In a visit to my home town, Louisville, KY. I drove by a sign on a restaurant called the Twig & Leaf on Bardstown Road at Douglas Loop. I stopped to have lunch and as I was eating I remembered the hours I stood beneath the sign waiting to transfer buses at age 11.

The sign seemed to always grab my attention because it had the buzz that you could remember even when you were away from it. It blinked in the rain and swayed in the wind. I stood under this sign from 1983 to 1988 before and after class. It also became a part of my life seeing it so much as a sign of angst and relief. My favorite time to see it was in the dark. I loved the colors and artistic design although I still don’t know why they named a 50’s style diner Twig & Leaf. This sign started a life long love of Neon.

After graduation from Trinity High School, I moved to Bowling Green, KY to pursue an Advertising Major. During my junior year at WKU, I began making and marketing licensed college logo signs for several universities. I have since built a competitive and valuable sign business that has supported my family and I for over 25 years.

Neon (Greek νέον (neon) meaning “new one”) was discovered in 1898 by the British chemists Sir William Ramsay (1852–1916) and Morris W. Travers (1872–1961) in London. Neon was discovered when Ramsay chilled a sample of air until it became a liquid, then warmed the liquid and captured the gases as they boiled off. The gases that boiled off, in addition to nitrogen, oxygen, and argon, were krypton, xenon, and neon. The characteristic, brilliant red color that is emitted by gaseous neon when excited electrically was noted immediately; Travers later wrote, “the blaze of crimson light from the tube told its own story and was a sight to dwell upon and never forget.”