Owner Jeff Tuttle (left) and Chief Operating Officer Max Tejada show off their accidental matching outfits at The Sign Gallery, LLC office.

A large high-resolution digital billboard is custom-fabricated in The Sign Gallery, LLC facility for installation on Elm Street in Manchester, NH, near the SNHU Arena.

Jeff Tuttle, Owner of The Sign Gallery, LLC, has an innate sense of curiosity and ingenuity that he honed as a boy working for this family business. At just 13 years of age, he began heading to the office with his father during summer break and after school, learning every aspect of the business—from production of small signs to large-scale fabrication and installation.

He says, “I enjoyed manual labor and working with my hands. It instilled a good work ethic in me, and I loved it right from the start.”

Jeff’s parents, Jan and Paul Tuttle, started The Sign Gallery in 1973. Paul previously worked as a chemical engineer for Eastman Kodak Company, and Jan was a stay-at-home mom who later managed the books for the family business.

“Dad was a smart guy, but he got bored and liked to do different things,” Jeff says. “He bought a printing franchise with his Kodak pension, built it up for 8-10 years, then sold it back to the franchise owner. He used that money to buy a sign company, and here we are today.”

The Tuttles started with small magnetic signs, soon expanding to plastic, metal, vinyl and wood lettering. Today, the company offers full-service design and installation of all signage types throughout the New England area, including renovation of existing signs. Products range from custom awnings, channel letters, digital billboards, pylon signs and vinyl wraps to graphics for vehicles, buildings, wall murals and retail storefront windows. Jeff says that all signs are produced using premium products to promote ultraviolet resistance and durability.

A Culture of Learning

Jeff attributes his love of learning to his parents’ influence. He describes how, 30 years ago when neon was popular in the sign industry, he approached his father about learning to blow glass so they could manufacture their own neon. Jeff learned quickly, and they soon bought a neon plant, adding that to the company’s services. Shortly thereafter, they visited a company in Chicago to learn how to manufacture awnings.

Jeff says, “That’s how we built the business. We found people to teach us, learning from other companies that were located far enough away so we wouldn’t compete.

If we saw something we wanted to do, we learned.”

That mentality caught on with the company’s loyal 12-member staff. One employee, nicknamed Junior, wanted to learn how to weld, so Jeff paid for him to attend welding school. Junior was quick to return the favor: When businesses were closed as a result of COVID-19 lockdown measures, he showed up at the office and donated his time to the business. “If they’re happy, they’re not going to go anywhere else,” Jeff says.

A Time of Transition

After Paul died in 2004, Jeff took the helm, and his mother continued doing the accounting work until three weeks before her passing in 2018. In the few years preceding his death, Paul’s focus for the company had turned mostly to signage installations for large wholesale companies. Jeff and his mother agreed to steer the company back to in-house design, manufacturing and installation of their own products.

He says, “We struggled for a while, but things took off and we started to build on repeat business and word-of-mouth.”

In 2005, The Sign Gallery moved to a larger facility to accommodate larger signs that require more advanced equipment. Today, the company has the equipment and experience to design, fabricate and install any size project in-house with little to no outsourcing.

Big Challenges and Even Bigger Boards

To stay on the cutting edge of product offerings, The Sign Gallery team jumped on the digital bandwagon about 10 years ago, partnering with the local Clear Channel Outdoor office to service its digital billboards and learn more about their production. This led to the launch of the digital arm of the company, Mediatronics, and its first large digital project: two full-size billboards located at 484 Elm St. in Manchester, New Hampshire. The team engineered the entire structure, manufactured all parts in-house and wired the installation.

Jeff says, “At the time, those billboards were our largest digital signs built to date. We were very proud of them because they were created from scratch at our facility and not by a wholesaler.”

The next big digital project soon followed: A 70-foot pylon sign at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, home to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats Minor League Baseball team. According to Jeff, the sign has become a local landmark. “The Delta Dental sign is an icon in Manchester, so it was great publicity to engineer and install this giant,” he says.

However, neither of these projects presented the same challenge as the renovation and installation of a three- dimensional Coca-Cola bottle removed from Fenway Park. The 25-foot-tall bottle, along with two others, was erected on Fenway’s left field light towers in 1997, then removed in 2008. The Coca-Cola Bottling Company plant in New Hampshire received one of the bottles, and asked The Sign Gallery to paint it, wrap it with the current Coke logo and install it in the Lowell Spinners baseball park. The Sign Gallery team sandblasted the surface, painted and sealed it, printed the new logo on reflective vinyl, wrapped the bottle and engineered the mounting. Jeff says the team is very proud of the result: “When the stadium lights hit it and illuminate the reflective vinyl, it looks pretty awesome,” he says.

Anything Customers Want

True to his upbringing, Jeff wants to continue learning and growing, with an objective to further the company’s expansion into digital signs. He explains that digital signage is advantageous to businesses and property owners because it is easily customizable, cost-effective and highly visible. It can be changed at a moment’s notice and has been shown to have a positive impact on recall and retention rates. The team even plans to launch a new division for purchasing billboards and selling advertising space.

“We’ve been servicing and installing digital signs for over 10 years and love working with them because of their capabilities,” Jeff says.

Jeff believes that The Sign Gallery’s versatility sets it apart from other sign companies. The firm has fabricated and installed everything from small monument signs, to 90-foot pylon signs, to full-sized digital billboards throughout New England, but doesn’t limit its offerings to signs. The company has manufactured other materials including vehicle wrapping, prefabricated ticket booths, floating duck boat rears and a float for Boston Harbor Cruises, just to name a few.

“We will handle any of our customers’ needs,” he says. “Anything you want—we’ll figure out how to build it.” It’s that love of learning that keeps the firm’s employees innovating and learning, and helps the company continue its pattern of consistent growth.