You Are Here, with Bill Galligan

When you deboard an airplane, how do you locate baggage claim? When visiting a new grocery store, how do you find the Cape Cod chips? William (Bill) Galligan is a husband, father, and small business owner who thinks about these problems, a lot. His East Providence-based company, Wayfinder Collaborative, handles the design and installation of all manors of signage. While you might not hear much from wayfinding signage designers at TED, their work is central to how we orient ourselves in increasingly complex built environments. Here’s Bill.

The Well (TW): Hey Bill, where ya from? 

Bill Galligan: Like many, I’m a transplant to R.I. I grew up in Massachusetts with a bit of a chip on my shoulder, and a real lack of appreciation for lil’ Rhody. I relocated here when my wife started working in healthcare and over time, have fully embraced my home in Providence and Rhode Island. We’re raising our family here and have found a great community. I love the way we all cross paths; the interconnectedness here. Love the diversity and neighborhoods in and around Providence and East Providence. Hate the driving, though! 

TW: Why’d you pick East Providence as a place to set up shop?  

BG: Initially, proximity to my Jiu-Jitsu Academy. I was coming here for classes weekly and saw a sign for offices and studio spaces for rent. I called, got a tour, and it has totally worked out. I can just walk next door and take mid-day classes whenever I want. I guess I like convenience. It's in a great location for the work I do, job sites range from NYC to north of Boston. 

TW: And, what exactly are you doing over there? Designing, fabricating?

BG: I am basically a general contractor for signage. When a client has a specific need, such as interior signage for a residential development, I collaborate with them to determine all the necessary signs for code compliance and branding opportunities. I estimate all the costs and set a budget and once approved, we engage in an iterative design process to create custom signage for the project. After finalizing a design, we source the signage from our wholesale fabrication partners and supervise the installation with our own teams. We oversee the entire process. As an example, we recently completed a project involving a three-building residential development in Boston—former piano manufacturing buildings transformed into apartments. The signage there reflects the history of the buildings, while also matching the updated modern interiors.

TW: Got it. One of our favorite local signs was the Wayland Bakery one. RIP buddy. How about you—what are your favorite haunts; places you’d send a tourist friend. Besides Myrtle.

BG: Favorite bar right now is the Walnut Room; I love the vibe and cocktails there. I really like the burgers at There. My favorite pizza is Jeff’s (ig) in East Prov. right across from Myrtle.

Above: Lobby signage and sculpture for Olympus Surgical Technologies America

TW: And what are you listening to? In and out of the office.

BG: Right now, my regular rotation includes this folk artist, John Moreland. I saw him last year at The Sinclair in Cambridge and it was great! In the office, I have a running loop of 80’s new wave and 90’s alt rock. I have a functioning cassette tape player in my truck, so I've been listening to $.99 tapes I find. I recently came across The Cars album Candy-O, the B-52s self-titled album and the Miami Vice soundtrack, which is terrible, but Crockett’s Theme hits me right every time with the windows down and wind blowing. 

TW: Sunset. Waterfront Drive. We see it. OK so back to business. Why signage?

BG: No one goes to school dreaming of being a sign maker; you fall into this. I went to a trade high school for commercial art, and participated in a co-op program where I was placed at a sign shop every other week. I started doing drawing revisions, and they ended up hiring me over the summer, helping with installation and production. After college, this sign shop hired me as my first full-time job, and I spent a year there before being laid off. I went to another sign company and, after five years, worked my way from junior designer to senior designer. I then made a triumphant return to the original sign company that laid me off as a senior designer and account manager. In this role, I started to grow my network and an understanding of the operational side of the business. I stayed there for 16 years, reaching the role of Sales Leader with my own book of accounts and four salespeople reporting to me, and being part of the leadership team. The company was sold to an investment firm, and I was let go at that time. That's when I decided to go out on my own, starting Wayfinder Collaborative.

TW: You’re designing for an audience of all possible people, right? How do you think about the different ways humans orient themselves, locate information naturally, etc?   

