Right now, there’s a team of people gathered around funky leather chairs and bright green pop art pictures talking about a thousand clever ways to light up the world. They’re discussing a myriad of options to count cool things with LED light displays on signs and billboards. Soon they’ll shift to a brainstorming session about ways to use digital countdowns to measure things like major sporting events, E.R. wait times or political elections – opportunities to extend outward from their glowing success with national electronic gas station and lottery signs.

These people love to light things up, and they’re very good at it.

From their expansive second-floor windows overlooking a gradually reawakening downtown cityscape in historic St. Joseph, Mo., the team at Sunshine Electronic Display serves as the perfect metaphor for how a local business is changing the view across the U.S. with ultra-bright LED signs.

Actually, Sunshine’s story has always been about a brighter view. Sunshine Electronic Display Corporation began as a family-owned window washing company in the 1970s. Today the company represents one of the nation’s most prolific creators of the super-bright LED components for major gas station and lottery signs.

In a workshop just behind Sunshine’s modern, airy and “totally L.A.” company headquarters in downtown St. Joseph, Mo., a team of 70 skilled metal fabricators, welders and electricians works to fill electronic sign orders from across the country, akin to Santa’s workshop all plugged in. In total, Sunshine employs nearly 100 local people with local talent.

Waiting to ship from the workshop is an electronic gas station sign for Arkansas, bearing the industry-praised Sunshine level of quality craftsmanship. The company serves thousands of gas stations through long-time relationships with Love’s, TA, and PILOT/Flying J, among other industry leaders. In the corner there’s an impressive LED display for a state lottery. Sunshine provides the alluring and ultra-bright electronic lottery signs for 34 out of 42 states.

You’ll also find Sunshine Electronic Display lighting up an entire conference hall corner with their stunningly bright traveling display, a favorite at major national conferences among the National Association of Convenience Stores and the National Association of Truck Stops. They’re an immediately recognizable name at major lottery industry events, and have gained the trust and the business of nearly every state lottery.

Locally, Sunshine Electronic Display has brightened up the view for historic downtown St. Joseph, choosing to place their state-of-the-art facility next to a long-time community hub, the YMCA. President and CEO Kendall Randolph says he grew up spending time downtown with his father, an attorney, and has a nostalgic connection there – but he’s also proud of being part of a downtown redevelopment movement. Sunshine invites at-risk students in for a look at how creative and challenging skilled labor positions can be, and supports numerous local non-profit organizations.

“We’re proud to maintain great service and a great network of customers, while providing as much labor and materials as we can from St. Joseph, Mo.,” says Randolph. “Our team has a lot of creative, fresh energy, and that translates into our product.”

No doubt, the view from Sunshine Electronic Display Corporation is so bright you gotta wear shades (to revert back to a 90s phrase). Susan J. Campbell Copywriting Solutions proudly says “shine on” to this innovative local company.