Wednesday 30 April 2014

Let Us Do the Heavy Lifting

Since the beginning, our focus has always been on our customers and meeting their needs. It’s for that reason that although we started out in the Christmas décor business, as we grew, we expanded into different markets first introducing the flags & banners division and then the site furniture division. In doing so we were able to further meet the needs of our already loyal customers and create new relationships as well, essentially becoming a one stop shop for enhancement products.

As we continue to enhance our three divisions through the introduction of new products, we also want to further increase our offerings to our customers through a variety of services.  You’ve read about our maintenance and refurbishing services as well as our storage facility, however our most utilized service would be our installations which we offer throughout the GTA in all three of our divisions.

Holiday Displays
Installations are just one aspect of the turn key service we provide for our Holiday Displays, and it is the most popular. We manufacture a variety of holiday displays ranging from indoor, large scale Christmas trees to large LED roof mount and pole mount displays and we have the tools and capability to install all of it. Christmas installs begin in early October with general tree lighting taking place first with the large Christmas Display installations beginning after Halloween.

Our crew of well trained installers work through the night installing displays on light poles on town and city streets, in parking lots and on office buildings to bring a touch of the Holiday spirit to well traveled areas. The work takes place at night to ensure we aren’t impeding any major traffic with our trucks and workers. Interior Christmas installations also take place during off hours to avoid interrupting business and foot traffic in malls and office buildings. Our crew takes the utmost care when installing these large and often heavy displays and uses a variety of different techniques to ensure they are properly secured and will remain in place in whatever weather Mother Nature throws at us. 


Site Furniture
We understand that sometimes our customers don’t have the staff or time to install large pieces of site furniture that they order from us. That’s why we offer an installation service for our customers located within the GTA. We recommend that all site furniture be affixed to the ground to ensure your investment doesn’t disappear overnight and we use stainless steel hardware to avoid rusting and maintain an aesthetically pleasing look.

If you are replacing existing pieces we are happy to remove the existing site furniture and take it off of your hands or deliver it to where it needs to be. All we require for installation is a detailed map of the area to show us where all of the pieces are going and we will do the rest for you!


Flags & Banners
The installation of banners is also a very common request we receive and something we do regularly. We will not only install banners that we have manufactured for you but we will also install any existing banners you already have. We can do this on existing hardware or start from scratch and install new hardware that can be purchased with us.  Much like with the installation of site furniture all that is required is a map outlining the location of all the poles that will be receiving banners and which banner if you have multiple designs. Again we can do these installations later in the evening or early morning to ensure we are not affecting traffic.



For all of our installations, regardless of what division of products you are ordering from, we will do a site meeting with you where we can determine the location for all of the pieces. During the visit we will inspect the area to note what type of fixtures and materials we are affixing the enhancement products to so we have the proper hardware to do so. Let us do the heavy lifting so you don’t have to!

Monday 14 April 2014

The Importance of Accessibility

When furnishing a public space such as a park, a city street or a shopping centre, it’s important to remember who uses these areas; Everyone.  And not everyone has the same capabilities. You may think you are doing everybody a service by providing them with a bench to take a break on or a picnic table to enjoy a nice meal outside and you are, however the majority of site furniture is not designed for people with disabilites or those that just need a bit more support.

Picnic tables are a great addition to any park or shared outdoor area and although they seem accessible to everyone, including those with wheelchairs, that is not the case. The open ends of picnic tables may seem like an easy enough solution for those in wheelchairs to wheel up to, however the design of most picnic tables has the legs too close to the end of the table.

There are picnic tables on the market that have been designed to better accommodate those with wheelchairs. Some of those designs include regular style picnic tables that only have seating on one side or have an extended table top to allow room for those with wheelchairs. Our own MODC table was designed for the March of Dimes Canada and is a square table with built in seating on two sides and open seating on the other two sides to allow for wheelchair access. 


