Behind the Ink: What Being Voted Best Print Shop Four Years Running Feels Like
- Megan Robnett
- 23 hours ago
- 4 min read
There’s something strange about hearing your business name announced as “Best Print & Graphics Shop in Kings County.” The first time (in 2022) the reaction was excitement, of course. The second reaction was really disbelief. The third reaction is wondering if everyone accidentally clicked the wrong button while trying to vote for Best Taco Shop. But after the laughter wears off, the feeling becomes something much deeper and harder to explain.
Internally we know that it's not that big of deal. You want to win when it's announced that your a contender, but in reality it wont make or break your daily dealings, your drive to deliver, your need to take care of your employees...
At PIG Designs we’ve spent years doing what most small businesses do: juggling deadlines, answering emails at odd hours, troubleshooting printers that seem to sense fear, and trying to turn people’s ideas into something they’re proud to wear, hang, or promote. Some days feel smooth and productive. Other days feel like trying to put out fires while holding a coffee in one hand and a roll of vinyl in the other. So when Hanford Sentinel readers vote for us year after year, it doesn’t feel like some giant victory lap moment. It feels personal.
Because honestly, it’s not about winning.
It’s about knowing that people put their trust in you over and over. That part matters more than any plaque or title ever could.
When people walk into our shop, they usually aren’t just buying a banner or a stack of shirts. They’re opening a business. Launching a fundraiser. Supporting their kid’s team. Celebrating a graduation. Organizing a memorial. Building a dream they’ve spent years thinking about. Sometimes they’re stressed, behind schedule, nervous, excited, or all four at once. And somehow, they chose us to help bring that vision to life. That trust carries weight.
Over the years, we’ve read reviews from customers that honestly stay with us longer than awards do. Reviews talking about how we stayed late to finish an order. How we fixed another company’s mistake. How we helped someone who had no clue where to start. How we treated customers like people instead of order numbers. Those comments hit differently because they reflect the kind of business we’ve always hoped to be.
Not perfect. Just dependable.
And believe me, no print shop is perfect.
There are still moments where someone says, “This should only take five minutes,” right before the printer decides it suddenly no longer recognizes the concept of magenta. There are days where schedules stack up so fast it feels like every customer in Kings County woke up at the exact same moment and decided they needed shirts immediately. There are nights spent rechecking artwork because one typo can haunt your dreams forever. There are times we all hide from someone in the shop because we know the next tiny shake may cause an internal eruption. There are moments when we laugh, moments when we stress, and moments where the entire shop goes silent because everyone is staring at a machine hoping it magically starts cooperating again.
But through all of that, our expectations for the business have changed over time.
In the beginning, success looked like growth. Bigger equipment. More orders. More recognition. More visibility. The usual small-business goals. But somewhere along the way, the definition shifted. Now success looks more like consistency. Being the place people recommend without hesitation. Being the business customers trust with important moments in their lives. Being known for honesty, creativity, reliability, and treating people well even during stressful situations.
That means more than simply being “the biggest” or “the busiest.”
We’ve learned that reputation is built in tiny moments most people never see. It’s answering messages when you’re exhausted. It’s redoing something because it didn’t meet your own standards. It’s remembering a customer’s name, their business, or the design they ordered three years ago. It's about breaking your own policies to fix work from an outside printer, it's going to take more time and effort than the price the person will pay, because you know it will mean the world to the person who brought it in. It's caring about the final product as much as they do.
Winning Best Print & Graphics Shop four years in a row is an incredible honor, but it also creates a quiet pressure. You start asking yourself harder questions. Are we still earning people’s trust every day? Are we improving? Are we staying true to what made people support us in the first place? Because the goal isn’t just to win awards. The goal is to continue deserving the support behind them. And maybe that’s the most humbling part of all.
For every customer who voted, left a review, shared our posts, referred a friend, wore our apparel, put our graphics on their business, stuck our decals on their vehicles, or trusted us with their ideas—thank you. Truly. Small businesses survive because communities choose to support them. We never forget that.
Even on the chaotic days when the phones won’t stop ringing, the printer is making suspicious noises, and the cold coffee you forgot in the microwave three hours ago, but drink anyway, has become less of a beverage and more of a personality trait… we’re grateful.
Because after four years, the feeling still hasn’t changed; it's not really about winning.
It’s about knowing that people continue to trust us, year after year, with the things that matter to them.
Now if you’ll excuse us, we have approximately 47 emails to answer, two banners printing, a grad yard sign, a customer waiting for business cards, my coffee is still in the microwave, and someone is asking if we can “just squeeze in” 40 shirts by tomorrow morning.
(We probably can.)
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