OPA Blog: 50 Years of Signs
It only took us 50 years to start a blog.
When the Barr brothers opened their changeable copy sign shop in the heart of New Orleans half a century ago, blogging wasn't on the priority list. There were signs to build, clients to serve, and a lot of coffee to drink. Fast forward to today, and we have grown into a 40,000-square-foot facility, serving everyone from local restaurants and small businesses to universities, hospitals, and municipalities across the Gulf South.
But here's the thing about making signs for five decades: you accumulate stories along the way. We figure it is time to share them.
A Look Behind the Scenes
If you've driven through New Orleans, there's a good chance you've already seen our work. From the glowing channel letters above your favorite restaurant to the wallcovering inside a boutique hotel and the scoreboard at Yulman Stadium, we’ve worked on countless iconic projects across the Gulf South.
Every project begins as a conversation. Someone in our community has an idea (a rebrand, a new location, a complicated architectural master plan) and they need a dedicated team to turn it into reality. That process runs through two sides of our operation: custom fabrication and digital production, both of which we plan on discussing in our blog.
Expect posts about the craft: CNC routing, automotive-grade paint finishes, the difference between a monument sign and a pylon. Stay tuned for a behind-the-scenes look at projects that push our team to create and innovate.
Who We Work With
Our clients range from architects and contractors to small business owners opening their first location. We work with a number of different industries on a variety of scales: healthcare facilities managing wayfinding across large campuses, universities that need signage to match decades-old architecture, and construction companies that need hundreds of linear feet of project banners by the end of the week.
The common thread that connects our clients isn't the sign type they’re searching for or the industry they operate within. It's that they have a problem and need a team that can figure out a solution. And after 50 years, that's what gets us out of bed in the morning.
Why OPA?
OPA started as a family operation, and that close-knit ethos still runs through everything we do. We have grown to include welders, painters, CNC operators, print technicians, designers, and project managers, each bringing their own expertise to our process. What the Barr brothers built as a two-person outfit has become a full crew of specialists who take pride in their work.
Plenty of sign companies will take your order and hand you something back. We're more interested in the conversation that happens beforehand: understanding the space, the brand, the constraints, and the goals of our clients so what we build works for you after we've packed up the truck. That's what five decades of New Orleans roots looks like in practice.
The best projects don't start with someone walking in and saying, "I need a sign." They start with a conversation. An idea. A problem that needs solving. And we've found that when people understand what's possible, they come to us with better questions and bigger ambitions.
We want this blog to be the start of that conversation.
