I have worked in signage in Nepal since 2002. I founded Saraswoti Media Pvt. Ltd. in 2009, seven years later, and we have been making signs here ever since.
In the time between those two dates I was not planning a company. I was learning a trade — measuring walls, cutting letters, standing on scaffolding in Kathmandu watching how a board behaved after its first monsoon. I have never regretted taking those seven years. Most of what I know about this work I learned before there was a company with my name behind it.
We have since worked with hundreds of corporate clients and thousands of retail clients. Banks and hotels and chains, and a great many single shops whose owner was spending real money for the first time. I want to tell you how we work and why, because when you are choosing who makes your sign you are mostly choosing who to trust.
Key takeaways
- I have worked in signage in Nepal since 2002 — twenty-four years.
- I founded Saraswoti Media Pvt. Ltd. in 2009, after seven years in the trade.
- We have served hundreds of corporate clients and thousands of retail clients.
- We manufacture in our own workshop — CNC, laser and fabrication — rather than buying in and reselling.
- We install in all seven provinces of Nepal, not only the Kathmandu Valley.
Why did I wait seven years before starting a company?
Because I did not know enough in 2002, and I knew that I did not.
Signage looks simple from outside. A board, some letters, a light behind it. What you cannot see from outside is everything that decides whether it survives: which adhesive fails on ACP cladding, how a fixing behaves in old Kathmandu brick, what a monsoon does to a seam that was sealed in a hurry, how much a power supply really costs to replace when it goes at the back of a sign fifteen feet up.
None of that is in a catalogue. You learn it by putting signs up and then going back a year later to look at them.
By 2009 I had seen enough of my own work age to know what I would do differently, and that is when I was willing to put my family name on a company. Saraswoti Media was small then — a handful of us and a workshop. The belief behind it was narrow and has not changed: a business in Nepal should not have to settle for a sign that fades in one monsoon.
Why do we still make things ourselves?
Because we cannot tell you the truth about a job we did not make.
Most of what we sell comes out of our own workshop. We cut and engrave on our own CNC machines, we do our own laser cutting, and we fabricate and finish in-house. Our factory is at Budhanilkantha and our showroom is at 110 New Plaza Rd in Kathmandu, and you are welcome at either.
This is the slower way to run a signage business. It is certainly the harder one. Buying finished boards in and reselling them is simpler, needs less capital, and nobody has to take responsibility when something fails.
But it is the reason we can tell you what a job actually needs. When we say a sign needs a heavier gauge, it is because we have fabricated the lighter one and watched it twist. When we say you do not need illumination on a wall that is already lit by the street, we are turning down money we could easily have taken, and we can afford to say it because we are not clearing someone else's stock.
It also means that when something does go wrong — and in physical work something occasionally does — there is nobody for us to blame. The people who made it work here.
What do thousands of clients teach you about signage?
That the decisions which matter are made before anything is fabricated.
Here is what twenty-four years has actually taught me, and none of it is complicated:
Contrast beats colour. A logo that is beautiful on a screen can disappear on a building when the sign face and the wall behind it sit at similar tones. We will tell you when your brand colours need adjusting for signage. That is not us redesigning your brand — it is how a colour survives daylight.
Viewing distance decides letter height. A board read from across a highway and a board read from the pavement are not the same product, and quoting them as though they were is how people end up with a sign nobody can read.
The wall decides more than people expect. Brick, glass, ACP cladding and a steel frame each want a different fixing. We look at the surface before we quote, because the surface is half the job.
Devanagari needs a finer pitch than English does. If your sign carries Nepali text, conjuncts and matras are the first thing a coarse pixel pitch loses. An English-language spec sheet will never tell you this, and it is the single most common mistake I see on LED boards in this country.
Our starting rates for everything we price are published openly, no form required, because a client who can see the numbers asks better questions.
What will we tell you not to buy?
Quite a lot, as it turns out.
We will tell you when the unlit version of a sign is the right call, and it costs noticeably less. We will tell you when a smaller board in a better position beats a larger one where you were going to put it. We will tell you when the finish you are asking for will not survive where you want to mount it.
I am aware this is an odd thing to advertise. The reasoning is simple: we have been doing this in a city where people talk to each other for twenty-four years, and almost all of our work now comes from someone who was dealt with honestly once before. A sale I talk you out of today costs me a few thousand rupees. A sign that embarrasses you costs me every client you would have sent.
If you would like that conversation about a specific project, the fastest way is to book a consultation — at our showroom, at your site, or on the phone. Thirty minutes is usually enough to tell you whether what you have in mind will work.
What do I look for in the people who work here?
The willingness to go back and look at your own work a year later.
That is genuinely the quality I value most, and it is rarer than it sounds. Most people in any trade would rather move on to the next job than return to an old one and notice what has aged badly. The ones who do go back are the ones who get better, and they are the ones I want fabricating and installing for clients who trusted us with their shopfront.
Beyond that: care with other people's money, and the honesty to say "I do not know" before a job goes wrong rather than after. We can teach the machines. We cannot teach either of those.
We work Sunday to Friday, ten in the morning to six in the evening, with Saturday off. We hire for the workshop, for installation, for design and for the office, and when we have openings they are on our careers page. If you want to learn this trade properly, I would rather hear from you than from someone who only wants a job.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Saraswoti Media?
Prakash Sapkota founded Saraswoti Media Pvt. Ltd. in 2009. He had already worked in signage in Nepal since 2002, and remains Founder and CEO of the company today.
How long has Saraswoti Media been operating?
The company was incorporated in 2009, so it has been trading for seventeen years. Its founder has worked in the signage trade in Nepal since 2002, which is twenty-four years.
Does Saraswoti Media manufacture its own signage?
Yes. CNC engraving, laser cutting, fabrication and finishing are all done in our own workshop at Budhanilkantha rather than bought in and resold. This is why we can specify and stand behind what we sell.
Does Saraswoti Media work outside Kathmandu?
Yes. We install across all seven provinces of Nepal. Outside the valley the process is identical; travel and transport are simply part of the quote.
Where is Saraswoti Media located?
The showroom is at 110 New Plaza Rd, Kathmandu 44600, and the factory is at Budhanilkantha, Kathmandu. We are open Sunday to Friday, 10:00 to 18:00, and closed on Saturday.
Come and see the workshop
If you are weighing up who should make your signage, my suggestion is the same one I would give a friend: go and look at where it is made. Not the showroom — the workshop. You will learn more in ten minutes there than in any number of quotations.
Ours is at Budhanilkantha and you are welcome. Call first so somebody can walk you round properly.
Twenty-four years in, I still find this work interesting, which I did not expect. A sign is one of the few things a business makes that is genuinely permanent — it is on the building, in daylight, with the owner's name on it, and everybody who passes forms a view. That is worth getting right.
Thank you for reading.
Prakash Sapkota
Founder & CEO, Saraswoti Media Pvt. Ltd. +977 9851078810 · +977 9805534003 · [email protected]