Uplevel Signs & Graphics

Hi! I’m Renee Dierdorff, the owner of Uplevel Signs & Graphics.

I have been around graphic design all my life. My father is a designer and has owned his own sign company alongside my mother right here in Woodstock, GA – Cowan Signs, Inc. for over 45 years. They have recently moved their operations to Jasper, GA. I have had the unique opportunity to watch the sign & graphic design industry grow and evolve over the last 35+ years. 

I watched my father hand-paint signs & vehicles for a very long time. I think that’s where my obsession with fonts stemmed from. Haha! Computers were introduced into the industry and that was a game-changer! Hand-painting was being used less and less. Vinyl was the new and exciting option. Fax were all the rage! My parents adapted in the business, learned all the technologies as they came along, and I watched it grow. I saw signs being sandblasted, lighted neon signs being installed, race cars being hand-painted, and so much more over the years! He even made my classmates refrigerator magnets with their names on them as Christmas gifts when I was in elementary school! They thought that was cool! :)

I was always proud of what he and my mother built over the years, but only until I started dabbling in graphic design a few years ago did I realize how much of the principles of graphic design I absorbed! I tried to see what I could learn, as far as design theory. I was shocked that a lot of it was already ingrained in me like second nature! But I was eating up the content, nonetheless. I am constantly researching and learning about the graphic design industry so that I can continue to give my best to my clients. I will be forever grateful for the environment I was raised in and the entrepreneurial mindset that I developed as a result.  

I live in Hickory Flat with my husband and two daughters, ages 15 and 11.  I have been happily married for over 18 years now. After serving Cherokee County for 17 years as a firefighter/paramedic, my husband, Adam, retired from Cherokee County Fire & Emergency Services as a Lieutenant paramedic in 2022. He is now a Captain and paramedic for the Roswell Fire Department. We have ta cat, who is 16 and grumpy, and also a 3-year-old red/white border collie, named Hazel.  

I am also the proud co-founder of Kid Biz Expo, a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to empowering the entrepreneurial spirit in kids. Through education and experiences, our mission is to be the go-to resource for youth entrepreneurs and their parents in Cherokee County.