Matt Thompson might be the last of a dying breed. Or he might be living proof that everything cycles back around.
"Neon has gone from being cool to not cool to cool again," said Thompson, a "blowing tube" draped over his neck at his northeast Minneapolis workplace, which is filled with eye candy. "We've gone through ups and downs, but we're alive and well."
There are about a dozen artisans in town, but Thompson, 42, is one of the few who does restoration as well as concocting original signage. He's spiffing up a Cafe Brenda sign for restaurateur Brenda Langton's home and creating a 3 1/2-foot-wide replica of the Grain Belt billboard for a couple who live just down the Mississippi from that riverfront icon. An 8-foot-wide Coca-Cola sign filling much of the floor space is among his active restoration projects.
Along with "every suburban guy who has a pool table and wants a personalized beer sign," Thompson's best customers are members of the Minnesota Street Rod Association, who want vivid signs for their garages "that are era-correct to the 1950s."
Most of the signs filling Thompson's studio go back farther than that. A Hamm's "Dancing Goblet" marquee is first among equals among the beer logos, not all of them neon but most advertising long-gone brands: Schmidt's City Club, Gettelman, King Cole, North Star Lager, Mineral Spring, Kaier's. On one wall is a large red Mobil winged horse, on another a rare Washburn-Crosby Gold Medal Flour sign.
Most of the signs are part of Thompson's personal collection, perhaps available for the right price and "awaiting their turn to be restored. They've gone through their time of being just junk."
The latest competition: inexpensive LED lighting.
"There was a successful sales hype by the LED salesmen about them being cheaper and more efficient," he said. "What we're finding is that modern neon is just as economical," not to mention more environmentally sound than polymer plastics. "It doesn't get more green than glass, which is made from sand," he said.
