Sign Wave ; Innovations Have Ad Firm Pointing Upward

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NORWOOD, N.J. - In a squat, gray building, glossy-lipped models stare from the walls as a team of young designers huddles around a laptop screen.

In another room, a sign-cutting machine grinds through metal sheeting. Two customers drop in, followed by a freelance carpenter, then another client a minute later. The artists talk over each other. One steps away to take a call. Then all four pause to check out their latest work: a poly-satin banner projecting a Maybelline smile.

Signs and displays of every kind come out of Brian Hamilton's H6 Innovations shop. But don't call the three-year-old enterprise a sign company.

Hamilton, 30, and his crew of …