Young Electric Sign Company
Formerly called | Thomas Young Sign Company |
|---|---|
| Private | |
| Industry | Signage |
| Founded | March 20, 1920 |
| Founder | Thomas Young Sr. |
| Headquarters | Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. |
Number of locations | ~40 offices |
Area served | North America |
Number of employees | ~1,000 |
| Website |
www |
YESCO is a privately owned manufacturer of electric signs based in Salt Lake City. The company was founded by Thomas Young in 1920. YESCO offers a comprehensive range of services for signs of all types and sizes from simple wayfinding plaques to towering spectaculars that spring to life in dazzling color, motion, animation and video. electronic signs. The company is a one-stop shop for the full spectrum of sign services including design, fabrication, installation and ongoing maintenance. "Green" electronic signs substantially reduce energy consumption while cutting operating costs.
Many notable sign projects have been produced by YESCO. These include the NBC Experience globe in New York City, the historic El Capitan Theatre and Wax Museum marquees in Hollywood, the Reno Arch and numerous icons in Las Vegas, such as Vegas Vic, the Fremont Street Experience, the Astrolabe in The Venetian the Wynn Las Vegas resort sign and recently the Aria Resort & Casino Las Vegas and Harmon Retail Corner.
History
The company was created by Thomas Young on March 20, 1920.[1] The young sign painter had left England just a decade earlier to immigrate with his family to Ogden, Utah. In the beginning, his shop specialized in coffin plates, gold leaf window lettering, lighted signs and painted advertisements. As the science of lighting and sign-making advanced, so did Tom Young’s signs.
In 1933, YESCO opened a branch office in the Apache Hotel in Las Vegas. The company erected the first neon sign in Las Vegas for the Boulder Club.[2]
YESCO – soon became recognized as a leader in the sign industry, tackling large and complex sign projects. For example, it erected the first neon spectacular sign in Las Vegas for the Boulder Club in the late ’30s, and in 1995 it completed the four-block-long Fremont Street Experience canopy in Las Vegas.
YESCO continues to design, build, install and maintain signs and interior displays in areas. In recent years, YESCO has built a substantial outdoor digital media (billboard) division of its business. [3]
YESCO's award-winning design and engineering staff turn ideas into working concepts. Keeping signs and lighting in excellent working condition has been an important part of YESCO since the beginning. The Service Center provides a true "one-stop shop" sign maintenance solution, coupled with the security of working directly with YESCO - not just a broker. Architectural signs is another specialty at YESCO. The company offers service franchise opportunities east of Colorado and throughout Canada. YESCO Financial Solutions provides financing to businesses who want to preserve their capital.
YESCO has approximately 1,000 employees, more than 40 offices, and operates three state-of-the-art manufacturing plants featuring automated and custom equipment. Additional smaller manufacturing and service facilities are located through the United States and Canada.
YESCO offers sign and lighting service franchises in states east of Colorado and throughout Canada.
In 2015 Young Electric Sign Company sold YESCO Electronics, a child company, to Samsung. In this sale Samsung gained the YESCO Electronics (now YESCO Electronics, a Samsung Company) manufacturing plant and all the employees of YESCO Electronics. YESCO Electronics is known for their outdoor electronic media signs.
Landmark Signs
The NBC Experience Store Globe
NBC ushered in the millennium with a new YESCO “message globe” in its NBC Experience store, located at Rockefeller Center in New York City. The electronic sign quickly became recognized as one of the most distinctive electronic displays in the world.
From the outside of the building, it looks like a brilliant illuminated globe. The 35’-diameter hemisphere is covered with thousands of full-color LEDs. Colorful video and special effects, along with animations provided by YESCO’s media services group, are displayed on the globe’s surface, telling the NBC story. When it was first turned on, it literally stopped traffic on West 49th Street.
Vegas Vic
Perhaps the world’s most recognized electronic sign, Vegas Vic was designed by and built by YESCO. Upon its installation in 1951 over the Pioneer Club on historical Fremont Street, the 40'-tall electronic cowboy immediately became Las Vegas’s unofficial greeter.
