Luminous advertising or illuminated advertising in the form of LUMINOUS TUBES (“neon advertising”) has existed since the “Golden Twenties”. In the modern age, the colorful glass tubes on barrels and roofs have been and are being displaced by new installations using LED technology. But they still exist. In daylight you hardly notice them, but in the dark they often exude the charm of a bygone era and are testimony to the individuality of stores and businesses. But modern forms of illuminated advertising as well as elements in architecture also make use of the glass tubes filled with inert gas.
I went in search of these light tubes in the so-called “open design” (I call them NEONS) in my place of residence Karlsruhe. And I was surprised how many of them there are. They are arranged here by city areas, which can be selected in the menu above. Using the statistics in the header on the right, the neons can be listed according to their current status. Individual concrete locations can be clicked on directly in the map below.
Under the heading “On the road” there are neons that I discovered outside of Karlsruhe. These have nothing to do with Karlsruhe, but I think they still deserve a place in this virtual museum. In the blog on this page, there are irregular posts about interesting neon topics, links or information when there have been changes in the Karlsruhe installations listed here. How I got the idea for this project, how it developed and which technology is behind the neons, you can read here.
Have fun discovering – here on the site and maybe outside! And if something is missing, feel free to let me know.
