At the wheel of a Ford Explorer, Martin Heller of Highland Park was leading a visitor on what he described as his mailbox tour.
Heller, 51, and partner Dore Capitani, 48, are interested in the boxes that hold mail on the front lawns of suburbia because their business, Out Front Design Group, has been creating unique mail receptacles for about five years.
From the back seat, Capitani actually groaned when he saw examples of the old-fashioned rounded box on manicured lawns as the tour wended through sections of Highland Park and Lake Forest.
“I can’t look at it,” he said in mock horror.
Why do homeowners plunk down a pile of money for a beautiful home, the partners wonder, only to ruin the effect with a boring old-time mailbox on the front lawn?
“It’s so obvious, these beautiful houses have no mailboxes to speak of,” Capitani said.
More and more, North Shore homeowners are seeing the point, as the tour shows a number of homes featuring Out Front’s distinctive designs.
“It drives curb appeal right through the roof,” explained Heller, the more outgoing member of the team.
You can spot Heller and Capitani’s work with its trademark flag that is crafted in a wave design. The variety of boxes they design range from the boxy to the triangular, and they will work with clients to create designs especially for a given home.
Among the materials used to create the boxes, which may take from three hours to three or four days to craft, are stainless steel, Corian and acrylic materials, as well as stained glass.
Some of the boxes shimmer in the light on their own, while others can be outfitted with special lighting to glow at night.
“I know of no one else who uses the variety of materials we choose,” Capitani said.
The firm operates a showroom in Highland Park and on the 13th floor of Chicago’s Merchandise Mart at the Design Idea Center, which is open to the public. Appointments are necessary to view the designs in Highland Park.
Prices begin at about $150 for a basic box with a post; an elaborate model costs about $2,000, the partners said. Installation is extra.
When people walk through the door of the showroom, they are always floored by what greets them, according to Heller.
It’s not unusual for customers to phone spouses from the showroom to say, “You’ve got to see this,” according to the partners.
“There were so many, and they were all so beautiful,” said Eileen Nemeroff of Highland Park. She and her husband, Michael, decided to buy an Out Front mailbox after tiring of repairing the family’s former, more traditional box.
The Nemeroffs’ new month-old box is a black acrylic with little grooved squares and the address in chrome letters, Eileen Nemeroff said.
Heller and Capitani describe their designs as contemporary and don’t particularly follow any one architectural style, the men said. It’s not only modern homes that have the boxes out front; owners of traditional-style homes also been have clients.
“Eighty percent of people will see a piece here and order it; the other 20 percent might require sketches if they are looking for a concept,” Heller said.
The firm installs the mailboxes, and Heller, whose neighborhood is beginning to be dominated by Out Front designs, keeps tabs on the work as he drives or walks by.
His strolls through residential areas have brought in some business, said Heller, who generally handles more of the sales aspects of the business, while Capitani is in charge of fabrication. Between them, they handle it all — designing, engineering, construction and sales.
“I’ll say, `Nice house, crummy mailbox,’ ” when encountering potential clients on the street, Heller said, adding that he considers an attractive mailbox as “part and parcel of landscaping.”
In addition to appearing on north suburban lawns, the mailboxes can be found as far away as Colorado, California and Arizona, where residents from Illinois have installed them in front of their second homes.
Their designs may be creative, for example featuring a swooping curve of metal reminiscent of a sail for boating enthusiasts, but the men say they also are functional. The mailboxes, whatever their form, fit the requirements for boxes established by the U.S. postmaster, the men said.
“I’ve talked to my mail carriers. . . . They appreciate what we do,” Heller said.
A random call to the Highland Park Post Office found Tom Sendor, customer service supervisor, unfamiliar with the company but familiar with its work. “It’s caught my eye over the years. It’s like a work of art. . . . Each carrier looks at 300 to 400 boxes a day in Highland Park. It does brighten your day. It’s better than the old standard, country-style mailbox.”
Sendor added that anyone contemplating installation of anything other than a standard mailbox may want to have a post office official stop by beforehand just to make sure size and placement meet postal specifications.
As for quality, Heller said, all of the mailboxes are designed for extreme durability and are made from strong materials such as acrylic and stainless steel. The company offers a one-year guarantee on the boxes, but Heller is confident they will last much longer, saying pieces put out five years ago still look new today.
Heller and Capitani can create more than just mailboxes, they added. Other items they have sold include kitchen tables, railings and outdoor lighting. Prices for the non-mailboxes generally run from $1,200 and up.
“Whatever people bring us, we do,” Heller said, noting how they recently repaired a lawn sculpture created by another artist. The work had been dented during shipment.
“We take great pride in our work; everything is extremely high quality with extreme weatherability,” Heller said. “We do not allow unhappy clients.”
Both men have a background in metalwork and, in fact, met while attending a welding class at the College of Lake County a few years back.
Capitani, a native of the North Shore, admitted he was a bit skeptical when his new buddy proposed creating designs in a typically deadly dull genre.
But after five years of work, the business is thriving, the men say, while declining to reveal exact sales figures for the business.
“Now I’m hook, line and sinker,” Capitani said. “Once Marty showed me the obvious lack of good mailboxes, it’s like following a path.”
The pair’s differing personalities are a key to their success, Heller and Capitani said. “We feed off each other in a symbiotic way,” said Heller, who grew up in Chicago.
“It’s a niche market; the harder you work, the busier you get,” Heller said. “I’m not trying to be the wealthiest guy on the North Shore; I’m trying to be the happiest.”
Heller once operated a retail kite store at North Pier, and Capitani is a former keyboardist with a rock band that played gigs in the suburbs in the ’70s. Clearly, both have a creative spirit, which they are now channeling into the mailboxes and other commissions.
“We fit . . . in the sense of our different skills meshing,” Heller observed.
Customer Dan Gelfond said he found Heller and Capitani committed to the concept of customer service, something he said many business people have forgotten.
“They both are totally willing to spend time (with clients,)” said Gelfond, a Deerfield resident. “They were both just nice guys to work with.”
Gelfond took a rather unusual approach to finding a mailbox a few years ago, he recalled.
“I literally drove up and down nice neighborhoods to find mailboxes,” he said.
When he saw a mailbox with a design he admired, Gelfond would drop a note to the owner inside. That prompted a call from Heller, whose client had passed on the message.
“We just hit it off right off the bat,” Gelfond recalled. “We talked, and he was a great guy. He stands behind what he does.”
It’s typical to hear others refer to his mailbox as “gorgeous,” Gelfond said. It consists of a black box with a Lucite top, according to Gelfond. He also purchased a kitchen table from Heller and Capitani.
“I think it adds to the house,” Gelfond said of his mailbox. “It’s a piece of art that happens to hold mail.”
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For more information about the Out Front Design Group, call 847-831-0287.