There are a variety of bench styles available on the market and the majority are fairly accessible, however there is always room for improvement. Benches tend to be low to the ground and fairly deep, making it difficult for some users to enter and exit the bench, especially if the bench doesn’t have arms. Another issue with the average park bench is that the material to make benches is hard, there is no give and unfortunately does not conform to the shape of a person’s body in anyway. We took all of this into account when we began designing a line of ergonomically correct benches.


Our line of ergonomic benches, that includes the Ergo, Heritage and Contour bench, address all the flaws of the common park bench that are listed above. The seat height of the benches range from 18.5” to 20” and features curved seating to allow the user to roll on and off the bench with ease. Raised arm rests further aid the entry and exiting process. The Ergo and Heritage bench feature further ergonomics through built in lumbar support with a curved back which giving the user more comfort and support.


The ergonomically correct line of benches are the ideal solution for those with disabilities and seniors, as they are more accessible and user friendly and make a great addition to any public space. Not every piece of site furniture on a property is going to be accessible to everyone, however having a few wheelchair accessible tables to go along with your regular picnic tables, and some ergonomically correct benches along side your existing benches will ensure that anyone can find a suitable place to sit and enjoy the public space.  



Tuesday 1 April 2014

Customization at Classic Displays

Housing three divisions of products at Classic Displays (Site Furniture, Holiday Displays, Flags & Banners), you can imagine how expansive our product lines are. Regardless of the number of products we have to offer, our customers don’t necessarily want stock items; they want something more personalized. It is for that reason that we offer a number of customization options in each of our divisions.


Site Furniture

At Classic Displays we understand that well manufactured, long lasting site furniture can be a large investment, which is why we want to make these piece multi functional for our customers. Why should a waste receptacle be used solely to collect garbage when it can also help further brand a company, city street or act as an advertisement for a local business?

Most of our waste receptacles can be customized simply through the addition of a logo, while others have more extensive options, like our Phoenix Unit. Our Phoenix has the space to do a logo on either side of the container but it also has an interchangeable community messaging centre as well as optional advertising panels. Great for communities, this unit helps keep the streets litter free while keeping local residents informed.


With site furniture, the customization doesn’t stop at waste receptacles. We do a number of different types of bench customizations including embossed ends, which is very popular on our Riverside benches and can be seen in the City of Toronto and on Sparks Street in Ottawa. Our new Heritage bench also has customizable ends through the optional logo and name plate. Plaques are also available for the majority of our benches.



Christmas Displays

We’ve been in the Christmas décor business since 1977 and we have done a number of custom jobs since then. The nice thing about the LED displays that we manufacture is that it’s easy for our customers to share their design concepts with us and we can turn around and make them a reality. And it doesn’t have to be just for Christmas.

We’ve manufactured a number of year round LED Displays based on Business Improvement Area’s (BIAs) logos. Examples of these can be seen on Sparks Street in Ottawa and in Danforth Village in Toronto. Another example of custom year round displays would be those manufactured for Gravenhurst. All of their displays had the same base but the tops were boats or loons.



Flags & Banners

Having customers request custom flags or banners, as opposed to purchasing the stock designs we carry, is fairly common. It’s an easy process.  The customer provides artwork that we then resize according to the banner size and then we have them printed and sewn, the process for custom flags being very much the same. What a number of people don’t realize is that the customization options don’t end there; we can also customize the banner arms.


Using laser cut steel, we can create custom banner and floral arms by cutting names and designs into them. It’s a great way to enhance a city street or BIA and examples of this can be found in the Islington BIA and Emery Village.



Offering a wide variety of customization options to our customers is something we think separates us from the rest. To increase our capabilities in this area we have a graphic designer on staff that can turn our customers ideas into working designs in the event our customers don’t have the capacity to do so themselves. We also have an in house engineer that has worked on a number of custom site furniture products, from designing new pieces that we’ve have not previously manufactured to making alterations to our existing products to better suit the needs of the customer.

Regardless of the scope of work for a customization project we work closely with our customers every step of the way to ensure they end up with a product that satisfies their needs!