Meet the Team: Jay Mann

Title: Sales Consultant

Roles: Visual identity expert. Project management extraordinaire. Construction industry guru. Grand-format pro.

A Big Visual Employee Since: 2004

Hailing from the small town of Flora, Illinois, Jay Mann has called Nashville home for the past 12 years. And for 11 and 1/2 of those, he’s worked at Big Visual Group. Before applying for a sales position at Big Visual, he built a career in the construction industry, which turned out to be one of his greatest professional assets.

“I’d never done sales before, never thought I would, but within two weeks of joining Big Visual, I was out in the field doing surveys and measuring because I was familiar with the construction industry and knew how the construction signage and environmental graphics worked,” Jay said. “It was kind of a natural fit for me.”

Though it’s technically accurate to say he’s “in sales,” it doesn’t quite do justice to how in-depth Jay’s role and process is with his clients. He spends about 50 percent of his time out of the office, consulting with clients and evaluating their spaces to visualize creative, yet functional, ideas for their specific signage needs. A true problem solver, Jay is there to figure out what works for the client, what doesn’t, and what materials need to be used to best accomplish the installation and maximize visual impact. Ultimately, Jay strives to listen to a client’s needs and ideas, convey those ideas to Big Visual’s creative team and use his knowledge of print and architectural materials to make everything a reality.

In one example of how large-scale and in-depth the client partnership can be, Jay facilitated the installation of signage for Nashville’s striking, brand-new Ascend Amphitheater. This not only included the permanent illuminated signage (the huge lettering that says “Ascend Amphitheater”), but Big Visual also had to find a solution for temporary signage that allowed the space to convert easily from a venue to a metro park — signs for advertisers that were only displayed during concerts. This meant a lot of signs that needed to be mobile and easily storable, and it took some creative concepts on Big Visual’s part to do this in a visually stunning way.

Describing Big Visual Group to potential clients, Jay says, “We are a one-stop shop. We can sell you a business card; we can sell you a coaster.” After picking up a nearby coaster, Jay realized it’s actually a Christmas ornament, proving his point about Big Visual’s versatility. “Anything from vehicle wraps to architectural signage, window graphics, dimensional signs for your lobby, and all the way up to billboard prints — we can basically do it all here,” he said.

See You at the Movies

When asked about his favorite piece of Big Visual machinery, Mann didn’t hesitate. “Because it prints a lot of my work, I’d say the GSR 5000, the big 16-foot roll-to-roll printer,” he said. “I do a lot of work for film studios. We print large banners and window graphics to promote upcoming movies, and we ship them out to different theaters across the country.”

Personal

Jay resides in Murfreesboro. He’s an avid hiker, and we’re not talking the rolling hills of Middle Tennessee. He takes a trip to Colorado every year to hike “14-ers” — mountains with peaks 14,000 feet above sea level. He’s hiked 13 of these mountains, and he plans to hit up all 54 in the state.

He also enjoys cooking and claims to have perfected his method for a really good filet. Jay’s secret? He favors the Dutch oven to the grill.