WOMEN IN SIGNAGE CHLOE QUILTY AILSA BREALEY The evolution and revolution of women in signage Gone are the days when being a woman in signage almost certainly meant working the reception desk or handling the business admin; approaching 40% of TAFE apprentices in Victoria are female, and the industry has made great strides towards equity and equality. Meet Ailsa Brealey, owner of Impression Signs in Rosebud, Victoria; and Chloe Quilty, Signs and Graphics teacher at Victoria University (VU) Polytechnic, Sunshine campus. Both women fell in love with signage straight out of school - Brealey got started when her father suggested she do her Year 10 work experience at Progress Signs in Mornington. Brealey describes herself as “sold” on day one, despite not knowing anything about sign writing. Quilty similarly says she was hooked when she attended a “Try a Trade” day in Year 12. Quilty described herself as “always artsy” and knew she wanted to teach, but she considered “Signs and Graphics” as a career path only when she had a hands-on opportunity. Brealey joined Progress Signs, completing a pre-apprenticeship before leaving school to work for the company, part-time at first and then later full-time. Brealey says she learnt everything on the job from Graeme Pollerd, the owner and his two sons, Steve and Craig. Brealey says she loved every minute of working at Progress. Quilty signed up for a 3-month pre-apprenticeship to test the waters and followed this by completing her apprenticeship and 18 OCT/NOV 2022 concurrently exploring what would be required to teach. Quilty returned to VU Polytechnic after she had the requisite ten years of experience under her belt, and she now runs the “Try a Trade” days where she first fell in love with signage, calling it a “full circle moment”. After her time at Progress Signs, Brealey worked for a new Sign-a-Rama franchise and eventually struck out on her own subbing while starting up Impression Signs part-time from her spare room. Brealey says, “This, I see now, was an invaluable part of the growth in my career and my overall confidence in the industry. I worked all over Melbourne and the Outer Suburbs with so many different people with so many different skills, varying abilities and different ways of operating. I was more capable and had much more knowledge than I believed.” Over the years, the spare room moved over to the garage/carport, then became a home studio, and now Impression Signs has a factory, with Brealey mentoring a young apprentice. The business has an in-house Mimaki Latex 6 colour, two 1600mm Mimaki Plotters, and Brealey is proud to say they own an Emtak Laminator manufactured in Australia; they also have a heat press and rollover table. The business has grown to the point that Brealey’s husband, a shopfitter by trade, has joined her full-time as of September 2022. Brealey says she is inspired by Neil Hyde, a traditional signwriter and hand painter whom she worked with at Progress Signs, describing his skill as mesmerising to watch and “second to none”. Quilty says her students’ energy and passion inspire her to be the best teacher she can be, noting that enrolment numbers are up, boding well for the future of the sign and display industry. Both women speak about the increased I realised number of women in the industry and the great strides forward over the last twenty years. Brealey mentions that she would like to see more women doing signage installations and not just wrapping. She feels the ladies have been pigeonholed a bit into the intricate work because of a perception that they have greater attention to detail. Quilty says that although it may seem as if the change is slow, if one looks back ten or twelve years, the progress is evident. Her current student cohort is almost equally gender-balanced, which Brealey describes as “unheard of” in prior decades. Photo Credit: Kerry Borgula (38th Parallel Productions)