BG: Everything we do is with accessibility and inclusion in mind. While The Americans with Disabilities Act mandates certain signage to meet specific standards, it's important to design with an even wider understanding of inclusion in mind. For a recent project, we researched colors that would be most visible to those with various forms of color blindness, to ensure that graphics like texts, maps, and directional information would be readable in any viewing condition. We collaborated with the City of Cambridge to refine the look and feel of these signs, making sure they were appealing to everyone and functional for the visually impaired. We included Braille messaging, which isn’t legally required for exterior wayfinding, but matters. When designing, we consider things like touch, feel, and sound. The more inclusive our design approach, the more successful the project becomes. 

TW: You mentioned I went to a trade school for commercial art—were you always a creative kid? What toys were your jam?

BG: I was obsessed with Matchbox cars as a kid. In addition to collecting them, what I really enjoyed was setting up cities and towns with roads and buildings to create scenarios for my cars. We had this old pool table in our basement which was the perfect blank canvas to create scenes for my cars to interact with. I would use all sorts of media from Legos and Lincoln Logs to found-objects and materials to build and set up these scenes. It was as if I were a city planner and I found hours of joy and entertainment creating these worlds.

Above: Fabricated aluminum signs wrapping in production at Mandeville Signs, Lincoln, RI.

TW: What was your own wider world like around then?

BG: The best way to describe growing up is being between two worlds. At a young age, we moved from New York to Massachusetts, and much of my childhood was spent traveling between NY and MA for family events and holidays. When not traveling I had a very rural life, growing up in a small town with a street that looks like it belongs on a postcard. Lots of neighborhood friends, summers outside, riding bikes, building jumps, playing in vacant lots, and exploring. Later, I left my hometown school system to go to a regional high school, which was the door that opened me up to a world beyond. It was the beginning of my creative journey and where I made lifelong friends who continually inspire and push me to be creative.

TW: Are you still building jumps in empty lots? Or, what are you doing for recreation and mental health as an adult?

BG: I am able to design, create, and manage my projects better as a result of my practice of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It has taught me how to be more present and creative in the moment; to let go of what is not working with optimism because something better will always present itself. I’ve learned to embrace the challenging journey ahead and feel that with perseverance and determination, all things are achievable. I try to train BJJ a minimum of 3x per week with at least two of those mid-day during the week. I stretch and work on flexibility regularly. I generally try to eat healthy and practice moderation for things like alcohol or sugary/starchy foods.

TW: Is there a “You gotta know when to fold ‘em!” joke here? Moving on...Where’s the biz right now? Are you in the black yet? 

BG: Doing great, I would say. I live a life of very little financial concern which for me is the goal. I don't need much to get by and I like to live below my means so as not to be working to live. I work because I love what I do and I have the means to enjoy life as I see fit.

Above: Bill with his wife, Leigh Hubbard, President of the American Nurses Association and Magnet Program Manager at Miriam Hospital.

TW: You’re pretty involved in your local church right? Give us a sense of who you are in the wider community. Or where Wayfinder meets the community.

BG: My company is a for-profit company. That is the goal, to make money. That said, I frequently work for non-profits where my bottom line is not the driving force. I like to work with groups I believe in. So when we did work for the ACLU of Boston, Helping Hands, SouthSide Community Land Trust, or Grace Episcopal Church, I found ways to offer my services at a discount and to work with these clients to ease the financial component of the job. Whether that is selling the product at cost to them or offering no charge for design I am willing to make certain cost cuts to help a good cause. I’ve also been a volunteer with Dorcas International for 3 years now through Grace Episcopal Church. There, I have been coordinating apartment clean-ups for arriving refugee families—this has been some of the most satisfying work I have ever participated in, and I love how owning my own business allows me to prioritize it. If a family of 6 is arriving from Afghanistan and needs an apartment clean and ready, that means part of my day is organizing teams to make it happen for them. The sign work can come later.

