our story.

While Paul Britten was an architecture student at the University of Detroit, a friend suggested they enter a banner contest to win World Series tickets. They worked tirelessly, entered their hand-painted, custom banner, and won the contest (and the tickets)—as well as an audience with General Motors’ Chairman Roger Smith, who commissioned a 40-by-100-foot banner from Britten that would hang on GM’s world headquarters!

The following year, Paul Britten completed his degree and landed an architecture job that took him to Washington, D.C. While working as a full-time architect, Paul continued moonlighting—promoting his newly-founded banner company, Britten, Inc., and making custom banners and signs on the side.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, Paul Britten hand-painted a birthday card of record-breaking proportions to hang in Times Square.

Just in time for Christmas, Paul Britten created a football field-sized, wide-format banner for GM—”Santa’s Sleigh is a Chevrolet.” The banner hung at the Chevrolet World Headquarters and was featured in Advertising Age.

Paul Britten left his architecture job to fully devote himself to Britten, Inc

Britten enters the motorsports market, securing a contract to produce and install all racetrack graphics for the Grand Prix of Cleveland and the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix. The races were part of the CART open-wheel series.

Paul Britten relocated the company to his hometown of Traverse City, Michigan.

Britten partners with ANC Sports as their primary printer for NBA rotational signage, located under the courtside score tables. Over the next 20 years, the partnership would grow to produce signage for thousands of professional sporting events.

Britten purchases one of the first solvent inkjet printers ever sold.

Britten secures its first NASCAR track signage agreement with Dover International Speedway. During this time, Britten pioneered the gigantic mesh banner program that is now standard at all racetracks. As NASCAR grew in the 1990’s and 2000’s, so did Britten—establishing themselves as the leading signage company for NASCAR tracks in the United States.

Britten develops and launches BannerGalaxy.com, one of the first websites created that allows consumers and businesses to order custom banners and signage quickly and easily online, 24/7.

Britten acquires the BannerSaver™ patent, opening up new opportunities with this revolutionary bracket system. With its ability to withstand winds up to 90 mph, BannerSaver™ became an instant success in the United States and in Europe.

Britten acquires the United States T-Shirt Company (UST), allowing clients to incorporate their branding message from top to bottom.

Britten reaches an agreement with NBC and the new Dew Action Tour to design and produce the look of the event—from the fan entry points to the half pipe ramps.

Britten enters a partnership with Mastertent, an Italian tent manufacturer known for producing the best pop-up tent frame in the world. Britten and Mastertent team up to offer the experiential marketing product to North America.

Britten unveils its new BannerRail™ system at Daytona International Speedway, transforming banner programs on the back of grandstands from installation-intensive projects to push-button systems.

Simon Properties asks Britten to create a “Sky Banner Program” in order to offer advertisement opportunities in key locations in the mall, floating above their customers. In response, Britten invents the BannerDrop™ ceiling hoist system, which revolutionizes in-mall advertisements and is easy to change out.

Britten introduces the first internally illuminated banner solution—the patented “BannerBright” system. The platform uses LEC (Light Emitting Capacitor) technology, lighting the surface of the banner to provide illuminated advertising.

After a fruitful relationship, Britten and the Marine Corps Marathon brainstorm a way to reuse their finish line scrim and turn them into recycled, stylish eco-friendly bags.

Britten enters an agreement with the Big Ten Conference to be the signage provider for all Big Ten championship events. With this endeavor Britten goes “back to college” and begins designing college exterior signage programs that help universities communicate their team spirit with grand imaging throughout their campus.

Britten acquires Ace-Hi Worldwide, one of the most advanced screen printers, producing four-color process signs, posters, retail banners, and custom POP displays. The addition of the talent and production equipment of the team from Grand Rapids, Michigan, solidified Britten’s commitment to delivering world-class firepower to our customers with large format, high volume POP needs.

Britten acquires Sideline Signatures™, a padded A-frame product with primary sponsorship appeal due to its direct position in-line with those in the stand and TV cameras. The pads display advertisements at the field level, which maximizes sponsorship exposure, ideal for high schools and colleges across the country.

Northwestern announces that the football team will play a game at the iconic Wrigley Field, choosing Britten to “purple-ize” the grand old stadium. Britten produced and installed over 20,000 square feet of custom-fitted graphics to bring the ballpark alive for a Northwestern football game.

Britten grows Traverse City world headquarters by acquiring an adjacent building. The high-volume production facility operates the large-format digital and screen printing presses.

When Notre Dame announced that they would play a home game against Miami at Soldier Field in Chicago, they chose Britten to make the Bears’ field scream, “Go Irish.”

In conjunction with Simon Brand Ventures, Britten wins the bid for exterior Super Bowl XLVI signage package in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Over 30,000 BannerSaver™ brackets were specified at the 2012 London Olympic Games, all throughout the UK.

Taking backlit displays to the next level, Britten’s exclusive BriteWall™ system revolutionizes large-format LED banner frames. The result is a frame that looks great both inside and out.

The Plaza Hotel in New York City contacts Britten to create a scaffolding wrap to cover the entire side of the iconic structure on 5th Ave and Central Park South. The result is a stunning visual that suggests what the exterior of the building may look like after renovations are completed.

Grand Rapids-based Jarob, a printer, retail signage and display company, is now part of Britten Inc. The addition of Jarob’s expertise, client base and equipment will extend Britten Inc' position in the retail market.

With the increased interest in Wallpaper murals around the country, we decided to create CustomWallpaper.com -- an easy to use solution to get your favorite patterns and photos on your walls with easy to use materials and plenty of designs to choose from.

BannerSaver™ is the world’s leading performance banner bracket designed to make light pole banners last longer. Creating a site dedicated to all things BannerSaver has helped many customers get the best brackets and fast!

When The Denver Broncos unveiled a new entrance structure at Mile High Stadium, the players took the field underneath a lightweight structure that was entirely designed & fabricated by Britten. Our newly acquired Foam3D™ technology was combined with truss & pyrotechnics, and had to be set up and broken down in under 7 minutes.

Britten introduces customized shipping containers for events and mobile tours, including a pop up store that attended festivals across America all throughout the summer and The Bud Light Friend Zone which was set up at every home game for the Miami Dolphins.

Britten started out the year in a big way, with a series of building wraps on the schedule -- over 300,000 sq. ft. of wind-permeable mesh material was printed, shipped and installed in about two months’ time. Crystal City was later named one of the new global headquarters for Amazon, creating quite a buzz around these Britten-wrapped buildings!

Britten has spent a lifetime making products that help build up people, businesses, and communities through the power of brand. Which is why "Build Them Up" resonated.

Britten pivots to PPE and medical gown production to help frontline healthcare workers slow the spread of COVID-19. Delivers COVID-related health signage to retail and event partners, in addition to WoodWorks™ portable handwashing stations for schools and BoxPop® N95 mask decontamination centers to hospitals across the country.

Britten makes personalizing the walls of any space easier than ever before. Customwallpaper.com delivers a huge library of modern wallpaper designs and murals, plus an easy custom art uploader for transforming customer art and photos into one-of-kind peel-and-stick wallpaper.

Britten updates the first online platform for 24/7 creation of banners, signs, and flags. BannerGalaxy.com also delivers a custom art uploader and private designer community for individuals looking to sell their artwork to businesses, party planners, and more.

Upcycling banners into durable, sustainable tote bags just got a whole lot easier. Priorlife by Britten was relaunched featuring a variety of new product designs and a new website equipped with an online shop.

In partnership with Amplified, Britten took home back-to-back Event Marketer awards for the Gray Whale Gin activation.