Nantucket Sign Maker Kelly Emery in the News: Press Coverage and Media Kit

Nantucket Quarterboard Company has had a busy year in the press — from island features to national coverage of the “Everyone Welcome” sign. This page collects that coverage in one place, along with a short bio and contact details for writers and editors.

About Kelly Emery

Kelly Emery was born at Nantucket Cottage Hospital and grew up in Madaket. He made his first sign — a gift for his father — in a makers' lab in Colorado, where he spent part of the pandemic lockdown, then moved back to Nantucket and founded Nantucket Quarterboard Company in late 2020.

Making things runs in the family. His father founded Indian Summer Board Shop in the late 1970s (now Broad Street Surf Shop) and later became a master of interior wood shutters; his mother founded the Nantucket Sewing Center and ran it on Main Street for more than thirty years. Before signs, Kelly worked at Cisco Brewers, taught music in the Nantucket Public Schools and worked as a WordPress content manager. He is also a professional trumpet player who performs with the local reggae/rock band Foggy Roots, and in 2019 he built and installed an aluminum xylophone at Tom Nevers Field.

He started the business to build something with a strong connection to Nantucket. The signs are made on island, because a local business making quarterboards matters for something so tied to the island's history, and every design is based on historical Nantucket quarterboards.

Press Coverage

• The Inquirer and Mirror, July 30, 2026 — “Preserving Nantucket's history, one quarterboard at a time,” by Margaret Viano. A profile of the company covering its maritime roots, the online design studio, the new Moby-Dick and Rothschild designs, the USS Nantucket project and how travel shapes Kelly's designs.
• National coverage, summer 2026 — Nantucket's influencer debate was covered by The New York Times, New York Magazine, the Today Show, USA Today, Fox Business and others; our “Everyone Welcome” quarterboard at Dairy Boy became part of the story. Read the story of the sign.
• Cailíní Coastal, May 1, 2025 — “The Craft & History of Nantucket Quarterboard Company”, a Q&A on quarterboard history, Kelly's path into the craft and advice on naming a house.
• The Inquirer and Mirror, August 1, 2019 — “Sensory sculpture: Music at Tom Nevers Field”, by Lucy Turnipseed, on the xylophone Kelly built and installed at the Tom Nevers playground.
• Video — Behind Nantucket Quarterboard Company.
• Television — our signs appear in Netflix's Beach Cottage Chronicles.

Press Releases

Written by Andrea Gollin.

• August 11, 2026 — Nantucket Quarterboard Company Solves the Island's Influencer Controversy
• June 4, 2026 — Nantucket Quarterboard Company Continues Cherished Island Tradition
• November 16, 2024 — US Navy Commission for Interior Quarterboards Aboard the USS Nantucket (LCS 27)

Company Highlights

• Founded in late 2020; every sign is handmade on Nantucket.
• Hundreds of quarterboards, business signs, house numbers and street signs made, plus refurbishing of older quarterboards.
• 30 custom quarterboards for the U.S. Navy's USS Nantucket (LCS 27).
• Three online design studios for quarterboards, house numbers and street signs, launched in 2026.
• Business clients include Nantucket Pharmacy, Stubbys, Jimmy Choo, Nantucket Crisps, Chadtucket, Dairy Boy, the Nantucket Land Bank and the Nantucket Atheneum (full list).
• A regular at the Sustainable Nantucket Farmers and Artisans Market in summer.

Media Contact

nantucketsigns@gmail.com, or use the contact form. Images are available on request. More about the craft is on the About the Artisan page, and finished work is in the gallery.