Illuminated Signs, Signs Edinburgh, Sign shop Edinburgh, Sign Makers

Our history

Specialized Signs was founded in 2009 in Edinburgh by our Managing Director Graham Sim. An experienced sign maker, he saw the potential to build a business creating eye-catching illuminated signs.

Shortly after opening and due to huge customer demand, he took his passion for excellence and diversified into various other signage including vehicle wraps, window graphics, digitally printed wallpaper, neon signs and much, much more.

As this demand and success grew rapidly, the business established itself as an industry leader combining the best in high-tech production with excellent customer service.

In 2011 due to business growth we took on a second premises, then in 2012 we successfully purchased another sign company, Direct Neon. This purchase included a third premises, CNC machine and a neon glass workshop. These acquisitions added to the array of products we were now able to make in-house and further improved our accuracy of manufacture, efficiency, ability to meet client deadlines, helping us to cement our position as a market leader.

To remain market leaders, over the years we have consistently invested in the very best printers and manufacturing machinery and equipment, allowing us to produce huge volumes with short lead times whilst still achieving the highest quality possible and at very competitive prices. Please click here to see our current technology.

We invest heavily in our team which is the heart of our business. We strive to make Specialized Signs the best place to work and we have the most dedicated team who love what they do!

Over the years we have been recognised as a business leader receiving runner up accolades in the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year (2018) and WeDO Scotland Entrepreneur of the Year (2015).

Since we began, we have been extremely lucky to work with many prestigious clients and on several milestone signage projects throughout Scotland and the UK. These have included:

Specialized Signs was founded in 2009 in Edinburgh by our Managing Director Graham Sim. An experienced sign maker, he saw the potential to build a business creating eye-catching illuminated signs.

Shortly after opening and due to huge customer demand, he took his passion for excellence and diversified into various other signage including vehicle wraps, window graphics, digitally printed wallpaper, neon signs and much, much more.

As this demand and success grew rapidly, the business established itself as an industry leader combining the best in high-tech production with excellent customer service.

We invested in world-class sign making equipment and in 2010 bought our first roll to roll large format digital printer and large format laminator. This investment allowed us to produce an incredible quality of work at a high production speed in-house, giving us full control of quality, timescales and enabled us to keep our prices extremely competitive.

In 2011 due to business growth we took on a second premises, then in 2012 we successfully purchased another sign company, Direct Neon. This purchase included a third premises, CNC machine and a neon glass workshop. These acquisitions added to the array of products we were now able to make in-house and further improved our accuracy of manufacture, efficiency, ability to meet client deadlines, helping us to cement our position as a market leader.

By 2013 we had outgrown our 3 small business units and moved into a 10,000 sqft state-of-the-art headquarters on Edinburgh’s St Johns Road. One of the key requirements was that this building could accommodate a custom-built vehicle wrapping and graphics bay along with our in-house world-class manufacturing and print facilities. Since then the business has continuously re-invested in machinery, printers and technology to allow for 99% in-house production.

To remain market leaders, over the years we have consistently invested in the very best printers and manufacturing machinery and equipment, allowing us to produce huge volumes with short lead times whilst still achieving the highest quality possible and at very competitive prices. Please click here to see our current technology.

We invest heavily in our team which is the heart of our business. We strive to make Specialized Signs the best place to work and we have the most dedicated team who love what they do!

Over the years we have been recognised as a business leader receiving runner up accolades in the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year (2018) and WeDO Scotland Entrepreneur of the Year (2015).

Since we began, we have been extremely lucky to work with many prestigious clients and on several milestone signage projects throughout Scotland and the UK. These have included:

2010 – Right Medicine Pharmacy

This was our first major client and in 2010 we rebranded three of their stores. Following a brand update undertaken by our in house design team, we have been lucky enough to carry out over thirty site rebrands for their external and internal signage and graphics all over Scotland and we still work very closely with them today.

