In January of 1999 Shawn Monahan began his business primarily lettering race cars and occasionally working on commercial vehicles. Shawn's first year of business thrived from word of mouth referrals only. As a result, the following year Shawn developed a large amount of business from the quickly spreading news of his excellent quality of service.

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For the first two years, Shawn operated Critical Signs from his home garage. Business quickly boomed, and Shawn could no longer accommodate the demand from home, so he opened his first commercial location in Waterford in September of 2002.

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To keep up with the growing business, Shawn's brother James (better known as Diego), joined forces. They decided to add screen printing and embroidery to their list of services, thus changing their name to Critical Signs, Graphics, Screen Printing and Embroidery, LLC.

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The property in Waterford sold, and Critical Signs was forced to make a move. Born and raised in Waterford, Shawn and Diego sought to keep the business in their home town but were unable to find adequate space to fill their customers' orders.

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As such, they chose to relocate and expand to a large shop in Groton. Business continued to grow and eventually the opportunity arose to move back to Waterford. They grabbed at it - a 4500 square foot industrial space on Route 85 - and is now the current home to Critical Signs! Shawn still owns Critical Signs, which has a few sub-divisions including Critical Trophy and Plaque, and Critical Tint and Paint Protection. Critical Screen printing and Embroidery is currently under total ownership of his brother Diego, who now operates across town. Despite being two separate businesses, Critical Signs and Critical Screen share customers and artwork. They are known throughout the business and racing communities as Team Critical. Although race cars now only make up about 10% of their total business, they still enjoy helping racers.

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Shawn and Jenn thrive on quality service, thus creating their slogan

"Your Image is Our Business!"