ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS - Growing up in South Orange, Larry Aufiero enjoyed the creativity associated with both carpentry and graphic design — and he successfully channeled the skills he amassed in both fields into Project Sign, the Atlantic Highlands-based architectural sign business he founded in 1988.

“My father was a carpenter who taught me a lot of the tools and techniques of his trade,” said Aufiero, 63, a Middletown resident. “After high school, I got a job through the Security Education Training and Awareness (SETA) program working and learning graphic design and television production in the media department at Essex County College in Newark, and then helped my dad in his company for a few years.”

But a six-week course in neon at a sign shop in Elizabeth would soon change Aufiero’s professional trajectory.

A longtime antiques enthusiast, “I collected old bottles and glass and thought that neon was interesting and creative,” said Aufiero, whose instructor helped him land a job at a neon sign company in Neptune.

True to his entrepreneurial nature, however, “I worked there for one month and then started my own company, Neon Times, in South Orange,” Aufiero said of the firm he launched in 1988. “My brother opened a restaurant in Red Bank right around the same time and I started out putting neon in his establishment and then getting other work.”

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In 1995, Aufiero changed the name of his company to Project Sign to reflect the many other types of sign work he did beyond just neon, and relocated his business from South Orange to Atlantic Highlands in 2016 following his family’s move to Middletown six years earlier.

Changing fashions

Today, in a 2,000-square-foot shop well-equipped with a laser cutter and other modern tools of the trade, “I primarily provide interior commercial office signage made of wood, metal and/or plastic for cubicles, American Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant wayfinding, and wall logos as well as general signage such as banners and ground signs,” Aufiero said. “I also provide building directories, donor recognition plaques/signs for houses of worship and other settings, and Braille room signage, which is a unique specialty.”

According to Aufiero, a portion of his customers are corporations located nationwide. “I have a strong website, get a lot of inquiries about office signage, and ship my work all over the U.S.,” he said. “But I also have a lot of great accounts in New Jersey, including pharmaceutical companies, large medical practices, and municipal organizations. All of these signs have to be ADA-compliant and I follow the federal guidelines on their specifications.”

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Among trends in the sign industry, Aufiero said that neon technology has waned in popularity over the years for a number of reasons.

“Neon is very fragile, breaks easily, incorporates mercury, which can be hazardous, and also required the use of a huge, high-voltage transformer,” said Aufiero, who noted that many towns also take issue with the use of neon due to its bold and bright properties.

“While neon is still an art form, it started going out of fashion in the mid-1990s and has been largely replaced by LED technology, which is smaller, more versatile, more energy-efficient, and longer-lasting,” he said. “Manufacturers are now even making LED to look like neon.

“In other trends, signs are more digital today; pretty much all signs are computer-generated now and very little signage is hand-done or painted anymore,” Aufiero said. “Cleaner fonts like sans serif are currently popular, and there’s greater demand today for signs made of wood and other natural materials that are environmentally friendly.”

His pricing for signs spans a wide range depending on the intricacy of the project. “I can do a simple sign for $25 or a complex 4-by-12-foot donor wall display recognizing lots of donors for $10,000,” he explained. “I also create modular designs so that I can more easily ship them to customers out of state.”

As for challenges, he confirmed that the pandemic introduced some issues sourcing materials.

“I experienced a bit of a plastic shortage in the beginning of the pandemic because everyone was installing sneeze screens and plexiglass dividers, which caused a run on that material,” Aufiero said, adding that material prices have also increased over the last two years, especially on products like lumber. Specifically, “I like walnut and pricing on that keeps continuing to rise,” he said.

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Signs reflect on their companies

While he noted that there are few local competitors focused on the type of signage he specializes in, Aufiero said that he’s sometimes up against customer expectations. “Some customers think that what they want is sitting on the shelf waiting for them, but everything I do is custom work and a complicated sign could take time to complete with quality and precision.”

At the same time, “there are a lot of online competitors and you can find some nice signs online,” he acknowledged, “but if your sole focus is to keep costs low, you may end up with something cheap-looking. A more dimensional sign looks better than a printed or flat-looking sign.”

Nearly 35 years after first hanging out his shingle, Aufiero said that he thoroughly enjoys his craft. “I love coming in and being my own boss,” he said. “I enjoy creating something new and different and tackling new projects, each of which have different challenges.”

In the end, “a good sign shows that you care about your business, image and brand enough to invest in something nice and it also reflects on the quality of the products or services your company provides,” Aufiero confirmed. “At Project Sign, we help elevate our clients’ businesses by providing high-quality, environmentally friendly and architecturally designed signs that are very aesthetically pleasing.”

Project Sign

Location: 110 Valley Drive, Atlantic Highlands

Phone: 973-951-3999

Owner: Larry Aufiero

Founded: 1988

Website:www.project-sign.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Atlantic Highlands NJ sign business makes you stand out