Hi! I’m Joel, a 3D designer/coder/mentor/problem solver for Intersign Corporation, where I’ve served in a variety of roles over many years with the company. I got my start in the Technical Drawing department, creating plans for custom signage to meet each customer’s unique needs, while also maintaining and updating drawings for thousands of standard products.

At the time I joined the company, the drawing process was very simple. Most things were done manually, with a lot of repetitive steps. It was clear that this was making Technical Drawing into something of a bottleneck for the business. It was also a frequent frustration for my teammates and I. In search of a solution, I taught myself Javascript and wrote custom Illustrator scripts and made other tools to automate and simplify major parts the drawing process. These streamlining efforts cut drawing lead times by more than half, while increasing style consistency and reducing errors. Many of those original scripts and tools are still in use over a decade later. My method for dynamically calculating the maximum numbers of characters that will fit on a sign was even adapted into the sign ordering tool on Intersign’s web stores.

I also put my 3D experience from college and making game mods to use creating Intersign’s first 3D sign proofs of custom products. These 3D renders have gone on to become a major feature of Intersign’s business model, both for custom products as well as standard offerings. These detailed and realistic product renders give the customer a better sense of how their signs will look than a flat vector drawing, and can be delivered much more quickly than a physical sample.

These 3D sign renders, as well as my the coding experience I gained in Technical Drawing, led to a position in Intersign’s Marketing department, where I remain to this day. My duties now include not only 3D sign renders, but creating and maintaining automation scripts for Photoshop, coding marketing emails, and designing custom products and signage packages for hotel brands like Marriott, Hilton, IHG, and Wyndham, as well as many indpendent hotels, offices, and other facilities.