ER2 Image Group: Displaying Fearless Innovation

As a business that started with a desire for something different, ER2 Image Group has grown from a Chicago-based sign shop to a forward-looking — and forward-moving — company that utilizes wide-format printing, in addition to many other foci and skills.

Owner Gary Schellerer shares that the company got its start in 1991 when his father, who at the time was working at Chicago’s downtown Hyatt Hotel, decided to seek a new profession — a fresh start for himself.

His decision was to purchase a Signs by Tomorrow franchise operation. Fifteen years later, he says, the company bought its way out of its franchise arrangement. “We didn’t feel the branding [of the franchise parent company] was attracting the right customers.” With that move, ER2 Image Group was born.

Today, Schellerer says, “It’s a company that utilizes print.” Though, he adds, “We are definitely not a printer anymore.” He describes printing as being more like one tool among many others in ER2’s company toolbox. ER2’s work today focuses on target areas including fleet graphics, architecture and interiors, and retail.

A Commitment to Innovation

Asked how the company defines innovation. Schellerer says its spirit exists in nearly everything the company does. “Internally, we have a lot. We are constantly improving processes. Every issue we see, we try to improve and redesign to prevent problems.” By doing this, he adds, the company can achieve models that work.

The company also benefits from an external focus on innovation, drawn from lessons learned through complex, challenging jobs. For instance, Schellerer says, each interior design job — regardless of its complexity — is a one-off project. “You’re not doing it a thousand times,” he clarifies. Because of this, these jobs can also be difficult to estimate.

But by evaluating results and possessing the humility to learn from its experiences, ER2 is able to achieve what Schellerer calls a “slow process of redefinition.” Others might call it evolution, even reinvention. Regardless of what it’s called, it is a successful effort that steers the company toward opportunity and toward higher-value markets.

Credit: ER2 Image Group

The quest to follow opportunity has led the company to expand into fabrication, serving as a valued player in innovative construction projects. Production-wise, that has led it into the use of routers, injection molding, and the pouring of composite materials. “We’re constantly pushing the team to find ways — and better ways — of doing things.” This also, he says, requires stepping out of one’s comfort zone and becoming “almost fearless.”

ER2 has also branched into experiential work, and Schellerer says competing in that emerging, imaginative area requires holding relationships with those who initiate such work. Serving that space, he says, the work “has to be perfect and has to be on time.” The company often finds itself with shortened production windows for experiential jobs, Schellerer says, “because we’re at the end of the flow chart.”

Truly Impressive

The result of ER2’s “redefinition” is that the company is now regularly counted on to produce highly-complicated projects — a reality now far beyond the company’s starting point. “We work very hard on these complex projects,” Schellerer says. “Architects are always trying to push us to the next level.” Success in — and access to — these jobs comes from being the company that can bring an architectural vision to reality.

This ER2-produced large window graphic at the Chicago History Museum presents an impressive display from both inside and outside.
| Credit: ER2 Image Group

Sharing the company’s successes is also a key aspect of attracting other high-value work. So much so that Schellerer says the company employs a photographer and videographer to document the work it has done in a way that highlights its uniqueness and value.

For example, recently ER2 worked on a project for the new Uber headquarters in Chicago. The job involved creating a wall display for more than 1,000 truck mirrors, tilted at angles designed to reflect (literally) the city’s winds.

Another example: ER2 has repeatedly applied window films to the vast, glass-enclosed front of the Chicago History Museum. Because translucent window films are used, bright lighting from inside creates a large, hard-to-miss night time backlit display for passersby.

The company also produced a widely seen exterior art application in Chicago, at the intersection of State Street and Adams Street. That application featured bright blocks and stripes of pure color applied to walls, sidewalks, streets, and other features.

Becoming What is Next

Schellerer shares that part of serving a new market entails becoming that new market — serving it in a way that fits for the company. One aspect of this effort was establishing what ER2 calls its Applied Surfaces Team. “We found that the architecture and design world require a differently designed sales force,” Schellerer says. He adds that what goes into completing these types of jobs — as opposed to many of the company’s more traditional sign and graphics focused work — requires different knowledge, and different skill sets. To meet that need, ER2 employs an architect and an engineer, as well as people well-versed in 3D printing and CAD applications.

Further, fabrication is essential in serving this space. And while he says he would love to invest in additional fabrication capacity, space limitations currently prevent that. A plan to add onto the company’s current facility would expand the metal shop, paint department, and carpentry space.

Serving the architectural and design spaces also requires a deeper knowledge of materials — a quest that includes expanded sourcing, strong supplier relationships, careful inventory control, and, of course, the ability to work with uncommon materials. Schellerer says changes in printing technology have made printing “less finicky,” easing that aspect of production.

Being (and Staying) Innovative

Asked what other producers can do to ensure they’re as innovative as they need to be, Schellerer says it’s important to not simply consider themselves printers. “Go beyond it,” he says, “and find other applications. Don’t pigeonhole yourself. Keep your eyes open.” And for him, keeping his eyes open means understanding the expanded variety of products and applications that can be produced, even with existing equipment. As an example, he shares that his company was able to produce roughly 400,000 face masks during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finally, Schellerer says, companies must manage their employees effectively, treat people well, create a strong culture, and create a space and environment where employees can enjoy what they do.