Sign Company in Shaker Heights, Ohio | Storefront, Wall & Window Graphics

The hardest part of a storefront graphic in Shaker Heights is usually not the artwork. It is that the wall belongs to somebody else, and it has to come off again without a mark.

DG Creativ designs, produces and installs signs, wall graphics, window film, floor graphics, banners and vehicle graphics for businesses, institutions and property managers in Shaker Heights and across Cuyahoga County. We are based in Stow. There is no walk-in showroom — we come to the site, measure the actual surface, and install the work ourselves.

Leased space changes the specification, not just the paperwork

Most commercial graphics work in Shaker Heights happens on a leased storefront, a landlord's masonry or glass a tenant does not own. That puts a condition on the job before anyone has drawn anything: whatever goes up has to come down cleanly at the end of the lease, the campaign or the season.

High tack and clean removal pull against each other. An adhesive aggressive enough to hold on rough brick through a Northeast Ohio winter is, by definition, harder to get off than one that will not hold at all. Which way that decision goes depends on one question — how long does it need to stay up — and it has to be answered before the material is ordered rather than on the morning of the install.

So we ask three things early: what the surface actually is, how long the graphic has to live, and who has to approve it. Property management approval is part of the job on a leased building, and a written material and finish specification on the proof is usually what gets that approval signed.

Work we have done in Shaker Heights: the Van Aken District

Two 52-inch graphics on BrickWrap on the entrance wall, and smaller placements through the district on glass and interior surfaces.

Akron Children's Hospital was opening a location at the Van Aken District, a busy mixed-use retail district in Shaker Heights. The problem a graphics supplier could actually solve was not visibility. It was that children arrive at a medical appointment already anxious, and the walk in needed to feel like something other than a hospital.

What went in was three separate production problems on one delivery schedule:

• Two 52-inch diameter googly eyes printed on BrickWrap and installed on the textured brick of the entrance wall — large enough to read from across the district.
• Forty further sets of smaller eyes placed through the shopping district as a scavenger hunt, positioned at child height, on glass, painted surfaces and interior walls rather than all on one substrate.
• 3,750 printed cup sleeves designed to be drawn on — a different press, a different material and a different finishing process from everything above, so that a child waiting had something to do with their hands.

None of the three would have done the job alone, and running them through three suppliers would have meant three schedules and three people to chase when one slipped.

Why the brick was the part worth planning

Standard wall vinyl does not hold on masonry. Brick, concrete and stucco are porous, irregular and low-energy, and an ordinary adhesive lifts at the edges within weeks — usually at a corner, usually in the first cold spell. The entrance graphics went on in a textured-surface film built for that, worked down into the mortar lines during installation so the graphic follows the face of the wall instead of bridging across it. Done badly it looks like a sticker on a building. Done properly it looks painted on.

And because the building belongs to the district rather than to the tenant, clean removal at the end of the campaign was a condition of the work, not an afterthought — which is exactly the decision described above, made before anything was printed.

Read the full Van Aken District write-up · Three years of graphics for Akron Children's Hospital

What we make and install in Shaker Heights

• Wall graphics and murals — including brick, cinder block, stucco and other textured masonry
• Window graphics, perforated film and frosted privacy film for storefronts and offices
• Interior floor graphics and exterior sidewalk graphics
• Printed acrylic, Sintra and DiBond signage for lobbies, suites and reception walls
• Wayfinding signage and directories
• Construction barricade and hoarding graphics for build-outs and tenant fit-outs
• Custom banners, fence mesh banners and street pole banners for districts, events and festivals
• Trade show displays and exhibits
• School and athletic facility branding — gym walls, field houses, locker rooms and scoreboards
• Vehicle wraps and fleet graphics
• Installation and project management on graphics produced elsewhere

Three things to settle before a Shaker Heights job is quoted

1. Who owns the surface, and what has to happen to it at the end. A six-week activation on a leased storefront and a three-year installation on a wall you own are different specifications and different prices. If it has to come off without a trace, that single requirement decides the material.
2. What the substrate actually is. Brick, painted block, stucco, sealed drywall, glass, powder-coated metal and terrazzo all take different films and different adhesives. A quote given without knowing which one is a guess. A photograph of the surface is enough to start.
3. The access window, not the date. Retail hours, office hours and district event schedules rarely give you a whole day. Tell us the window and the route in, and the install is sequenced to fit it.

How a job runs

1. Measure. We come and measure the actual wall, window, floor, fence or vehicle. On-site measurement across Northeast Ohio is free.
2. Proof. You approve artwork at size, with the substrate and finish named in writing on the proof — which is also the document a landlord or property manager usually wants to see.
3. Schedule around the building. Retail hours, clinic hours, class schedules, event dates. Tell us how the space is used and the install is planned around it.
4. Install. Done by us, not handed to you in a tube.

Common questions

Do you have a sign shop in Shaker Heights I can walk into?
No. DG Creativ is based in Stow and the work happens on site. We come to you to measure and to install, and quotes and proofs run by phone and email.

Can printed graphics go directly onto a brick wall?
Yes, with a textured-surface film made for low-energy substrates such as brick, concrete and stucco. Standard wall vinyl will not hold on masonry, and the film has to be worked into the mortar lines as it goes on rather than laid across them.

How large can a single graphic be?
Printable width is typically 52 inches per panel. Anything wider is tiled across panels and aligned on site. The 52-inch circular graphics on the Van Aken job were produced as single pieces for that reason.

Will a graphic come off a leased storefront cleanly?
It can, if that was specified at the start. Tell us how long it needs to stay up before the material is chosen. Brick is porous, so removal from masonry takes longer than from smooth sealed glass or metal, and material left up well past its intended life comes off in pieces instead of in one.

Can you install graphics printed by somebody else?
Yes. Installation and project management is offered on its own, including on graphics printed by another supplier. It is worth sending us the specification before it is printed — most install problems are material decisions made earlier.

Do you work with property managers and retail districts?
Yes. The Van Aken District work above is the example, and we work with landlords, tenants, health systems, school districts, universities and municipalities across Cuyahoga, Summit, Portage, Medina and Stark counties.

Service area

Shaker Heights, Beachwood, Cleveland Heights, University Heights, Cleveland, Woodmere, Pepper Pike, Warrensville Heights, Maple Heights, Solon and Bedford Heights, and out across Cuyahoga, Summit, Portage, Medina and Stark counties.

Start a Shaker Heights project

Tell us the surface, the size, the date and whether it has to come off again. Request a quote, call 330.968.0678, or email sales@dgcreativ.com.

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