History

In The Beginning

Signs Plus, Inc. was established in 1988 when John Paul opened up a small sign shop on the east side of Des Moines, IA. With the help of dedicated employees, the business grew over time from four employees and one truck into a full service sign company serving Des Moines and all of central Iowa.

Building a Business

Soon after Signs Plus was established, a reputation was built as a company who offered great products for a reasonable price with professionalism. This paved a path to contracts with many major retailers and developers. Many large projects were trusted to Signs Plus including historical renovations and landmarks such as Colonial Bread and The Travelers which are large neon projects on framework in the downtown Des Moines area (see photos on website). Signs Plus was also trusted to make all of the signs used in the movie "The Bridges of Madison County" which was filmed in Iowa.

Because of Signs Plus' reputation for delivering high-quality products on time, the business continued to grow. In 1998 Merle and Dennis Martens purchased the company. In the spring of 1999, they purchased another Des Moines area sign company named Signs of Distinction, which not only worked in the Des Moines market, but also had franchise and national accounts. The entire business was then moved to this location where it presently resides. Since this acquisition, Signs Plus has been a very unique company handling the small, first time business owner as well as large national accounts, and everything in between.

Signs Plus has also become one of the largest installers in the Midwest for other national sign companies as well as signs built in-house. Signs Plus currently has (5) installation cranes (60', 70', 85', 85', 100') as well as (3) service trucks (30', 35', 40').

Growth Continues

In December 2006, current owner, Merle Martens along with the three managing partners - Beth McGeough, and Doug Lee decided to purchase another large sign company in the Des Moines market named Porter Bowers. All of their equipment as well as most of their employees were merged into Signs Plus. Their expertise was in individual letters and logos, lighted and nonlighted, specialty aluminum fabrication, as well as design build cabinets and neon production. They were a full service sign company.

Signs Plus has become a complete sign company and currently has full manufacturing capabilities of sign cabinets, neon, channel letters, awnings, border lighting, routed letters using various materials, banners, vinyl lettering and graphics, and has just recently purchased a large format digital printer capable of printing on most types of media. We even still perform "old style" hand lettering when needed. Signs Plus installs everything that we build and offers an outstanding warranty.

From design to fabrication to installation to service, Signs Plus has it all.