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Click on image slices below to view some of our historic samples in a new pop up window |
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Harting Graphics was founded in 1876 on a tradition of fine craftsmanship. Allan Harting, Sr., who relocated his family from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, saw a promising future in the burgeoning carriage trade in Wilmington, Delaware. Most of the carriages and, later, the early automobiles were designed for commercial use. Trades people and vendors who wanted to expand their businesses quickly recognized the benefits of advertising on the sides of the vehicles. Harting’s skill with a paintbrush soon attracted more business than he could handle alone. Allan’s sons, Frank and Allan, Jr., joined their father’s trade and the business began to grow.
The demand for sign writing, show cards and customized storefront displays in the rapidly growing town kept the Hartings and their few employees busy until the early 1900’s when, once again, the automobile enlarged the need for talented sign painters. During this time, and particularly in the post WWI era, increasing numbers of families who now owned a car, were driving farther from home. Gas stations were unheard of, and travelers began buying fuel from farmers who kept storage tanks for their tractors. The Philadelphia area refineries began supporting this trend with larger tanks for the farmers and large advertisements for their gasoline on the farmers’ barns.
The Harting Sign Company grew to over twenty employees who were dispatched by train up and down the Delmarva Peninsula to hand paint the Sun and Gulf Oil logos on precariously pitched roofs, where the traveling motorists could spot them. The sign painter had to borrow a ladder from the farmer but carried the tools of his trade in a specially designed kit that fit under his seat on the train.
During the 1930’s, the neon that first lit up America’s storefronts in the 20’s became a defining element of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco architectural revolution. By this time, a third generation of Hartings was custom designing signs. Neon lettering and decorative borders were a natural solution to the enduring challenge of garnering customers’ attention. Harting Sign Company offered the only local source for electric signs and by the end of the decade had purchased one of the first truck mounted erection cranes in the country.
The invention of acrylics and fluorescent light during World War II greatly expanded the availability of electric signs. Not only were lighted signs now more affordable, the range of graphic images and detail were almost limitless. Harry E. Harting, returning from the war in Europe, began working with his father, Edward and his uncle Harry to develop the metalworking and electrical capabilities of the company and take advantage of the new technologies. During the post-war years, Harting electric signs became the standard for quality and custom design, incorporating new materials, such as aluminum and polycarbonate, and new components, such as digital time and temperature units.
Corporate clients such as E.I. Dupont, Wilmington Trust and Delmarva Power and Light joined the list of devoted retail and trade customers, and, in the mid-1960’s, the company sold its Shipley Street building and moved into a 9000 square feet facility on north Market Street. By 1976, when Harting Sign Company celebrated its centennial anniversary, the company had designed and installed thousands of signs, many of which remain landmarks of the Wilmington landscape.
In 1980, the Board of Directors, looking to expand capabilities and markets, purchased the Keith Lawrence Company, a respected screen-printing firm, and changed the name of the growing company to Harting Graphics, Ltd. Harry was made Chairman and his son, Ted, was named President and CEO. A new niche in advertising display, supported by the enhanced screen-printing techniques, fit well with the quick response, high quality tradition that had earned the Harting companies the by-line “Sudden Service By Experts”. Harting Graphics pioneered computer-generated graphics and CAD cut lettering in the early 1980’s. The new technology made professionally lettered signs available to a wider range of commercial uses.
Computers revolutionized the sign industry, and the relationship continued to grow. In the early 90’s, in cooperation with Lockheed Corporation and The DuPont Company (who were developing toners locally), Harting Graphics acquired the first large format digital printing equipment available to the sign industry. Rapidly evolving software and firmware developments soon allowed easy communication between the sign company and their creative customers. In addition to four-color digital graphics, customers could have their designs screen-printed on posters, applied to the sides of their trucks or even splashed across the sides of their buildings with the ease of emailing a file.
The new technologies required a different environment from what the old sign shop offered, and so, in 1999, Harting Graphics moved to a larger, modern facility at 111 North Cleveland Avenue. Today, we continue to add new technologies to our rich history of expert consultation, inventive engineering, skilled artisans and our total dedication to deliver customized solutions.
Then. Now. Always.
