With graduation right around the corner, I was curious to see what D & S Banner, Sign and Print had in the way of acknowledging the 2023 seniors. You've most likely seen the signs in front of the graduating seniors' homes, letting people know how proud the parents are of this milestone? Did you ever wonder where they came from? My assumption was "online" orders. But when I walked into the appropriately named shop at 113 Forest St. in Kenyon, I was literally blown away by everything available in this store!
Owner Sarah Jystad was busy with an order when I popped in, so after she greeted me as I walked in the door, I looked around the shop. This business is amazing! If you asked me, "Well, what do they do?", my answer would be, "What don't they do?" There are racks of Kenyon Knights jerseys, tee shirts and hoodies. Hats embellished with business names, coffee mugs with family pictures and cute sayings on them, and one of my personal favorites, wrapped canvas pictures. Every year, my family does a photo shoot with as many members in it as possible and does a wrapped print for each of us to remember it by. Not an easy feat with a daughter in every time zone, so it is a special commemoration of the yearly event that we all enjoy. I asked Sarah how the printing process works. "We work with you on each and every project", she answered. "You bring in your own ideas and artwork, or we can take your ideas and work on your design for you. We have a graphic designer, Sandy Thompson, who will design any logo, artwork or graphic design you want. Once the design is approved, Roger Anderson is the Graphic Design Installer. He will take Sandy's work off the computer and put it on the medium ideal for the project. He then preps it for installation on vehicles, windows or smaller projects like coffee cups and anything, really."
Some of the other products at D & S are yard signs (think 2023 graduates and yard sales), party and wedding invitations, flyers, business cards, rack cards, invoices, sales forms, duplicate and triplicate forms, magnets and banners. Sarah can reproduce obsolete logos, large scale graphics for semi-trailers, trucks or cars, or your business store front.
If you need promotional products for your business, she will print on mouse pads, coffee mugs, coasters, cutting boards and ornaments in smaller quantities, and has access to wholesalers for larger quantities. Are you travelling soon? How about personalized luggage tags? Business meeting coming up? Maybe name tags, travel mugs or notepads with the name of your business on them?
Advertising is an important piece of any business to get the word out. She does banners, flyers and advertising for churches and schools, too!
I asked her how she got into this creative endeavor. Sarah is a Kenyon native, born and raised here. She moved away after graduating from college in 1982, and returned in 2012. She took a position as an office manager for another sign company, and ended up buying out the printing portion of the business in 2016.
Although running the business keeps her plenty busy, she also finds time to play in a Christian band called 2 Copper Coins. When asked the meaning of the band's name, she explained the story in the Bible about the Widows Mite (Mark 12: 38-44). Basically, although the widow gave only two copper coins to the offering at synagogue, those coins were all she had, and so she gave the greatest gift....everything she had to give. Sarah sells the band's CD's in the store. Also, Art Rew sets up events for the band, so if you would like to book them, call (507) 302-8133 for church services, etc.
In any case, you owe it to yourself to come in and check out all the possibilities you can create with this imaginative company. The sky is the limit!
