Our Process
Design
The first step is designing your sign. Sometimes we receive ideas that are just that and we help with renditions and final design. Once we have this we make 2 copies, or patterns, one of which will go to our neon bender and the other to who installs the sign.
Our neon bender will receive a negative copy of the final design. This means that they will receive a reversed copy of the design as neon is bent backwards.
Neon Bending
Once the design process is done, we get to neon bending! The tube is continuously being heated, bent and cooled down with a wooden or stone block. We make bend and cut marks with soft graphite pencils and cut with hard metal files.
Neon has to be heated every three inches or so and depending on how fast we’re working as well as how fast the tube is cooling down due to external factors.
Lighting
After we’ve done all our bending, we place electrodes on each end and introduce neon gas at a low pressure. After, electric voltage is applied to each terminal and that’s when we get color.
Different gases are used to achieve different colors! For example, helium glows pink, argon is lavender or blue and krypton is green or grey.
Finishes
The last major step is to paint the back part of the sign so only the front is visible when lit.
If this is not done, the sign would look like the image from Lighting…