The Flickering logo ? ... its not your computer !!

About Tom Bailey Signs

When I was 17 years old and needed some money for a date, I answered a temporary job advertisement in the newspaper and was hired by Mr.Ronnie Zwirtz at Mid-Del Sign Company as a helper, sweeping floors, popping rivets, and cutting artwork with an X-Acto knife.

Mr. Zwirtz noticed that I had a steady hand and could cut graphics very well. At the time I was still in high school studying architecture and engineering, learning about scale, and developing a natural ability to draw freehand and think creatively. He encouraged me to design signs and begin learning the trade.

As a young person, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. In the years that followed, I got married and went to work for an architectural firm and later for a natural gas compressor company doing engineering drawings.

After about five years working for Cooper Energy Services, Ronnie called me one day and asked if I would design a sign for a store called Sun & Ski Sports in Oklahoma City. I created the color drawings for that project, and I can still see them in my mind today. They were crude by today’s standards, but advanced for the time. Ronnie was impressed.

I spent more than 20 years working with Ronnie and helping his company grow. He often took me along on sales calls so I could sketch what customers were describing right there on the spot. Before long I was producing artistic renderings and designs for several people in the company, learning Corel DRAW, and creating full-color sign presentations using vinyl graphics with the assistance of his son and my Friend Mr. Robin Zwirtz

Later I was hired away by Yesco, the largest sign company in the world, as a designer in Las Vegas, Nevada. It didn’t take long in the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas for me to realize that Oklahoma was my home.

When I returned, I briefly worked at Metro Sign Company as a designer before deciding to go into business for myself. I started a fast sign and banner company called SignWiz (the first time I used the letter “Z” in a business name).

In My Company Ronnie and I always continued working together as great friends, if fact and ill never forgt this on day i went to Ronnies House on Anderson Road and he cut some Graphics for me when i was about to leave i reached out to shake his hand and he pulled me in and hugged me as he laughed as if to say listen kid we aren't Business associates we are Caring Friends

I owe my entire professional career to my friend and mentor, Ronnie Swartz, and his wife, Denise and their family. They treated me like family, and I have never forgotten that. Through the years I learned a tremendous amount from Ronnie—his insight into the electric sign business, his experience, and his constant encouragement and confidence in me.

Those lessons helped shape what would become more than four decades of electric sign design, fabrication, and installation throughout Oklahoma and across the United States.

People sometimes ask, “Why do you have the Z in your logo? And what does the RZ stand for?”

Now you know.

It has never been about a clever marketing idea or design element. It is a personal and quiet tribute to my great friend, Mr. Ronnie Zwirtz, whose optimism and positivity helped shape the person I am today.

Ronnie always had a phrase he loved to say:

“That’s just out of sight...Thank You RZ