Wednesday 14 September 2011

Neon Love Affair

Let's face it, we love short and sharp messages, we've all exchanged little notes in the classroom behind the teacher's back and in great novels, lovers intensify the tension between them with carefully written secret words.


Tracey Emin's 'Just Love Me' (1998)


Nowadays with Twitter and sms everyone has becoming a self-made copywriter condensing a lot of information in a little sentence.

Advertising is just impressive and mostly intrusive however there are a few fortunate exceptions like Diane Von Fusternberg's 'be the woman you want to be...'   




We tend to use the traditional t-shirt as a white canvas to convey whatever is in our mind, from the ordinary 'I love NY' to the ones created to raise awareness of breast cancer or customised ones, available for instance at Vogue's Fashion Night Out.


www.showstudio.com


But neon is becoming more and more a way of expressing key statements to the world, probably inspired by Tracey Emin's work, although art critics say the reign of "concept" in modern British art is over.

But you do find neon words spread across the city, not in the traditional Las Vegas promotional style, but as personal embellished details.


DKNY London

The Creative consultant Yasmin Sewell, settling in new offices in Shoreditch, is creating a huge neon sign of her personal favourite quote, made by Neon Circus. 

I would go for the classic Carpe Diem (seize the day). I try to live by it, making the most of each moment, it's difficult but it gets easier with time and effort.

How about you? If you would write something in neon, what would that be?


Postmodernism exhibition at V&A