Before digital printing and vinyl graphics, the best business signs were built from wood. David Nadler understood that when he founded SignDesign in Des Moines, Iowa. The idea was direct: design signs that looked as good in ten years as they did the day they went in. Natural cedar. Artwork drawn and cut by hand. Colors chosen for the long Iowa winters and the hot summers that followed.
The business grew through the 1970s and 1980s, taking on clients across Des Moines, across Iowa, and into the broader Midwest. Golf courses. Apartment communities. Farms. City gateways. Restaurants. Every job was one of a kind because SignDesign made it that way.
David at 13
His son David Nadler started working in the business at thirteen years old. Not sweeping floors — working. His first assignment was a sales call to a city manager in Urbandale, Iowa. He went in, made the pitch, his dad came in behind him, and they got the job. The Urbandale Welcomes You sign stood at the city's edge for years. David grew up in Des Moines. He drove past that sign. That meant something.
He kept working in the business through his teenage years and eventually took it over, running it into the 1990s. The craft passed the way it was supposed to — by doing it.
John's Role
John Nadler, David's younger brother, was part of it too. He contributed design ideas, helped develop artwork, and showed up when large projects needed extra hands. SignDesign was a family operation in the truest sense. Des Moines roots, family work, community presence.
The Reach
The brochure used to say "Serving the Midwest with Signs and Designs of Distinction." That wasn't marketing — it was accurate. SignDesign's portfolio included clients from Des Moines to Wisconsin, from local apartment developers to regional businesses that needed something that would stand up and look right for years.
SignDesign is no longer in operation. This site is a record of what the business built, and a tribute to the work David Nadler started in Des Moines more than fifty years ago.