Busy Sign Consultant Takes Profit to the Bank

NEWPORT BEACH —  Fred Hosseini has carved a profitable niche out of industrial upheavals.

When some big banks merge, for example, Hosseini’s AdImpact agency hires on to create signs--hundreds of them--for the new corporate entity. They range from the tiny logo on parking decals to 13-foot-high lettering atop high-rise banking headquarters.

Over the Labor Day weekend, when Union Bank and Bank of California literally take the wraps off their new name, Union Bank of California, Hosseini’s signs will be under the cloth at dozens of branches and other bank facilities in three states.

Hosseini has been in the sign-consulting business for years, but bank mergers have generated so much new business that he has moved his office out of his home and into a small, chic studio in Corona del Mar.

Hosseini had worked out of his Irvine home for a couple of years, fearful of expanding his small business too rapidly. But then he landed the sign contract in April for the Union Bank of California merger, and his living room became carpeted with more than 250 blueprints of bank images.

The gregarious entrepreneur said he had decided to hire a full-time staff, but also admitted: “My wife was going to move me into the street.”

And after the Union Bank deal has run its course, AdImpact will still be working on more financial signs. The firm has been hired as a sign consultant for the new entity created when American Savings Bank in Irvine merges with Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc.

The sign industry generates $4 billion in revenue nationwide, but consists largely of small firms such as AdImpact, which now employs nine people, according to the International Sign Assn., based in Alexandria, Va.

“New businesses coming into the fold, they rely on mergers of corporations and small business start-ups,” said Suzy Beamer, a vice president of the association.

Sign companies find that one of their biggest challenges is convincing potential clients that they need to change.

“There is a very serious problem within the merchant community as to the importance of signage and certainly a lack of awareness on the part of governmental agencies, such as city planners,” said Jerry Jackson, executive director of the Malibu-based California Electric Sign Assn. “They cannot begin to comprehend the importance a business sign can play in ensuring the success of a local business. . . . That means more jobs in the community and more sales by merchants.”

Hosseini concurs. “Signs are very important to a business,” he said recently. “It’s the first image you see.”

The 36-year-old entrepreneur has managed to make profit from change after experiencing a major change in his personal life.

Born in Tehran, he was in the United States to study chemical engineering and computer science in 1979 when the shah’s regime was toppled and Ayatollah Khomeini’s fundamentalist revolution took hold in Iran. Originally, Hosseini planned to return to Iran to become one of the elite, foreign-educated corps of technocrats that would modernize the nation.

Instead, he remained in the United States, eventually drifting into the sign business.

After graduating from Oregon State University in 1982, Hosseini worked for a Los Angeles acrylics research company. He then moved to Coast Sign Display Inc. in Anaheim, where he worked for 10 years before venturing out on his own.

He opened his home-based shop, relying on three contract employees who also worked out of their own homes. He built a small but consistent client list that included some restaurant chains, banks and even the maintenance contract for Circuit City’s electric signs.

His success, he said, comes from combining artistic sensibilities with business sense. He considers himself a corporate image-maker: creative, but not so radical that he turns off clients.

His customers say they also like the idea that they work directly with him instead of with the corporate underlings of larger organizations. Union Bank’s Daniel T. Reza, vice president of design and construction, said he chose AdImpact over other, larger design firms because of Hosseini’s upfront manner.

“He gets the job done with directness and determination,” Reza said.

For the Union Bank job, Hosseini actually serves as a “sign consultant.” The graphic design of the bank’s new look was created by a design company. But Hosseini’s agency had to put that graphic into signs at each of the institution’s buildings, which range from small suburban branches to Union Bank’s high-rise headquarters in Los Angeles. Hosseini lined up 17 subcontractors to manufacture the signs. Then he had to choose installers and, finally, make sure it all happened on time.

“It’s been excellent,” Reza said of the project. “We’re looking at 80% completion.”

That is considered a good rate in an industry where each branch has to jump an obstacle course of municipal zoning codes and sign permits before installation can occur.

Larger signs are still before planning commissions and design review boards, but Union Bank feels lucky to have come this far since April.

At Hosseini’s own offices in Corona del Mar, visitors might expect to be greeted by some eye-grabbing corporate sign. But visitors will only see an old business card with a new phone number penciled over Hosseini’s home phone number. He said he just hasn’t had time to make his own sign.

“I haven’t even put together a sales brochure yet.”