protection. The best paints to use on various materials, including wood, plastic, and metal, are known to these professionals. They use specialized equipment, including sprays, rollers, and brushes, to apply paint properly, and they follow to best standards to guarantee safety when working with dangerous chemicals.

3. Event planner

Nationwide average yearly salary: $41,768

Primary responsibilities: An event planner with a sign industry career organizes the resources, services, and products required to host an event. Large events including weddings, birthday and anniversary celebrations, family reunions, galas, and award ceremonies are frequently planned by those in this position. Also, they could plan the details for business events including conferences, seminars, conferences, product releases, and course schedules. The main responsibilities of event planners often include location selection, contract negotiations, research and employment of caterers, entertainment arrangements, and guest invitations.

4. A graphic artist

Nationwide average yearly salary: $52,110

Primary responsibilities: A graphic designer with a sign industry career creates unique visual artwork for organizations and customers. They frequently develop logos, infographics, and other marketing materials for marketing agencies’ clients. It is the responsibility of graphic designers to create images, words, and signs that tell compelling tales and draw clients to a firm.

5. Artist

Nationwide average yearly salary: $62,386

Primary responsibilities: An artist with a sign industry career utilizes paint or other supplies to create art for customers. They use design components and concepts to create captivating, aesthetically pleasing compositions and tell tales via their work. Someone in this position might design murals and signage for public spaces owned by cities and governmental bodies. These murals may serve as memorials, depictions of the community, or public remarks about other significant matters.

6. Fabricator

Nationwide average yearly salary: $60,231

Primary responsibilities: Fabricators with a sign industry career cut and put together metal sheets to create metal structures. These experts create computer-generated designs and construct parts and structures by exacting requirements using industrial machinery, tools, and technologies. Fabricators are in charge of making signage like billboards and traffic signs. When employing large equipment and supplies, they adhere to strict safety regulations.

7. Auto mechanic

Nationwide average yearly salary: $64,803

Primary responsibilities: An automotive body technician with a sign industry career fixes, maintains, and enhances the outside of automobiles, trucks, and other vehicles. They frequently do cosmetic modifications, obtain parts from factories, and check automobiles for damage. Auto body specialists may create and apply text, logos, and other marketing graphics to the exterior of vans, buses, and other commercial vehicles. Additionally, they may cater to specific customers by wrapping and adding personalized graphics on the outside of cars.

8. Office Assistant

Nationwide average yearly salary: $60,499

Primary responsibilities: In a professional office setting, an office assistant with a sign industry career carries out a range of administrative and clerical functions. They frequently man the front information desks, collect messages, and respond to calls. Together with creating and hanging posters around the business, they might also clean up workstations and refill office supplies.

9. Marketing Director

Nationwide average yearly salary: $77,896

Primary responsibilities: A marketing director with a sign industry career oversees a business’s marketing department and division. They coordinate all initiatives to market a company’s goods and services, draw clients, and bring in money for the enterprise. Directors of marketing are responsible for managing a variety of initiatives, supervising marketing and sales staff, and developing and implementing campaigns. Making and distributing signage like billboards, pamphlets, and bus station advertisements may be a component of their efforts.

10. Merchandiser

Nationwide average yearly salary: $68,654

Primary responsibilities: A merchandiser with a sign industry career is responsible for managing the store’s whole inventory. They logically arrange shelves and display merchandise to improve shopper convenience, draw customers, and increase sales. This person is in charge of designing fresh, seasonal images of products to advertise particular products. To mark off spaces, advertise bargains and discounts, and provide other information, they also post signage throughout the store.

11. Metal Fabricator

Nationwide average yearly salary: $38,047

Primary responsibilities: Metals fabricators with a sign industry career utilize and come into contact with metal tools, machines, and structures every day. You’ve probably never considered how all of these things are manufactured or who is involved in their creation. The truth is that metal fabrication, a process that starts with raw materials, is how these machines and buildings are created. And those who assist in building them are metal fabricators. These fabricators prepare, create, and weld diverse metal parts and structures using patterns and drawings.

You must have a strong understanding of how to interpret and read engineering drawings to operate as a metal fabricator. Other duties you’ll carry out at work include setting up metalworking equipment, completing finished products with grinding and doing quality control on finished products. You’ll operate equipment including rollers, shears, flame cutters, and drill presses, among others.

You’ll need sophisticated mathematics and engineering abilities, the capacity to lift and work with heavy metal objects, and the stamina to stand for extended periods if you want to enter this line of work. It’s also necessary to have a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering or a similar discipline. Certain employers could favor applicants with advanced welding expertise and welding certification.

12. Fabrication Technician

Nationwide average yearly salary: $35,582

Primary responsibilities: As a fabrication technician with a sign industry career, you will assemble parts for a variety of goods using sophisticated machinery. You will examine tools and mechanical equipment, and when necessary, you’ll even maintain and fix them. To succeed, you must be conversant with the product’s engineering requirements and drawings.

Fabrication technician work is not simple. You require a unique set of abilities. You must be manually dexterous and have dexterous hands because you will engage in several physical activities. The next category is mechanical aptitude; you must be able to operate and maneuver various pieces of machinery. Finally, having strong troubleshooting abilities can help you overcome the obstacles and issues you encounter.

It’s possible to make an average salary of $32,946 a year as a fabrication technician. A 5% employment growth rate is also present, which is a promising start. You can pursue positions such as technician, team leader, sales manager, and area manager after working as a fabrication technician.

Conclusion

You want your resume’s skills section to accurately represent your abilities because it could be almost as significant as the experience section.

Frequently Asked Questions about sign industry careers

  • What exactly does a sign maker do?

Material can be carved into letters, logos, and 3D objects. Print symbols or artwork with digital printers. Apply background paint with a brush, a sprayer, or a roller. Letters painted by hand (in traditional sign-making)

  • What profession is sign making?

Designing, constructing, painting, signwriting, applying graphics, and installation are all part of the sign-making industry’s wide range of activities. Working in the sign industry gives you the freedom to employ your imagination and a variety of materials, including plastic, vinyl, perspex, metal, wood, and glass.

  • What do people who make signs go by?

Signwriters (also known as signmakers) create the signs’ designs and lettering. The fronts of stores, offices, restaurants, bars, and hotels, as well as the sides of cars and the sides of roadways, may also have them installed. Nowadays, most signs are created by machines using computer-aided design.

  • How popular is hiring a sign maker?

The vocation is anticipated to grow 10% between 2018 and 2028, creating 74,100 employment opportunities across the U.S.