Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Kirby and Chad Williams.
Hi Julie and Chad, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
We started our business, TOPLINE NASHVILLE ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, back in 2012. Our initial goal was to be video production, music production, and set and stage decor builder. A one-stop-shop for an artist needing help to put on a production.
We started by building our set pieces for the show Nashville and building moving stage pieces for music artists and stage productions. That soon evolved into becoming sign makers. The requests for our work beyond the stage and the set became the main focus of our business and we became Top Line Sign Co. We still do video production and set decor production but our main focus has become the sign-making business that we call FUNCTIONAL ART.
Chad is a master welder, craftsman, and musician, and Julie is an artist, marketer, and businesswoman, the transition was seamless. We leased a building in downtown Nashville and started our business. I quit my day job in high tech sales and marketing and Chad shifted his focus from music artist to fabrication artist.
I’m also a photographer and videographer so that also enabled us to get our work out with great images and video stories. I do a lot of fine art photography and I also shoot music videos in my spare time away from our shop.
We design and build everything in-house. Just the two of us. We don’t outsource. Since 2013, we have built over 12,000 signs and pieces of art. It’s all about being creative and using our hands. If we can design and fabricate something unique that has a purpose, we’ve succeeded.
Artful sign-making was a natural progression. Coupling our obsession for vintage and high-quality handmade items, we now create what we love! And we help our clients say what they want to say and light up a space in a unique one-of-a-kind way.
Our business grew and we had to move. Our old shop was in downtown Nashville and we lived in a cool loft in German Town. We rescued our first dog Buddy while living there along with our other dogs Chief and Bo. That’s when we knew it was time to move to the country and get more space for more animals and for our expanding business. We bought a small farm just East of Nashville in Mount Juliet. We rescue, rehabilitate and retrain dogs, goats, and tortious’.
We have Heelers, a Bouvier, a Bearded Collie, a Smooth Border Collie, two Sulcata Tortious, goats, chickens, and who knows what else. We also have a weekly YouTube series called At Julie & Chad’s Rescue Ranch. You can watch us every week for updates and new videos about our adventures with our animals and the new fosters and rescues we get on our RESCUE RANCH.
We have our shop and business on the property so this allows us to spend all day with our animals and our fosters. We add sign building to our weekly rescue videos as well.
Over the next few years, our business blew us away. We were growing each year and we were constantly booked. After being in business for six years we decided to take it to the next level and add NEON art to our portfolio. Adding neon isn’t as simple as just wanting to build neon signs. It’s a dying art form and not many people know how to bend the glass. We started our search for neon production equipment which is no easy task.
It is very difficult to source the machinery and supplies to start a neon fabrication business. After five months we finally had all the components needed to create neon. Except for one thing, we didn’t know how to do any of the production. Then we started looking for a neon artist to help us build this part of our business and also teach us the art and technique of bending glass, charging the gas, and assembling a piece of neon.
After six months of searching, we finally found an older gentleman called The Neon Cowboy. He’d spent his early days at a huge sign shop in Nashville bending glass for some of Nashville’s most iconic Broadway signs. He came on board and we started MUSIC CITY NEON which is the neon arm of our sign-making business. Since then we have produced hundreds of neon pieces. It’s very difficult to find shops that do real glass neon, so what we do has been in high demand!
We’ve built signs for many many of the bars in downtown Nashville like Famous Bar, Nashville Underground, Luke Bryans 32 Bridges, Old Red, Alan Jacksons, Tin Roof, Tootsies, Grand Old Opry Museum, and many more. Most of our work is shipped out of state and all over the US. We now have signs in almost every state across the Country.
We’ve built pieces for Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert, Craig Campbell, Good Charlotte, Lee Ann Womack, and too many more to remember. We also have a massive brand portfolio like Tesla, The Food Network, NBC, BRAVO TV, Nike, CNN, BuzzFeed, Land Rover, NFL, Gucci, Elle Decor, Fox Sports, Tennessee Titans, Ariat, Stoney Clover Lane, PGA, Bacardi, Ford, D&B, Chick-Fil-A and more.
Functional art and artful sign-making are in high demand. People want handmade high quality items. Not mass-produced pieces of plastic that litter the visual landscape. In days gone by sign, makers were considered artists, not mass sign producers. We are bringing the art back to sign making and 2021 was our biggest year so far.
We hope to continue to grow our neon business, animal rescue, and YouTube channel moving into 2022 and beyond.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
What we do has been in high demand since our inception. Luckily we haven’t had many struggles until 2021 with the supply chain issues and having difficulty getting supplies.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are proud that we were able to build a successful and creative style business from the ground up. We started our business on a shoestring budget with no loans.
We just made it work. We build high-quality signs and art pieces that will last for decades. We produce everything in our shop and we don’t outsource. Everything is made here in Tennessee USA. We are known for high-end signage and art pieces.
Handcrafted and no mass fabrication. We are so proud that we were able to start our neon business as well, from the ground up, figuring it out as we went.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Chad my business partner deserves so much credit. He knows how to weld but had never had any sign-making training. He learned on his own and has developed so many new techniques in regard to sign making.
Contact Info:
- Email: julie@toplinenashville.com
- Website: www.toplinesigncom www.musiccityneon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tlnfunctionalart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NashvilleFunctionalArt
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ2R7uNF_1OFvPcQMkYxifQ and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ2R7uNF_1OFvPcQMkYxifQ
- TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@musiccityneon
