Neon Safari
Illustration Work
An impromptu solo trip took to me to Seattle in the fall of 2019, and as a first time visitor, I felt obligated to play tourist. After grabbing a grande flat white from this cute local coffeeshop called Starbucks, I headed to Pike Place Market to check out the sights (and smells). I was instantly hypnotized by the countless neon signs that line the halls of the market — and given that it was a quintessential gloomy, gray Pacific Northwest morning, these signs really seemed to jump right off the walls.
A long train ride home with lousy WiFi (thanks, Amtrak) led me to mindlessly sketch some recreations of these neon signs — I shared these random doodles with a few native Seattleite friends and they nearly fell out of their chairs begging me to resize it into a poster.
A few weeks later, I stumbled upon my second victim: Beale Street in Memphis. If you’ve never been, Beale Street gives new meaning to “electric avenue.” It’s also where I realized that my affinity for neon signs was closer to an obsession. And of course, I also had to pay homage to Baltimore, my adopted home. Now I'm on the hunt to discover neon signs whenever I travel — what I like to call a Neon Safari!
A long train ride home with lousy WiFi (thanks, Amtrak) led me to mindlessly sketch some recreations of these neon signs — I shared these random doodles with a few native Seattleite friends and they nearly fell out of their chairs begging me to resize it into a poster.
A few weeks later, I stumbled upon my second victim: Beale Street in Memphis. If you’ve never been, Beale Street gives new meaning to “electric avenue.” It’s also where I realized that my affinity for neon signs was closer to an obsession. And of course, I also had to pay homage to Baltimore, my adopted home. Now I'm on the hunt to discover neon signs whenever I travel — what I like to call a Neon Safari!
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