Licensed Chicago sign contractor · 25+ years
Chicago Sign Company That Designs, Permits, Builds & Installs
One team for the drawing, the City permit, the fabrication and the install, so your sign goes up on the date you planned around.
- Permits handled for you
- Built in our own shop
- Installed by our own crew
- Licensed Chicago sign contractor
- Permits and drawings handled
- Design, fabrication and install
- 25+ years of sign work
Trusted by Chicago brands
What we build
Ten sign types that cover almost every storefront
Start with the job the sign has to do, not the product name. If your project needs something else, we fabricate to the drawing.
Channel Letters
Lit letters that read from across the street. Aluminum returns, acrylic faces, LED modules.
Lightbox Signs
Even-glow cabinets with replaceable faces.
Blade Signs
Aimed at people already walking your block.
Monument Signs
Ground-level identity for a site set back from the road.
Sign Boards
Aluminum, ACM, PVC or wood, printed or dimensional.
Awnings & Canopies
Shade, shelter and a branded face over the door, engineered for Chicago snow load.
Acrylic Signs
Lobby logos and office ID on standoffs.
CNC Router Signs
Dimensional letters cut with edges clean enough to leave raw.
Enclosures & Vestibules
Keep wind out of the doorway and a patio earning through winter.
Printed Signs
Banners and wraps printed in house. No permit, no installer, shipped nationwide.
Why projects slip
Most sign problems are handoff problems
A designer who has never read the Chicago sign ordinance draws something the Department of Buildings will not approve. A fabricator builds to the drawing anyway. An installer arrives at a wall with no conduit. Everybody is technically right and your opening slips six weeks.
What usually goes wrong
- The last company went quiet after taking the deposit.
- Nobody knows what the City or the village will approve.
- The landlord has sign criteria nobody has read.
- The opening date is already printed on the invitations.
- The last sign did not survive a Chicago winter.
How SignFreaks handles it
- One named contact, a written quote with line items, and a schedule you can hold us to.
- We design to the ordinance on day one and file the permit ourselves, revisions included.
- We work from the criteria document and submit for landlord approval before fabrication.
- We plan backward from your date, and permits start first because they are least predictable.
- Sealed returns, drainage where water sits, gasketed LED housings, stainless where salt reaches.
How it runs
Five steps from first call to final inspection
The timeline in the middle is the one nobody controls, which is exactly why we start it early.
Site survey
We measure the wall, check the electrical, photograph the elevation and read the landlord criteria.
Design and mockup
You see the sign on a photo of your own building, at real size, before anything is cut.
Permit
We prepare drawings, file with the City or your village, and handle review comments. Four to eight weeks is typical.
Fabrication
Aluminum cut and welded, faces routed, LEDs laid out for even brightness, paint matched to your Pantone.
Installation
Licensed crew, lift where the height needs one, electrical tied in, final inspection scheduled.
Recent work
Real installations, photographed on site
Every photo on this site is our own work. No stock, no renders.
Joe & The Juice — channel letters 
Educare — entrance canopy 
Studio Three — patio enclosure 
Avondale Bowl — lightbox sign 
Truefitt & Hill — sign board 
Alderman office — commercial awning
Get a real number, not a range
Send the size, the address and the date you need it lit. You get a written price and an honest permit timeline.
Industries
Signs built for how your industry works
Every industry has a sign package it keeps needing. These pages describe the one yours tends to need.
Restaurants
Storefront letters, blade signs, patio awnings and winter enclosures that keep seats usable in January.
Learn more
Corporate Offices
Building letters, lobby logos, monument signs and wayfinding held to brand standards.
Learn more
Schools & Campuses
Monument signs, building letters, corridor wall wraps and event banners.
Learn more
Hospitals & Clinics
Exterior ID, department wayfinding and room signage that stays legible under pressure.
Learn more
Retail & Commercial
Exterior and interior signs for retail, service and multi-tenant properties.
Learn more
Printed in house
Banners and wraps, printed here, shipped anywhere
Printed work needs no installer and no permit, so we ship it. Fifty banners to three states by Friday is a printing and logistics problem, and we solve it every week.
Banners
Vinyl, mesh, step and repeat, retractable
Roland TrueVIS eco-solvent printers on 3M, Avery and Orafol media. Banners come off the roll hemmed and grommeted, with colors matched to Pantone rather than guessed at.
- 13 oz and 18 oz scrim vinyl
- Air-flow mesh for windy sites and fences
- Curl-free film for retractable stands
Wraps
Window and wall graphics
Perforated, frosted and full-color storefront graphics, and interior murals for offices, schools, gyms and retail. Contour cut, installed clean, removable without damage.
