One of the biggest advocates of modern neon was Rudi Stern (1937 - 2006) who popularized neon as an art form and a serious illumination source for signage.He dreamed of esthetically setting the world ablaze with glowing light. "I have plans for neon pavements, neon highways, neon tunnels; neon on bridges, under water, outlining trees in parks," Rudi told Omni magazine in 1981.
鲁迪斯特恩（1937-2006）---霓虹灯的忠实“粉丝”。他将霓虹灯普及为一种艺术形式，使其成为引导标识领域受人认可的照明资源。他梦想着霓虹灯可以让全世界绚丽多彩。鲁迪在1981年接受《泛光灯杂志》采访时说，“我希望霓虹灯无处不在，马路上，高速路上，隧道里，包括水底，乃至公园的树上也有都不为过。”
Rudi Stern introduced neon to the world with his neon shop , his store front art gallery, his book, Let There Be Neon (Abrams, 1979) all with the same name. Current owner and President of Let There Be Neon is Jeff Friedman who entered into the neon world in 1977 and has had a spectrum of positions at the company. He began with the job of cleaning the studio out, and rose through the ranks to become a fabricator and a production manager. In 1980, Rudi fired him because of a job conflict, which led Friedman to start, Neon City, a new company with Philip Hazard, who was in sales and art at Let There Be Neon, which is where they met.
鲁迪斯特恩打算将霓虹灯介绍给全世界，他在艺术画廊隔壁开了一家商店，并出版了以公司名称命名的《霓虹灯吧》（《Let There Be Neon》）一书。杰夫弗莱德曼，霓虹灯吧有限公司董事长，在1977年成为该公司员工。他刚开始的工作是打扫工作室，慢慢升职成为生产经理。1980年，鲁迪由于工作上的分歧解雇了杰夫弗莱德曼，于是杰夫弗莱德曼与菲利普哈泽德一起成立了一个新公司---霓虹都市有限公司，菲利普哈泽德是霓虹灯吧有限公司的艺术品销售，他俩在霓虹灯吧有限公司结下了深厚的友谊。
Soon after, Friedman was again on talking terms with Rudi, which led to a greater involvement with LTBN. In 1990, both companies talked of a merger, and soon after, LTBN absorbed Neon City and within a year of that Friedman became the President and sole owner of LTBN, as Rudi pushed to pursued his interests in light projections and documentary film. Here in the 21st century, Friedman talked about the current state of neon, and Rudi's influence on neon as an art and craft.
公司成立九年后，弗莱德曼找到鲁迪谈合作事宜。1990年，两个公司合并，霓虹灯吧有限公司收购了霓虹都市有限公司。弗莱德曼在一年内成为霓虹灯吧有限公司的董事长，鲁迪则开始深入学习霓虹灯理论并着手拍摄纪录片。弗莱德曼表示说，鲁迪影响了霓虹灯的发展和技术的进步。
"Let There Be Neon" was Rudi Stern's 'brainchild' as he created both the company as a producer of neon work and its art gallery (with the same name) as a way to showcase the beauty of neon. Rudi brought a certain artistic sensibility to neon by introducing it as a form of architectural lighting, and by creating a certain commercial art look to it as well. "We like to think that Rudi brought neon into the home as an interior art decor," said Friedman. "For example in his early days he introduced neon as an accessible, populist art medium. He created small neon sculptures formed with bases so people could buy them and bring them to their homes for placement on their coffee tables or shelves. Some of his more popular art works were the neon lips on a base, palm trees on a base, or a Flamingo bird profile on a base. Our neon art gallery is as popular as ever, we still have people coming to visit our neon art gallery. One of our best visits is when school teachers come in with their classes, and we can show kids around, and let them see the art and how neon gets made."
