Ogden City’s Business Development Division manages a Business Expansion and Retention (BEAR) program focused on supporting the growth of Ogden’s existing businesses. We regularly meet with businesses to help address challenges and opportunities in areas including real estate, workforce, supply chain, financing, and incentives. Ogden City staff have worked with mackenzie EXHIBIT through our BEAR program, most recently to support their expansion as Ogden Signs and Graphics. Our team encourages Ogden-based businesses to contact us for more information about the BEAR program by e-mail or phone (801-629-8910).
Ogden Signs and Graphics (OSG), sister company of mackenzie EXHIBIT, is open for business in Ogden, UT. OSG is a full-service sign and graphic company located in the heart of Ogden with large-format capabilities, a millwork shop, a welding department, and in-house installers.
Established in 1987 as Pacific West Exhibit in Vancouver, mackenzie EXHIBIT first arrived in Ogden in 2007 with three employees. Unique clientele opportunities had given them the chance to expand from their home in British Columbia. Since then, mackenzie has grown to over 35 full-time employees and has expanded into signs and graphic design work with the newly-established OSG.
Todd Atkinson, the project coordinator for OSG – and vice president of operations for mackenzie – said the uniquely outdoor-focused Ogden community made them feel right at home.
“It was a great outdoor community to get involved with, full of growth potential, in a town that was realizing its future,” Atkinson said. “The Boyer Business Depot was in its infancy and 25th Street was evolving. It was a friendly, warm, small community that we could be involved in, immerse ourselves in, and be a part of, and still grow our businesses and raise our families.”
As mackenzie grew and became more recognized for the graphic design work they were doing on their exhibits, they started getting requests specifically for graphic design. OSG grew organically out of that desire to fulfill the needs of the community.
OSG’s most recent project involved the City’s new “wayfinding” signs visible throughout downtown Ogden. OSG had kept an eye on the Ogden City website, looking for opportunities to do work with the city. After they won the bid for the project, Leslie Martin, the sales manager for OSG, said their passion for Ogden drove their process.
“We love Ogden, so we were happy to keep the work for the project within the city,” Martin said. “Almost all of our suppliers were here in Ogden – there was one out of Salt Lake, but other than that, everything’s Ogden made, which we’re proud of.”
Their efforts paid off, as the response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Michelle Tierney, the marketing coordinator for OSG.
“I’ve actually had people make an effort to approach me, including friends and family, and say they’ve actually noticed them on the streets,” Tierney said. “A lot of people just brush by signs; they don’t really notice those things. But different people in the community have reached out to us to say, ‘They look really cool; they’re a nice addition to the city.’”
Atkinson said what stood out for the wayfinding signs project is the extent to which it was a group effort, from the powder coating to the metal work, and the riveting to the installation. It was as much a community project as it was an OSG project, and OSG plans to move forward with that community mind-set to become more of an establishment in the city.