TW: Good stuff, Bill! We also want to hear a bit about SEGD and the meetups you’re working on in town.

BG: This was a fun experience. I am one of the three co-chairs for the SEGD Boston Chapter, that’s the Society of Experiential Graphic Designers. We usually organize about four events a year, most of which take place in and around Boston, but I’d been advocating for a Providence event for a long time. I wanted to invite people to come down here and see all the fun and creative work that's happening, all that inspired me to establish my own business here. The tour was called Handmade in Providence and it focused on three shops on the west side. 

TW: Any plans for future events?

BG: My SEGD co-chairs and I are working on a studio tour of SoSo, a digital firm focused on the merge of architecture, design, and technology with a specific focus on AI. We are targeting September, up in Boston.

TW: So for Handmade in Providence, where’d you visit?

BG: We started at Ogie's Trailer Park where we all met for drinks and appetizers, then made our way to Nightlight Neon. Here, we met with Nick McNight, the owner, who showed us the ins and outs of hand-bent neon and the art and science that goes into each piece. After that, we walked to Providence Painted Signs where Shawn Gillheneey talked about the history of hand-painted signage, his creative process, and some of the work he has done. Lastly, we headed over to DWRI Letterpress where Dan Wood walked us through the history of letterpress and many of the operational pieces he has in his shop. Each of us even got to create a custom print promoting the event. The response was great, with about seventeen people participating in the walking tour. My hope is that it sheds a little more light on the coolness of Providence.

TW: Quality names! Not so long ago, you transitioned from being a sole-operator to having staff. Can you speak on that transition a bit? 

BG: It was a big step to bring on staff. but I knew it was something I needed to do to grow and keep managing the projects I have. I have a great mentor who has helped me tremendously in these decisions; I cannot recommend more finding someone who has done the things you want to do, or some version of it, and ask them questions. Ask all the questions you have, as ridiculous or unthought out as they may seem. Keeping them in is not helping you. I talked to my mentor about when was the right time to bring on help, and they helped me come to the decision on my own as to when the right time for me was. It's a leap of faith to bring on help. I needed to first truly understand what I was capable of doing on my own, both output and financially, and to understand where I was spending time that was not specifically generating new work. What was left was the roles of the person or persons I needed. Once I identified that, it was easier to know who I was looking for, and it wasn't long before I found them. 

Above: Custom wall graphics produced during the initial masking phase of Covid 19

BG: What do you want for your employees? Beyond just their having a job.

BG: I believe in building and running a workplace that I would want to be a part of. One that understands we have lives outside of work and that it is a struggle sometimes to fit the life we want into busy schedules. I have a simple philosophy: I want to have a workplace that is fun and fulfilling for those that work for me. I mean, let's be serious, we make signs. There is no reason to be stressed. Any and all problems are solvable, and I am here to support and help. I don’t spend time counting the hours of the people that work for me. As long as the job gets done right, that we are doing our absolute best work for our clients, that we put ourselves in our clients' shoes to understand their needs as people, we are fulfilling the mission. I will support my employees to live the life they want, to craft the work schedule that works best for them, and to foster an environment that allows for growth and opportunity.

TW: You must get stressed sometimes, though? How do you deal?

BG: I find that honesty is your ally in business. The lesson I have learned that has helped me over and over again is not to be afraid to share bad news with your clients the moment you learn of it. It is always worse if you wait. I have made that mistake and it has never ended well. Anytime a problem arises, I am quick to share it with the client so that they are aware. From there I can work on solutions or alternatives but at least all parties are informed which always feels better on the other side of the problem.

TW: What do you think your best creative project to date’s been? 

BG: I mean, starting my business is what I am most proud of. We do lots of great work and have some amazing clients. Looking back five years—taking that initial step, believing that I could do this on my own, it’s an amazing feeling. I didn’t necessarily have the knowledge on how to do it all, but had the fortitude and determination to know I’d be able to figure it out. I look back at these last few years and see some of my most profound personal growth. I wouldn’t change anything.