霓虹灯吧有限公司是鲁迪斯特恩心血的结晶，他不仅生产霓虹灯，而且还开了一家与公司同名的艺术画廊，用来展示精美的霓虹灯艺术。鲁迪把霓虹灯作为一种建筑照明的形式，带来了艺术感受力，并创造了一种商业艺术形象。弗莱德曼说，“鲁迪把霓虹灯做成室内装饰艺术，并且将早期的霓虹灯介绍成为一种纯粹的艺术媒介。他创造了霓虹灯雕塑，人们可以带回家装饰咖啡桌和储物架。其中也有一些特别受欢迎的艺术作品，如霓虹灯嘴唇、棕榈树和火烈鸟轮廓。我们的霓虹灯艺术画廊每天都有很多人来参观，当学校老师带着学生来参观时是最有意义的，我们可以给孩子展示霓虹灯作品是如何成形的。”
"Much of Rudi's original artistic efforts still dominate the creative outlook of the company's work with neon. Rudi always described neon as drawing with light and it's still like that today. While we have new leadership at the company, we continue to follow and enhance the guiding principles of how LTBN was started. As to our current neon 'design style,' it's become very elastic and tends to morph with current trends and customer interests and requirements over time," said Freidman. "A lot of work is based on what the customer wants and that has to do with what's popular in terms of logos, stylistic looks and fonts, all which influences how a neon piece gets created. This look changed in the 1980s, the 1990s and again today. However having said that, the essence of LTBN's style is to create a 'clean, classic' look of neon's presence on a sign or an art piece."
弗莱德曼说，“鲁迪早期在艺术方面的成果指引着霓虹灯公司的未来发展方向，他一直以来都将霓虹灯描述成光的绘画。即使公司换了新的领导层，也依然会延续和完善从一开始就遵循的指导原则。随着时代的不断进步，客户对于霓虹灯的设计风格也开始灵活多变起来。”我们要满足客户的要求，并且要将流行的LOGO、风格样式和字体设计考虑在内，这些都会影响到霓虹灯的创意效果。虽然样式风格分别在1980年、1990年和最近进行了大的改变，但是霓虹灯吧有限公司还是以创造古典风格的霓虹灯艺术品为宗旨。
Neon does not exist in a vacuum and in this day of LED's shining light, one has to ask if neon still has a prominent place as a source of illumination for signage. "Absolutely," stated Friedman. "From our perspective as a neon shop, we still see a tremendous consumption of neon usage from our customers. But we're also very practical, and we offer LEDs and see a tremendous demand for that as well, depending on what our customers require for their sign illumination needs. However, we are first and foremost a neon shop and still see neon as the dominant sign illumination medium with a continuing demand for it in signage, as well as architectural lighting, graphic designs for the home, film and television prop work and a lot of interior neon designs for corporate clients as well."
霓虹灯在真空中和白天时候是没法发光的，但是它仍然是优质的标识照明资源。弗莱德曼说，“这是依据客户在霓虹灯领域的巨大消费得出的结论。我们是一家霓虹灯店，看到了霓虹灯作为标识照明资源需求量的增加。同时它也在建筑照明、室内平面造型设计、影视道具工作和室内霓虹设计等领域为客户服务，从实际角度来满足客户的需求。”
Junior's 朱尼尔的奶酪蛋糕店
Junior's in Brooklyn recently opened a location in Times Square (installed - 2005). Although it is a diner, the brand is known more for its mouthwatering cheesecakes. Along the top of the restaurant's roof awning was an installation of closed-face channel letters with the following: RESTAURANT JUNIOR'S BAR. Each plastic covered channel letter was back-lit with a 15 mm neon lighting that spelled out Junior's.
朱尼尔在布鲁克林时代广场开了一家小餐厅（成立起---2005）。他的招牌奶酪蛋糕远近闻名，这家小店也被越来越多的人所熟知。餐厅房顶遮棚的封闭式发光字装置上写着：朱尼尔餐厅酒吧。一块块15毫米霓虹灯光背光板覆盖在发光字上，拼写出朱尼尔几个大字。
To insure that midtown cheesecake fans were able to easily find Junior's, a set of sign towers were retro fitted from the location's previous incarnation , with each of the towers located at a building corner and facing its nearest street. The top of each tower has a separate light box decorated to look like one of its take out cheese boxes. Above that is the crown of the column with a cake box look of a white frosted background. Neon colors reflected the corporate logo .
为了确保住在市中心的奶酪蛋糕粉丝们能够方便快速的找到朱尼尔餐厅酒吧，建筑物角落的复古标识塔被作为路标来指引方向。每一个塔顶上都安装着看起来像奶酪盒的灯箱装饰，它有着白色的磨砂壳，借助霓虹灯光来反射出公司的LOGO。
Hunter College 亨特学院
Hunter College on Manhattan's Upper East Side acquired a temporary neon art installation on a set of overhead pedestrian walkways that connected a set of main buildings and spanned from Lexington Avenue to 68th Street. The exposed neon overhead hanging piece was commissioned by French light artist Laurent Grasso . The neon artwork was composed of the repetitive phrase "DAY FOR NIGHT FOR DAY FOR NIGHT (etc.).”
