AND THE AWARDS GO TO…
The Winners of This Year’s FASTSIGNS Project of the Year BY RICHARD ROMANO AND AMY NOBLE
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ASTSIGNS Hattiesburg (Miss.) took top honors as this year’s FASTSIGNS Project of the Year. FASTSIGNS Syracuse (N.Y.) and FASTSIGNS San Diego (Cal.) were this year’s runners-up. Choosing the best signage and display graphics project is always a tough business, as the competition is fierce, but three projects—one in particular—stood out from the pack in this year’s FASTSIGNS Project of the Year Awards, which were given out at this year’s FASTSIGNS Conference, held February 6–9 in Orlando, Fla.
FASTSIGNS HATTIESBURG: CIVIL RIGHTS MEMORIAL WALL Taking top honors this year was FASTSIGNS Hattiesburg (Miss.) for an illuminated signage project for an outdoor museum/historic site for the Hattiesburg Convention Commission. Comprising a 370-foot wall of illuminated signage, the memorial honors African-American residents of the city who were known for their leadership, service, and inspiration. The memorial is located on the grounds
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ISSUE TWO 2024 WhatTheyThink
of the Historic Eureka School, a pre-desegregation African-American school in Hattiesburg, built in 1921, that has since become a civil rights museum. Three years in development, the project began when the Convention Commission approached FASTSIGNS Hattiesburg with a general idea of what they were looking for. “They had seen an example of a bridge that was done similar to it,” said Justin Blackburn, co-owner of FASTSIGNS Hattiesburg, “but all they had were some pictures. They said, ‘do you think you can do this?’” Justin and co-owner Amanda Blackburn met with the commission, discussed the project, and ultimately decided they could take it on. “I didn’t know how we could do it, but I was sure we could!” said Justin—a common refrain at the start of almost any Project of the Year. It took a few years for the Convention Commission to pick who specifically was going on the wall, but once the final line-up was decided, the project moved ahead quickly, and the FASTSIGNS Hattiesburg team started building the 70+ cabinets. “We probably started building cabinets sometime around the