Behind the Scenes @ MSU: the Sign Shop
Danielle Fowler
September 4, 2025
If you’ve ever found your way through a winding hallway, admired a donor wall, or picked up a neatly engraved nameplate at Michigan State University, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered the work of the IPF Sign Shop.
Tucked away inside Infrastructure Planning and Facilities (IPF), the Sign Shop is the behind-the-scenes team that keeps MSU’s visual identity consistent, accessible, and—frankly—looking sharp. Though the Sign Shop itself has been around for many years, for nearly four decades, one person has been at the heart of it all: Kay Steele.
Steele’s journey with signage at MSU started in 1987, when she was a student worker for the university’s Instructional Media Center (IMC). Back then, the IMC’s graphics unit was a creative hub for poster presentations, scientific illustrations, displays, and—you guessed it—signs.
“I actually graduated in ’86, but the economy was rough,” Steele recalls. “I was taking one class at a time so I could keep my student job. When they hired full-time staff, I applied for the job I’d already been doing part-time.”
At that time, the shop’s equipment was anything but high-tech. Lettering meant trays of brass dies and manual engraving. Fonts had to be physically ordered, not downloaded. Large-format printing? That was still a thing of the future.
Fast forward to the early 2000s: the IMC, IT Services, and Virtual University merged after their directors retired. Around the same time, University Printing closed its doors in 2004, and services were scattered across campus. By 2008, IPF saw the need for a central, consistent source for signage—and the Sign Shop, as we know it today, was born.
“They realized having one place for signs was important,” Steele says. “So IPF picked up that part of the graphics unit. That’s when I moved into the shop full-time.”
Since then, Steele has kept the shop humming through changes in leadership, equipment upgrades, and evolving design trends.
The Sign Shop today is a full-service creative and production space. Alongside fellow sign maker Andre LaVoie and supervisor Jason Wonch, the Sign Shop can take your project from idea to installation.
Because Steele and LaVoie know every MSU department’s (and every individual building’s) signage style, a simple request—like a standard office nameplate—follows a quick, streamlined process. But bigger jobs, like building-wide wayfinding systems, ADA-compliant room signs, or custom awards, involve careful consultation to get every detail right.
Technology has made much of this easier, but some projects still require hands-on craftsmanship. “Any sign with multiple parts, or something custom, is where the art comes in,” Steele says. “We’ve added computers to things we used to do by hand, but the design eye is still human.”
Many of the signs you pass on campus daily—room numbers with raised lettering and braille, directional signs, department plaques—were designed and made right here. Some of their most meaningful feedback has come from blind and visually impaired students, who’ve written to thank the shop for making navigation easier. In addition to tactile signs, the Sign Shop can incorporate accessibility into its work in new ways. “Everyone has a smart phone, so now there are ways of making signs useful to everyone that didn’t exist,” says Steele.
The shop’s work also contributes heavily to the visual personality of MSU’s campus. Whether it’s an older building on North Campus or a sleek new facility, everything the Sign Shop makes is tailored to fit the style of the space.
Then there are the fun one-offs, like “Captain Construction”—a character made from orange traffic barrels—or the Joker head from the shop’s hand-painted era that still hangs around for nostalgia.
Supervisor Jason Wonch puts it simply: “When the Sign Shop was established, it was Kay’s baby.”
Her experience, memory of past projects, and ability to juggle everything from quick-turn nameplates to conceptual designs have made her indispensable. With 38 years in the field, she’s seen the shop transform from manual engraving to digital precision—and kept the quality high through it all.
Even now, she talks about wanting to get back into building props and displays. “It would be fun to do more of that again,” says Steele.
Working with the Sign Shop
The Sign Shop’s busiest months are spring and early fall. If you’ve got a project for spring, reaching out in November or December means a faster turnaround. Most standard requests can be completed in a week or less.
Services the Sign Shop provides:
- ADA-compliant signage with raised lettering and braille
- Wayfinding systems for buildings and events
- Engraved signage for offices, labs, and facilities
- Custom nameplates, name tags, and holders
- Donor walls and historical displays
- Awards in brass, acrylic, glass, and wood (including laser engraving)
- Large-format posters and banners (interior and exterior)
- Window and vehicle graphics
- Exterior construction and development signage
- Yard signs
- Custom matting and framing
- Vinyl graphics and coverings for doors and walls
The Sign Shop is located in the IPF Building at 1147 Chestnut Road. To start a project, submit a request through the Indoor Sign Shop Request Portal or email ipf.signshop@msu.edu.
Because when it comes to helping Spartans find their way—or making sure they never forget an event—the Sign Shop is here to point you in the right direction.