For Westhampton Beach native Emma Edwards, the signs to start her own business were all around.
A former employee at Hamptons Signs, the now 20-year-old Edwards started her own signage business, Dama Creative Solutions, earlier this year, about to celebrate her one year anniversary next month.
“I was working at Hampton Signs for about a year before they got brought up by a new owner two years ago,” she says. “And it was great. I worked with some amazing people. The previous owners trained me. They’ve been in the business for 30 years. So, that’s really where I got the background of signage from.”
Native East Ender Emma Edwards went into business for herself at 19 years old. (Photos courtesy of Emma Edwards)
After taking a trip overseas, traveling through Italy for a couple of months, Edwards decided to strike out on her own, branching off from Hamptons Signs and formulating her own signage business, Dama Creative Solutions (Dama in Italian means lady, typically from the nobility).
Armed with a secondhand printer she purchased from Facebook marketplace, she pounded the pavement, literally, looking for clients.
“It was really old-school marketing, door to door,” she says. “I called up a bunch of people. I went into the businesses with business cards and, I think, they were a little bit weary at first, since I was a 19 year old coming into their business, but I had my feet on the ground and when you have people that can vouch for you, things can just take off.”
And take off they did, as Edwards has created signage for some of the most familiar and longstanding businesses across the Hamptons just this year, alone. Groundworks Landscape, Ben Krupinksi Builder, Southampton Masonry, Fresh Direct in Southampton, Alpina Bakery, Corey Anderson Salon, The Hamptons Home Design and Greg’s Garage are just a few of her clients she’s designed and built signs for.
Projects run the gamut, including window and storefront signage, vehicle wraps, real estate signage, custom graphic and web design, branding, screen printing, and business apparel. The philosophy behind Edwards’ business is simple: a business without a sign is a sign of no business.
“I have a couple guys that are contract workers that, you know, every job, if it’s too big for me, they come and they help me, but I do the whole process myself, Edwards says. “I design, and then I print, I laminate, I cut, I build the signs. So really, all of it, it’s a one person operation.”
Dama Creative Solutions is based in Hamptons Bays and services the entire South Fork, from Mastic to Montauk. For more information, email [email protected], call 631-708-8523 or send a DM here.
