Rock Springs Company Makes Giant Sequin Displays For The NFL, Disney, Coca-Cola

When Disney, Coca-Cola, Dollywood and the NFL want to make a dazzling impression, they make a call to a Rock Springs number.

That’s where Radiant Manufacturing, a custom fabrication, design and promotional company is headquartered. Since 2009, the small company has made a big impression with its patented sequin panel displays.

In a world increasingly dominated by LED screens and lights, Radiant’s unique “old-school” displays stand out with their natural movement and tangibility. The world’s best-known brands see their appeal, and the millions of heads they turn, and keep coming back for more.

“I don't know for sure that we're the largest sequin manufacturer in the world, but we are pretty large,” said Mark Cowan, Radiant’s operations director. “We do most of the installations in the United States and have projects all over the world, because our products do a phenomenal job of getting people's attention.”

Simply Radiant

Radiant Manufacturing made a big impression with its SolarRay sequin panels. Cowan said they’re durable, highly visible, and designed to help billboards and other displays stand out.

“They have the same thing as a shimmery sequin dress, but on a bigger scale,” he said. “People will stop, sit, and watch as the wind moves across our displays. They have a very pleasing visual effect.”

There are several components needed to make Radiant’s work stand out. The sequins themselves are only colored on the front but have a highly reflective mirrored finish on both sides to make them pop, then covered with a UV inhibitor to withstand sun damage.

The sequins are then mounted on square-foot, semirigid plastic grids that are attached together. That covers a lot of space with minimal effort, which is important when covering billboards, parade floats, or a giant butterfly that greets guests as they enter the Dolly Parton Experience in Dollywood.

“We just finished that installation last year, and we've got a couple more that we're working on for Dollywood right now,” Cowan said.

The sequins and their panels are designed to withstand hurricane-force winds without being torn asunder. That’s made Radiant Manufacturing the leader in the industry of permanent outdoor and indoor large-scale sequin displays.

“It’s pretty impressive,” Cowan said.

Most Populated To Least Populated

When people hear about “Radiant” in Wyoming, they might think of Radiant Nuclear, the company that considered building its first nuclear microreactor manufacturing facility in Bar Nunn. They decided on Tennessee, instead.

Considering their dazzling successes with a growing list of domestic and international customers, Radiant Manufacturing has been flying under Wyoming’s radar. How does such a unique company end up in Rock Springs, of all places?

The story of Radiant Manufacturing begins in California in the 1950s. Eyecatchers, a fabrication company, was experimenting with a unique way to bedazzle billboards.

“They developed a way to put metal on plastic,” Cowan said. “They were hand-nailing tiny sequins on tiny strips of plastic and selling those strips to use on billboards and stuff like that.”

The innovation was “just out there” when Eyecatchers was bought in 2007, which led to the founding of Radiant Manufacturing. Cowan said they took the solid principle and improved on it on an industrial scale.

“We took what they had done and designed a panel that could click together to make huge displays,” he said. “We got the U.S. patent for that design in 2009.”

So, why Rock Springs? Cowan described it as “a family thing.”

“My wife’s mother married a Rock Springs citizen in 1996 and relocated here, and my wife and I relocated from Utah in 2004,” he said. “We’ve been here ever since, and we love Wyoming.”

Cowan has fully embraced his new home. He currently serves as the Sweetwater County Treasurer and as chairman of the Sweetwater Economic Development Coalition.

That’s how the world’s foremost giant sequin manufacturer ended up building dazzling displays for today’s best-known brands in the southwest corner of Wyoming.

“That's where family takes you,” he said.

Razzle Dazzle ‘Em

Cowan described giant sequin displays as “a good business.” Radiant Manufacturing has five full-time employees but has employed as many as 65 people at a time, depending on their workload.

“We do all of our manufacturing in Rock Springs,” he said. “We have an injection molding machine where we inject our plastic, and people to do the printing, cutting, and manufacturing. Everything is created right here, and everything’s sourced in the United States.”

Certain companies have an inherent need for flamboyance and eye-catching displays. One that comes to mind is the Walt Disney Company, which Cowan said has been working with Radiant Manufacturing “since its inception.”

“We do a lot of design work for Disney, and we’ll occasionally come out to do installation for them,” he said.

Billboards account for a bulk of their business. Radiant’s philosophy is that a unique billboard is “imperative” for a business to stand out.

“We offer displays with a three-dimensional texture and movement with our sequin panels,” Cowan said. “Where a lot of people might see a regular flat print on a billboard, we add an extra dimension and a unique movement that doesn’t require power.”

Cowan admitted that Radiant’s sequin displays are “kind of old-school” in a world where LED panels are becoming more ubiquitous. However, that’s a selling point rather than a detraction.

“We’ve become so used to LED lights, signs, and displays,” he said. “Our work adds character and design with the high-quality materials, which is what people look for when they look at our product.”

One of Cowan’s favorite projects was commissioned by Major League Soccer. They commissioned Radiant to create a unique display, even by their standards, for the 2018 MLS Cup in Atlanta, Georgia.

“We built a 25-foot-tall trophy out of sequins that we had to roll out onto the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium,” he said. “It was pretty impressive and fun to do.”

Everywhere And Nowhere

People can see Radiant Manufacturing’s sequin displays in theme parks, along highways, and during primetime events like the Super Bowl. One place they haven’t had much demand for their products is their home state.

Despite being based in Rock Springs, Cowan said Radiant has received hardly any commissions from Wyoming businesses. He chalked it up to a lack of “supply” rather than a lack of demand.

“I think that it's more about who we target as clients,” he said. “We haven't really targeted a lot of industry in Wyoming because we don't really have a lot of destination spaces where these get used. It's a very unique product, and you have to have the right vision for it.”

Cowan said they’ve designed some billboards that ended up in Wyoming, and they created a sequin sculpture of the University of Wyoming’s Cowboy Joe for a sign shop in Rock Springs. With nothing on the scale of Disney World or Universal Studios, there just isn’t as much demand for dazzling displays in the Cowboy State.

Nevertheless, Radiant Manufacturing is staying right where it is. Cowan hopes to leverage his company’s success to help address the needs of other local businesses.

“I serve on a committee that several of our local business leaders and politicians formed to combat the lack of affordable industrial baseload power,” he said. “We think Wyoming is a great place to do business, and we want to support it.”

After a pandemic-related downturn, Radiant is finding its stride again. Cowan sees an even more dazzling future for the company as more commissions come in.

“With all the innovation, you never know what's going to take off,” he said. “We’ve worked with different designs and products, but our SolarRay sequins definitely still have their allure, and have for many years, so we continue to improve that product.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.