亨特学院的高架连接了主要的建筑群并且横跨了列克星敦大道68号街，桥面人行道上有一组霓虹灯艺术装置，呈现“一天晚上一天晚上（日以继夜）”的字样，是法国艺术家洛朗•格拉索的作品。
Grasso said his illuminated phrasing was a tip of the hat to French cinematographer Francois Truffaut and his movie by the same name (Day For Night) .The neon's blue color was symbolic of the blue filters used in film making for the simulated night look and was also metaphorically seductive.The neon installation which was temporary (September - December, 2008) and was mounted on a series of overhead pedestrian bridges at Hunter College that connected several main buildings to each other. The repetitive phrasing stretched across the glass wall of the walkways, following the entire length of each walkway. "The transparency of the bridge walls for me is very interesting," said Grasso in a NY Times statement, "because it's like the neon letters are in suspension with the sky behind it."
格拉索说，他的照明灵感来源是法国摄影师弗朗索瓦·特吕弗的同名电影（日以继夜）。蓝色霓虹灯用了蓝色的过滤器，来模拟夜晚的景象并呈现出完美的艺术效果。霓虹灯被悬挂在亨特学院高架人行道的玻璃墙上，占据了人行道的整个长度。格拉索在接受《纽约时报》采访时说，“玻璃墙上的发光字如同悬挂在天空中一样。”
As LTBN became involved in creating the Grasso neon artwork, several challenges guided their efforts. "The bending of the 20mm clear neon was not easy," said Friedman. "and all the tubes were formed over a traced template to create the uniform curves and identical likeliness of each of the six-foot tall neon letters to create the words that made up the repetitive phrasing of the artwork.""The second challenge was its instillation, since the neon art was temporary, we couldn't drill through the pedestrian walkway walls to create artwork anchor points. We brought in an engineer who proposed a solution of using a Unistrut system of nuts and bolts that enabled us to mount the neon artwork in a proper fixed instillation for the length of its showing. "
霓虹灯吧有限公司参与创作格拉索霓虹灯艺术品，眼前的几个挑战激起了他们的斗志。弗莱德曼说，“用20毫米的管子做成弯曲霓虹灯并不容易，每一个霓虹灯发光字都有六英尺高，我们要形成跟踪模板去创造统一的曲线。”第二个挑战是使用滴剂。由于我们不能在人行道上钻孔，所以我们用Unistrut系统的螺母和螺栓来固定住，在其他几个位置用滴剂来固定。”
"TRASH & VAULDVILLE is a vintage clothing store in SoHo, " said Friedman, "we were commissioned to create a beautiful graphic neon (six feet across) of a Buick convertible which was wall mounted inside the store, using both 8mm and 10mm neon. Hazard did all the designing and artwork on the project . Hazard created the detail of the car which was outlined in turquoise and florescent blue pumped neon with a touch of gold neon to high light the passengers. If a neon style could be trademarked I would like to think this neon piece would easily represent the LTBN look."
弗莱德曼说，“TRASH & VAULDVILLE是苏活区的一家复古服装店。我们受托去那里制作一个六英尺的图形霓虹灯，商店内的墙上，挂着用8毫米或10毫米霓虹灯管做出来的别克敞篷车。”哈泽德做了这件艺术品，也包括汽车的细节部分，比如蓝绿色的轮廓，黄金色的乘客。如果霓虹灯样式能够用作商标的话，会考虑用霓虹灯条来代表霓虹灯吧有限公司的形象。”
The Soul of Radiance 光的精髓
Let There Be Neon and all its fellow neon shops have come full circle as Freidman has noted. "It's 37 years later from our shop's opening, and we're still doing neon the same way as when we began. Neon still has a dramatic appeal for people and businesses. It's still a craft and always will be and that counts for a lot. It's still made by hand and when it's done right, you can get a sense of the soul of its radiance coming from the light."
正如弗莱德曼指出的，霓虹灯吧有限公司和所有的霓虹灯商店又回到了原点。“我们店铺已经开业37年了，我们仍然用同样的方式做霓虹灯。霓虹灯在大众和商业领域依然有着戏剧性的吸引力，这门纯手工制作的手艺还是会起到很大的作用，最重要的是，你可以了解到光的精髓。”
