Craig Brown: A New Dawn for BSGA

Could you introduce yourself, the BSGA, and your role within the organisation?

Craig Brown, I’ve worked in the sign industry for the majority of my adult life, initially as a trainee before filling many roles including a member of staff, director, business owner, and i'm currently chief executive officer of the BSGA.

The BSGA (British Signs and Graphics Association) is the widely recognised trade association for the sign and graphic industry and was set up by sign-makers over a century ago to support and guide sign companies with a focus on driving standards.

Today the association is run by elected volunteers who either own or cover senior positions within the sign and graphic industry and actively want to see the sector thrive and prosper through the sharing of best practice and knowledge.

Print and signage businesses have seen a lot of change within recent years, what do you think currently is the biggest strength of the industry?

The biggest strength of our industry has to be its awesome creativity. Technology will always change but the sign industry and the companies within it have always had an uncanny knack of adopting and using that technology for every increasing impact on the imagery they produce.

Considering the amount of change taking place in the UK, what do you think are some of the biggest challenges currently facing sign-makers?

I don’t think technology is anything to be feared in our sector and we are already seeing AI being integrated into businesses of all sizes. The real challenges and this isn’t new is still cash flow, whether that be looking at payment for services in a timely fashion or funding for new kit. Late payment or lack of payment is seriously hampering many businesses and is often the reason growth is stunted.

How do you think the overlapping of print, packaging, textiles, and signage is affecting the industry? Is this only a good thing for businesses?

I’ve got a bit of a mixed view here, I often see businesses going outside of their normal revenue streams to win business they think they can service, but in doing so they often compromise on price and margin. Clearly, this risks damaging everyone but it’s not to say it can’t and shouldn’t be done as everyone’s overheads are different.

But, and it’s a pretty big “but”, those that specialise and are seen as an expert in their field often have the busiest workbooks and healthiest margins; they also follow trends and adopt products and kit to keep them at the head of the curve.

Recently the BSGA rebranded and reverted back to its original name, what change will this have on the association going forward?

We still have a very good relationship with ISA [The International Sign Association] and there will still be events and projects we support them on and vice-versa.

One of the things I’ve been very keen to explore since being in the role at BSGA has to be more collaboration with other trade associations in the UK, especially where there is overlap and we can utilise each other’s resources. Ultimately we are all looking to service our members needs but also keep the areas we work in as healthy and prosperous as possible.

I’ve also been banging the drum about members utilising the association where it comes to advisory roles, whether that be basic mentoring for business owners or being a conduit to link industry experts with each other. Including offering help where more in-depth project knowledge is needed. We may not always have the answer but hopefully we can point people in the right direction to find it in an unbiased way.

Health and safety is a big part of what the BSGA advises on, what advice would you give regarding this, especially as global weather conditions and workplace safety become more prominent? 

We will certainly talk with people about Health and Safety along with best practices but in this day and age, companies should be looking at independent assessment and advice to make sure their businesses are complying with current legislation. Again through first-hand experience we can offer suggestions on who they might like to engage with.

Anything else to add?  

I’d like to finish up by saying we are in a community that has a vast amount of knowledge and huge creative talent. Finding ways to share that information for the benefit of our sector so that it continues to prosper and attracts new blood along with retaining current talent is a challenge that we should all take some ownership of. Talk to us about how we make that happen and about realistic delivery methods that you’d buy into if it could be offered.