Digital Nextmas: Neon Creations

As we come to the end of the year, one of our favourite things to do at Digital Next is to look back at 2015 and catch up with the clients we’ve worked closely with throughout the year. Neon Creations, based in Bolton in the North West, specialise in the design and manufacture of custom made neon signs.

The business has been established over 10 years now, headed up by husband and wife team, Tony and Catherine Spink; utilising Tony’s wealth of experience and knowledge with over 25 years experience in the neon trade.

What have you got lined up for Christmas this year as a business?

There’s not many special Christmas projects we have been involved in this year; we produced three neon desktop Christmas trees which were sold to SoLita’s Prestwich restaurant for their Christmas display. As well as this we’ve been working on a few smaller Neon Creations for domestic clients as Christmas presents.

What is the atmosphere like in the NC studio in the run up to Christmas?

It’s our busiest time of the year production wise and we usually end up putting the tree and decorations up a bit late; this year we’ve managed to get in the festive spirit a bit earlier than usual and enjoyed our Christmas do at Belle Vue Dogs on the 12^th December. And with the team expanding so much over the year we’ve decided to do Secret Santa amongst the team this year rather than purchasing individual presents. Baileys Coffees have also become a bit of a tradition on our last day, and we enjoy listening to Terry singing along to Christmas Carols on the radio.

Could you give us a summary of 2015?

2015 has been an amazing year for Neon Creations, with business going from strength to strength; and none of this could have been achieved without the great team we have working with us. The year has been rounded off nicely with our recent invitation to exhibit the HM Treasury as part of Small Business Saturday.

What were your favourite projects to work on in 2015?

This is difficult as we’ve been involved in so many great projects over the year; Tony’s favourite project was the ceiling neon for SoLita’s restaurant in Prestwich, just because it was such a different project than anything we have done before.

What are your Top 10 Neon Creations of 2015?

As we mentioned earlier, we’ve worked on so many fantastic projects in 2015 it’s hard to pick just 10, we’ve chosen our 12 favourite, and they’re in no particular order:

1) Missguided HQ

2) SoLita Prestwich
3) Hummingbird on driftwood
4) Jack Daniels (Brown-Forman Beverages) – 3 different signs for 3 different venues
5) Flying Colours – Amanda Forrest
6) Lulu’s Kitchen – domestic client
7) Guitar outline (for Coca-Cola via Kingfisher Graphics)
8) Digital Eagles HQ (for Barclays via Edge Signs)
9) Eat my shorts – Delicious Treats Ltd (Home Sweet Home)
10) Our own workshop
11) Lancashire Rose – Mackies of Lancaster
12) Dink logo – The Art Partnership

And lastly, what are your plans over the Christmas period and do you have any New Years Resolutions?

Tony and I will be recovering from our hectic year and spending some quality time with the kids and testing out their new toys and presents, and visiting family. We’ve no resolutions as such, but I might attempt a dry January but I doubt Tony will join in on that one.