- Perforated film you can see out of
- Frosted privacy bands cut to size
- Interior murals on textured walls
In their words
What customers say
Reviews copied exactly as they were written.
Left on Google by SignFreaks customers
Sign Freaks was wonderful to work with. They made the process of permits, insurance updates and all of the logistics of installing an awning in the city of Chicago simple and seamless! Debby was our project manager and extremely communicative on all updates for the progression of the project. Install was quick and easy and installers were very professional. Our awning came out better than I even imagined!! Highly recommend Sign Freaks!
Brooke East
Google review
SignFreaks are the BEST! I ordered interior logo, outside signage, a blade sign and the window frosting with them. It can be very stressful process with installation, design of your storefront signage because, as business owners, we always want everything to be perfect. They took care of all the permits and the process was seamless. In the beginning I wasn't pleased with the color of my signage and Mansur went above and beyond to make me happy! Debby is always very accommodating and replies in a heart beat. I highly recommend SignFreaks!
Nelli Zakharenkova
Google review
The SignFreaks team truly went above and beyond with our recent vinyl install! They were incredibly communicative throughout the entire process, and the final piece turned out fantastic It brings so much life and energy to our space – we couldn't be happier!
Helping Hand
Google review
Where we work
The City of Chicago and 150+ suburbs
Three sales offices in Chicago, Oak Brook and Burr Ridge, all by appointment. Every village writes its own sign code, so we check yours before we design.
Why us
Four things that change what happens on your project
Not slogans. Each of these shows up in the schedule.
Licensed contractor
The license is what lets us pull the permit and do the electrical hookup ourselves rather than subcontracting both.
About usOur own shop
Metal, acrylic, paint and print under one roof. A cracked face gets remade on Tuesday, not reordered from three states away.
How we work25+ years here
We know which walls are brick veneer over steel stud, which blocks are landmarked, and what freeze-thaw does to an unsealed return.
Permit serviceOne point of contact
The person who surveys your site is the person who answers the phone when you call about it in February.
Talk to us
Questions
Questions we get asked most
The answers people actually call about.
Call (872) 250-4743, Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Questions we get asked most
What does a sign company in Chicago actually do?
A full-service one handles five stages: design, permitting, fabrication, installation and repair. Many companies only do two or three and subcontract the rest. We do all five in house, which is why there is one phone number for the whole project rather than one per stage.
Do commercial signs require permits in Chicago?
Almost always. Permanent wall, projecting, ground and roof signs need a sign permit from the Department of Buildings. Anything hanging over the sidewalk also needs public way use approval. A few small window graphics are exempt. We confirm before quoting, so nothing is a surprise later.
How long does a custom sign take in Chicago?
Design and mockup run one to two weeks. Permitting is the variable: four to eight weeks in the City, sometimes longer in a landmark district or a village with a monthly review board. Fabrication is two to four weeks, installation is usually a single day.
How much do custom signs cost in Chicago?
Too many variables for a price list to be honest. Cost is driven by size, whether it is lit, the materials, permit and engineering fees, and how hard the installation is to reach. A lit channel letter set is a different order of magnitude from a printed panel. Send the details and you get a real number.
Can one company design, build and install the sign?
Yes, and it is worth insisting on. When design, permitting, fabrication and installation sit with one licensed contractor, nobody can point at the previous stage when something goes wrong. That is the whole argument for a full-service shop.
What is the best sign for a Chicago storefront?
For most retail and restaurants, lit channel letters on the fascia plus a blade sign for sidewalk traffic. Channel letters read from across the street; blade signs catch people already on your block. If your landlord limits you to a tenant panel, a lightbox is usually the answer.
My sign is dark or flickering. Can you fix it?
Usually, and usually for far less than replacement. Most failures are a power supply, a run of dead LED modules, or water getting into a housing. We diagnose on site and quote the repair against a retrofit, so you can see which is the better spend.
Do you work outside the city?
Yes. We cover more than 150 areas across Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kane and Will counties, and we work with each village code individually rather than assuming Chicago rules apply. Printed banners and wraps ship anywhere in the country.
Come see us
Three offices, all by appointment
The sales team is usually out on site with customers, so booking a time means you get the person who will run your job.
Burr Ridge
Mailing Address & Sales Office
241 S Frontage Road, Suite 42Burr Ridge, IL 60527
By appointment only
Chicago
Sales Office
320 W Ohio St., Suite 3WChicago, IL 60654
By appointment only
Oak Brook
Sales Office
1415 W 22nd St, Tower FloorOak Brook, IL 60523
By appointment only
Reach us
Fastest ways to get an answer
- Phone
- (872) 250-4743
- info@signfreaks.com
- Hours
- Mon – Fri, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm