The signs always pointed toward Bob Shaw carving out a career that utilized his artistic eye. It just took a couple of detours to get him pointed in the right direction.
"I actually went to school to be a doctor when I was younger," says Shaw, now 55, “but I didn’t like the gorier aspects and all that, so I quit." As a young man, Shaw traded in his stethoscope for a tool belt and went to work in construction after a friend offered him a job.
But fate had other plans. "I was framing houses and working on the beams of buildings five stories up, but I had a bad car accident and couldn't do it anymore," recalls Shaw. At a crossroads, he decided to lean back on what had always been his passion: art.
"I always liked to draw. My entire family is actually pretty artistic," says Shaw, whose uncle Leonard Starr served as the animator of the popular cartoons “Little Orphan Annie” and “Mary Worth” and is credited as creating the “Thundercats.”
And while he still experiences pain from the 1984 crash, it might also be considered divine intervention. If not for that accident, Bob Shaw Signs, located at 54 E. State St. and the signature shop of its type in the area, may never have existed.
“I actually started in 1982 in my kitchen without the benefit of training,” Shaw remembers. “When the accident happened, it forced my hand to go full time and seek training to learn the proper techniques." Studying under Sheldon Kahn, former owner of his eponymous sign business, which was Philadelphia's largest commercial sign shop at the time, Shaw completed an intense two-year program at the Philadelphia Technical Institute.
"He [Sheldon Kahn] was really tough on me,” Shaw recalls. “He saw my talent and really helped get the best out of me. I would work on a design for four or five hours, and he would rip it up and make me start over."
And Shaw has carried that craftsman-like perfectionism with him for over 25 years. “It's really an art what we do here, it's a craft," he continues. Specializing in hand-carved and sand-blasted commercial and residential signs, magnetic signs, window lettering, vehicle lettering and graphics and even banner and logo designs, no job is too big or too small.
"We are most known for the signs we do like the one at Baci Ristorante on the corner of Routes 413 and 202 in Buckingham, but we even do quick, one-day jobs like business cards or smaller signage,” Shaw says.
And while the shop’s reputation speaks to their expertise, inside it’s very much a family affair. Shaw is joined in the shop by his wife Marylou and his son Charlie. "Marylou really has a gift for carving," he says. "She’s better at it than me." Charlie's handiwork is seen everyday around town as the company's truck - an eye-catching Chevy Silverado - is adorned with the product of his graphic design skills.
Although Bob Shaw Signs is capable of handling any design, sign or banner job from $15 to $5,000, he is most proud of his head-turning hand-carved works. Two examples are the 8-foot long masterpiece that marks the Broad Axe Tavern in Ambler and the 14-foot sign at Lilly's on the Canal in Lambertville. Both were constructed in the spacious workshop beneath the first-floor design room.
"We really sink our hearts into those larger signs,” Shaw says. “After they’re complete and you leave the job, it's like one of your kids have left. I think that's what separates us. Sometimes, a customer will say, ‘It's good enough,' but it's not good enough for us until it's perfect."
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