2012 – Jewson and the Saint-Gobain group

Our first project with SGBD was a last minute rush order to rebrand four huge sites within a two week window from start to finish. Since then, we have built a fantastic working relationship and have carried out well over one hundred full site rebrands for them, which include a huge range of products; wayfinding, digitally printed wallpapers, free standing totem signs and hundreds of massive 6m x 3m main signs, with multiple of these on each site!

2013 - SSE Hydro Arena

This was one of the largest illuminated signs we had ever done at this point in time! We manufactured and installed over 1000m of neon lighting around the perimeter of this brand new £500 million pound development!

2014 - Tullibardine Distillery

This project included over 100 huge 3D built-up, halo illuminated letters and wayfinding signage around this large site. It was all produced in-house and installed by our own team of experts.

2014 – Gumball Rally

Three days before Gumball Rally 2014 we were contacted to fully wrap a beautiful Bentley which turned out to be for the rap star Xzibit who was also the star of the US hit show pimp my ride! Team Specialized pimped Xzibits Bentley with a stunning, full matt grey wrap. We then got another phone call 36 hours before the Gumball rally was due to start & asked to do the Gumball rally graphics on 10 wonderful super cars, including Jonathon Ross’s yellow Lamborghini that had all, unfortunately been missed at Gumball HQ! Our team pulled out all the stops & worked to 11pm on the Saturday night to make sure everything was ready for the start of the gumball rally on Sunday morning.

2016 – Trainspotting 2

This was our first time working for a major movie and we were commissioned with producing 2 bespoke neon signs and also multiple printed vinyl graphics for some of the sets on this Scottish blockbuster!

2016 – Peoples Ford

We are very proud to have completed this amazing full wrap on this Ford Mustang for Peoples Ford. We have now carried out vehicle graphics and wraps on over two thousand Ford vehicles!

2017 – Avengers Infinity War

We were very lucky to play a part in this huge Hollywood block buster and we provided a wide array of products. We manufactured & supplied a full signage and graphics pack for 2 different shops, one just down from the Royal mile and the second inside the Waverly train station where filming took place on the streets of Edinburgh. We also provided 2 sets of printed café barriers as they blew the first set up in an action shot! Lastly we fully wrapped a Luton lorry for another scene as well as providing posters and bespoke items for each set. Everything had extremely short lead times and we provided and installed a lot of the products on a next day service which kept our team on their toes and ready to help for a two-week period!

2017 – R3 Repairs

R3 are one of our many clients for whom we provide vehicle graphics for their full fleet. To date we have designed, cut and installed graphics on over 40 vehicles of all shapes and sizes for R3 Repair and are very proud to still carry out all of R3’s vehicle graphic requirements today.

2018 – Fountain Park

We provided a totally bespoke 40 foot high, free standing totem sign, complete with illuminated tenants panels, illuminated 3D letters and an amazing LED colour change feature that goes right up and over this massive masterpiece.

2019 - Exchange Tower Edinburgh

To date this is the most bespoke project we have designed, manufactured and installed. It consisted of creating huge illuminated, 3D acrylic cubes that start off at ground level and go all of the way up the outside, to the top, of this towering office block, wrapping around the top floor at 80ft high! This full project was carried out in-house by our very talented team. The whole process had to be extremely accurate and precise due to the vast size and heights involved with this fully illuminated masterpiece of engineering!

2019 – Fast and Furious 9

We are very proud to be involved in yet another Hollywood blockbuster! For this movie we were tasked with wrapping a bus and providing a high volume of foamex signs and vinyl prints to dress various sets - which was all completed within 36 hours of the initial contact! Our team pulled out all the stops to make sure that we completed these works on time and with no delays to filming.

2020 – GDK (German Doner Kebab)

An amazing new brand with the highest spec and standards throughout their business and this goes for their signage as well! We have carried out full store rebrands for three of their sites in London and four sites in Scotland so far. Each site has the very best, high spec signage, digitally printed wallpapers and bespoke illuminated features! Attention to detail is key and the finished look of these stores sets a new standard in the takeaway industry!