A Niche Store For Discarded Urban Light Signs

Commercial light signs in cities are often criticized. Many people claim they ruin the urban landscape and overload the urbanites with commercial messages nobody has asked for. However, the beauty of these light signs and the typical urban atmosphere they contribute to is hardly recognized. Designer Fabian Thiele found a gap in the market by presenting the urban light signs in a new context: a concept store.

Thiele re-uses the left overs of urban light signing and sells them for indoor home furnishing purposes in his shop NONEON in Frankfurt. The letters are collected from the urban advertising jungle and pimped up by Thiele, who also runs the store. Presented in a new context, the design quality of neon signs and light signs is astonishing, especially from a typographical point-of-view.

Besides having found an interesting gap in the market with his niche store in urban light letters, Thiele also contributes to the liveliness of the street. When it’s dark the letters in his storefront form a spectacular colorful explosion of light, as if it’s an art gallery. Creating words with his discarded light signs, Thiele inspires the passers-by with new ideas about lighting in their own house in order to get that metropolitan vibe.