Eric Lazar, owner of a SpeedPro Imaging franchise in Chicago, was awarded the contract to produce all the signage for Chi-town Rising, Chicago's New Year's Eve celebration. This was an ambitious undertaking as his business was new and lacked large format printing capabilities. Lazar worked with three other SpeedPro studios, utilizing the relationships he built, to complete over 7,000 square feet of graphics by the deadline. The successful project established Lazar's shop and demonstrated his ability to manage a large undertaking.

1. signshop.com April 2016 // Sign Builder Illustrated 69
Event Signage / BY MIKE A NTONIA K //////////////////////////////////////////////////////
W
hen the brilliant Chicago
Star rose into the air, and
the fireworks began to
welcome in 2016, sign
maker Eric Lazar could finally relax.
“It was a big relief,” admits the owner
of a SpeedPro Imaging franchise in the
Windy City.
Only two months earlier, Lazar had
been awarded the contract to produce
all the signage supporting the inaugural
Chi-town Rising.
Planned as the Second City’s very pub-
lic New Year’s Eve party, the Chi-town
Rising event took over Chicago’s river-
front between Michigan Avenue and Co-
lumbus Drive with a full schedule of cel-
ebratory performances and activities. The
illuminated midnight star was literally the
star of the show.
The contract charged Lazar with
helping to brand the entire new event—
from its main stage to scissor lifts, the
hospitality area, and even the streets.
“We did everything from wraps,
directional signage, menu boards,
and stage banners to putting vinyl on
tents,” he says, noting they produced
and installed more than 7,000 square
feet of printed graphics.
A Marine…for Life
Given the high profile of Chi-Town
Rising, this would be an ambitious un-
dertaking for any sign shop.
But Lazar only entered the large fo-
Chicago’s Shining Star
ALLPHOTOS:SPEEDPROIMAGING.
Chicago sign shop starts year with celebratory success.
Chi-town Rising’s
illuminated midnight star
was quite literally the star
of the show.

2. 70 Sign Builder Illustrated // April 2016 signshop.com
mat graphics business last summer with
an investment in a SpeedPro Imaging
(speedpro.com) franchise. Based in Cen-
tennial, Colorado, the company’s fran-
chisees run local studios specializing in
large format print solutions—including
wall murals, event and window graphics,
tradeshow displays, and vehicle wraps.
A former Marine, Lazar credits his
commitment to the Marine for Life
program (marineforlife.org) as giving
him the entrée which led to this project.
Marine for Life’s mission is to help
Marines transition and prosper in pri-
vate life after service. The executive
producer of Chi-Town Rising, John
Murray, is also an ex-Marine and
supporter of that cause. A mutual ac-
quaintance and another ex-Marine in-
troduced the two.
Lazar and Murray discussed the up-
coming event and its need for graphics.
After that meeting, Lazar worked up and
submitted his bid, which was approved.
This was all standard procedures,
but when Lazar took on the project,
his SpeedPro Imaging storefront didn’t
have any in-house print capability. His
business at the time was basically the
name, an address, and three employees
(including himself).
Delivering all that signage to meet
the December 28 deadline required a
lot of outside help, and Lazar is quick to
spread the credit for his success around.
“My background is in marketing and
advertising,” he begins. “When I looked
around to find a business aligned with
my experience, the SpeedPro Imaging
concept really resonated with me.”
After he bought into the program, he
attended the company’s national con-
All graphic installations
produced by SpeedPro
Imaging for this event
were handled by the
event’s own crews.

3. signshop.com April 2016 // Sign Builder Illustrated 71
vention last summer. There he asked
company officials to introduce him to
the owners of the ten most successful
SpeedPro Imaging locations.
Learning from the Experts
Lazar asked each if they would be will-
ing to host him for a few days so he
could see their businesses in operation
and learn from their experiences, and
they agreed.
“All during June and July, I was
flying around the country, spend-
ing about a week with each, at my
expense,” he says. “They taught me
about the technology, how they did
things, and their pricing philosophy.
“What they shared with me and the
relationships we established allowed
me to start building my business in
Chicago and take on this project.”
The relationships he had established
with these mentors gave him a net-
work of wholesale providers within the
SpeedPro Imaging group. He tapped
all their capabilities to offer a diverse
range of printed products as he estab-
lished his business, based on what they
could produce.
His experience working with them in
those early months gave him confidence
he could deliver the Chi-Town Rising
project—despite the deadline and lack
of large format printers. Fortunately, he
says, he had also made “the right hire at
the right time” when he added a client
account manager to his staff just before
he met with Murray.
“Once we understood the size of this
project, we had to determine who had
the capabilities and availability within
the system to produce the different
Main stage headers
helped brand the
new event.

4. 72 Sign Builder Illustrated // April 2016 signshop.com
signs we needed, on time,” Lazar says.
“We worked with three SpeedPro stu-
dios on this project for the printing of
coroplast and banners, including grand
format and vinyl.”
A Well Managed Project
Advance planning and project man-
agement were critical because final art
wouldn’t be delivered to his designer
until the first week of December, barely
three weeks from delivery date.
Seventy percent of the art was in
hand by that initial deadline, but the
project remained in flux through the
Christmas holiday as some graphics
were revised and more signs added.
“This was our project, but we had to
work closely with each of the studios
to make sure we could have the work
back in time to meet our deadline,”
says Lazar.
Lazar and his staff had some anxious
days and long nights, but everything
was delivered as promised, by the 28th.
All installations were handled by the
event’s own crews.
The remote possibility that some
sign might be damaged or need to be
replaced had Lazar on edge right up
until the stroke of midnight, when the
bright Chicago Star climbed into the
night and lit up the sky.
Then, he could finally relax, proud
of his small company’s contribution
to such a big, successful event. “It was
a great way to end the old year and
start the New Year,” says Lazar. “It’s
certainly the biggest project we’ve
taken on to date, and an opportunity
to show all we’re capable of, in a very
visible way.”
The relationships Lazar
established with other
shops gave him a net-
work of wholesale pro-
viders within the Speed-
Pro Imaging group.