Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Eddie Adams. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Eddie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I’d worked at several sign shops and places that offer engraving services over the last twelve years, as well as growing up around my grandpa’s sign shop. One thing I always thought would be cool was to show that this industry is fun, and has a lot of room for creativity. Granted, these places mostly dealt with executive awards, name tags, door signs, and stuff like that, but I always liked to sneak in little personal projects that would teach me more about how the equipment works. New ideas, seeing the extent of what the machines can do,.. My business partner, Chrissy, and I set out to show that there is almost an infinite amount of cool and fun things you can do in this business. Sure, we still make the awards, name tags, plaques, and stuff like that. But we like for the customer to leave our shop thinking, “Oh, you can do that with the same machine that makes our name badges? That’s pretty rad.”

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hello! I co-own and operate Axiom Design & Engraving with my partner, Chrissy. My grandfather started a sign shop after retiring when I was pretty young. I would hang around his shop, where he cultivated a deep interest in everything creative. He taught me how to use some of his machines, and I set out just making engraved mirrors and signs with nonsensical kid stuff on them. In my late twenties I got a job doing design work at an engraving shop, and realized that this was awfully close to a lot of the things we did in my grandpa’s barn-turned-shop as a kid. So I dove head first in learning all I could about the industry and the equipment.
So now we’ve made it our business engraving glassware, corporate awards, promotional items, gifts, most things you can think of when it comes to personalized stuff! Even if you don’t totally know what you want to get, we’ll work with you to come up with the perfect gift, or even something personal to display for yourself!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Like a lot of small businesses, covid really took a toll on us. We had just gotten our first shop space, and were settling in with the clientele we had acquired by that time, then boom. No one needed awards, because they weren’t having banquets anymore. No one needed name tags, as they were paring back their staff. That’s when we had to rely on the fun side of the business to keep us afloat. We sold personalized products on Etsy, really anywhere that didn’t require selling in person. So with some luck and a little compassion from the building owners, we were able to get through it and essentially back to normal. So, because of our creative knack, we were able to tread water long enough to build onto our business, and actually ended up coming out the other side a lot stronger than we were in the beginning.
We still like doing the fun stuff for events like comic book conventions and whatnot. And because of our resilience, we have the means to do that and more.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

We build and engrave a lot of our products from the ground up; pretty much everything is done in house. I learned about sandblasting glass, the various lasers we use for engraving, and the actual construction of products either from my grandpa’s shop, or at one of the sign businesses I’ve worked at previously. Chrissy learned the ins and outs of sublimation printing at her last job, So our customers don’t have to worry about having a robot take their order, and not knowing who is actually engraving your product, like the various online-only businesses. Chrissy works with the customer from the very beginning, to the very end, and tries her best to be available for when the customer has any questions or changes in their order.
Another common thing is for the customer to bring us an item that they purchased or built themselves. Watches, homemade duck calls, things like that. We still engrave everything in house, so you’ll always know that your prized belongings will always be in our building, safe and sound.

Contact Info:

• Website: axiomengraving.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/axiomengraving
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/axiomengraving
• Other: TikTok: @axiomengraving

Image Credits
Eddie Adams