Wynn Las Vegas
The 135-foot (41 m) tall marquee features a 100-foot (30 m) high, 50-foot (15 m) wide, concave, double-faced LED message center with a first-of-its-kind “moving eraser.” Conceived by Steve Wynn, the massive eraser glides silently and smoothly up and down over the LED message center, appearing to change the graphics as it goes. The eraser weighs 62,000 pounds, and is counterbalanced by a 62,000-pound weight inside the sign.[4]
The sign uses 4,377,600 LEDs and the eraser is powered by a 300 horsepower (220 kW) motor at its base that runs a gear and cable system. The firm of FTSI engineered the 62,000-pound eraser’s movement, which is capable of speeds up to 10 feet per second (3.0 m/s).[4]The company has been instrumental in supporting the Neon Museum, which is dedicated to preserving the neon signs and associated artifacts of Las Vegas.[5]
Some of the retired signs include the sign for the Silver Slipper casino and Aladdin's lamp from the first version of Aladdin Casino. In 2004 the Binions Horseshoe sign Harrah's.
The Fremont Street Experience
YESCO installed the vaulted canopy arching 90 feet (27 m) above four blocks of Fremont Street.
Services
Custom Signs
YESCO provides businesses of all sizes and types with custom signs and display systems. The company’s services in this area include design, fabrication, installation and ongoing maintenance.
Resorts & Casinos
In 1932 YESCO expanded into the resort and casino industry – just a year after gaming was legalized in Las Vegas – and has played an important role in the resort and casino industry ever since, not only in Las Vegas but throughout regions of the United States and Canada where gaming is found.
Lighting Retrofits
Experts at providing interior and exterior sign and lighting retrofit solutions. Comprehensive approach to upgrading existing lighting systems. Rebate processing and financing options available.
Architectural Signage/ADA Plaques
The company collaborates with architects, interior designs and contractors to develop signage programs that encompass a host of architectural sign products, including specialty lighting, room identifiers, user-friendly directories, wayfinding and Americans With Disabilities (ADA) plaques.
Interior Signs
From environmental signs, graphics and lighting that set a mood of elegance at luxury hotels, to displays for the gaming industry, YESCO offers a complete range of interior wayfinding, venue, front and back of house signs designed and built to enhance the visitor's experience and facility functionality.
Digital Electronic Signs
YESCO's work in digital electronics has extended the horizon of sign possibilities into exciting new territory.
Sign & Lighting Repair
The company offers maintenance agreements to allow clients to put their sign servicing costs on a steady monthly budget. They also have a Night Patrol team that monitors and reports any issues to signs and lighting to help their clients who may not know of the issue, to help provide customers with expert sign and lighting service. YESCO repairs signs made by any manufacturer. Large service fleet allows professional technicians to respond to calls quickly.
Key Individuals
Founder
Born in Sunderland, England, in 1895, Thomas Young was 15 years old when his family emigrated to Ogden, Utah. Hard-working and talented, the boy applied his passion to making signs, becoming a Master Sign Writer. He began by creating wall-lettering and gold-leaf window signs, working for the Electric Service Company and the Redfield-King Sign Company in Ogden.
Young married Elmina Carlisle in 1916. Four years later, in 1920, he founded his own sign company: Thomas Young Sign Company, which specialized in coffin plates, gold window lettering, lighted signs and painted advertisements.
In 1932 Young expanded his business to Las Vegas, and within two years purchased the Ogden Armory for $12,000 to expand production capacity. He also started a branch in Salt Lake City in that year.
Young was elected president of the National Sign Association in 1936, serving for two terms. A year later, in 1937, he moved his family and YESCO headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, and continued expanding the business.
In 1969 Young turned over the reins of company leadership to his son who currently serves as the Chairman of the Board. The company is now managed by third and fourth generations of the Young family.
Designers
Some of YESCO's most prominent signage designers have included:
- Charles Barnard - designer of Vegas Vickie
- Rudy Christomo - designer of the Rio's column
- Dan Edwards - designer of Lucky the Clown of Circus Circus
- Jack Larsen Sr - designer of the Silver Slipper
- Kermit Wayne - designer of the Stardust
- Pat Denner - designer of the Vegas Vic and Wendover Will
References
- ↑ Nevada Contractors' Billboard 2003
- ↑ Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs
- ↑ http://www.signindustry.com/electronic/articles/2009-02-02-LB-Digital_Signage_Ho_staking_out_new_territories.php3
- 1 2 http://www.fishertechnical.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69:the-wynn-hotel-sign&catid=23:theme-parks&Itemid=37
- ↑ a2zlasvegas