The Case for Rebuilding America Starts with Neon Signs

We tend to think improving America requires enormous projects that take decades to finish. Bridges need to be rebuilt. Roads need repairs. Those things matter. But maybe we also need a few ideas that are easy to implement and visible enough to build momentum.

What if bringing neon signs back is the answer?

Imagine a midsized American city in the middle of winter. The sun has been down since five. Now imagine downtown filled with real neon signs. A red script sign above the Italian restaurant. A glowing bowling ball crashing into ten pins. The hotel on the edge of town welcoming visitors with its soft glow. We took them all for granted. Now most of them exist only in our imagination.

The entire place feels warmer. Maybe even alive.

For much of the twentieth century, this was a normal American street. Neon signs marked pharmacies and motels. They lit up theaters and gas stations. Every sign began as a drawing before a craftsman heated the glass and bent it by hand. A neon sign was a small commissioned work of art. We tend to forget that.

We slowly traded them for plastic boxes and corporate sign packages. The excuses began with maximizing profit and ended with forgetting how to create a vibe. They made our streets look the same.

America lost an art form along with the craftsmen who knew how to create it. Once the local neon shop disappears, that knowledge becomes difficult to recover. This is why I keep returning to the idea that craft is infrastructure.

Imagine giving small businesses modest grants to commission real neon signs. Let a restaurant hire a designer who works with a local glass bender. Put something strange and beautiful above the sidewalk. Then do it again at the bakery and the neighborhood bar.

This is a dream more than a formal proposal. I like the idea of doing something people can actually see happen. A sign can be designed in weeks and installed in an afternoon. More demand creates work. Work creates apprenticeships. One successful storefront makes the next business want to participate.

A town that watches ten storefronts transform over a summer begins to feel differently about what else might be possible. People walk around after dark. They flex for the ’gram in front of the new artwork. A great neon sign can turn an ordinary restaurant into a landmark because it gives the business a face and the street a memory.

Neon signs will not solve every problem facing America. They could give us a small and visible win. Maybe that is how momentum begins.

I spend a lot of time thinking about ideas that sound slightly unreasonable before revealing something larger about culture and design.

If you have a great idea you cannot stop thinking about, email me at hellolussoarchive@gmail.com.

Let’s make some magic.

Christian Gideon | Lusso Archive