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Considering his family’s involvement in slate mining for more than a half-century, it seemed natural for Matt Curcio ’00 to start a business with his father that provides custom laser etching and engraving services for slate and other materials. Curcio handles basic graphic design, which he taught himself, and shares responsibility for marketing and sales.
“Lafayette instills in its students a sense of entrepreneurship — wanting to go out and tackle the challenges that you put in front of yourself,” he says.
In addition to slate, Albion Laser Concepts reproduces images and intricate designs in granite, glass, acrylic, hardwoods, and formica for individual plaques, memorials, and wall and floor murals. Nobody else in the company’s Lehigh Valley area is using cutting-edge laser technology in such advanced applications, he notes.
“Lasers became popular with companies that do things like industrial markings in metal about a decade ago, slowly evolving into what we do now with taking pictures, detailed art work or photographs and engraving them into a surface,” says Curcio. “We have institutional customers like Lafayette and organizations that want to do something special to recognize employees, clients, or students. The most difficult challenge is introducing a product or idea to people who haven’t heard of it. This is fairly new technology as far as using the laser as almost an art form.”
One memorable creation was done on a solid black granite piece for a New York firehouse that suffered casualties at the World Trade Center site on Sept. 11. It features an engraved picture of the former New York City skyline, using the Twin Towers in the words “Sept. 11, 2001” as the centerpiece of the four-by-three-foot mural. The border is outlined with the faces of the 11 firefighters lost that day and an American flag is in the background.
He believes that the business has significant growth potential with architects and interior designers through interior items such as countertops and floor and wall murals.
After graduation, Curcio spent a little more than a year in the financial planning industry just outside Philadelphia, leaving when the economy went downhill.
“It’s great to be your own boss,” he says. “I like the freedom that it gives me and it’s nice to work with my father.”
An economics and business graduate, Curcio played outside linebacker on the football team and served as philanthropy chairman of Theta Delta Chi fraternity. His sister, Catherine Curio ’03, is an English graduate.
Matt Curcio ’00 holds a half-scale version of a slate memorial his company created to honor Manhattan firefighters who lost their lives while responding to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.