NORWOOD, N.J. — In a squat, gray building, glossy-lipped models stare from the walls as a team of young designers huddles around a laptop screen.

In another room, a sign-cutting machine grinds through metal sheeting. Two customers drop in, followed by a freelance carpenter, then another client a minute later. The artists talk over each other. One steps away to take a call. Then all four pause to check out their latest work: a poly-satin banner projecting a Maybelline smile.

Signs and displays of every kind come out of Brian Hamilton's H6 Innovations shop. But don't call the three-year-old enterprise a sign company.

Hamilton, 30, and his crew of 20-something artists consider themselves an advertising firm that speaks in the language of signs — banners and acrylic light boxes, for instance, and three-dimensional designs that defy traditional name tags.

On a recent morning, the team's pace and enthusiasm turned their 4,000-square-foot space into a beehive. In part, Hamilton said, that energy reflects a turning point for the company, with projects for big-name corporations beginning to translate into profits.

"Our big challenge now is fine-tuning the company's operations and internal communication to get jobs in and out of the shop faster," Hamilton said. "We really want to be able to get (printing) work to clients overnight."

Maybelline accounts for a quarter of H6 Innovations' revenue, which Hamilton expects will surpass $700,000 this year. Other customers include Microsoft, Verizon, Panasonic and Sony, along with local companies including a bagel shop and a paint store.

Hamilton started H6 in his garage after eight years at a design company in Brewster, N.Y. The move broadened his artistic freedom, and dropped his commute from "an hour and a half to a minute and a half."

Initially, he subcontracted the "outputting" — the process of transferring images to signs — and concentrated on the designs themselves.

Last year, H6 Innovations leaped forward after Hamilton invested savings in the second of two computer-linked, sign-production machines, together worth close to $200,000.

The first cuts signs to size, whether crafted from foam, acrylic or metal. The more recent acquisition, a 6-foot-wide printer capable of producing 52,000 colors, uses ultraviolet light to "cure" and instantly dry ink onto any material.

Each helps meet often-tight deadlines for trade show displays and other events. For instance, when Microsoft debuted its Windows Vista software this year, H6 printed a 50-by-60-foot building-wrap banner for the Manhattan launch.

But if the sign-making technologies constitute the company's engine, Hamilton said the people in his shop are the fuel and compass.

"Anybody could buy this equipment," he said. "It's the design behind it that will keep us ahead of the competition."Much of what's gotten the company noticed is its handcrafted work. Exhibit A is a 10-foot-tall pint of Guinness that hangs outside The Perfect Pint restaurant off Times Square. For its April edition, Sign Business magazine splashed the 3-D replica on its cover.

— Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services