Known for their award winning illustration and editorial work, I Love Dust were recently commissioned by Mother Jones to add ‘some neon-sign magic’ to an article in their May/June 2014 edition.

Mother Jones is a nonprofit news organization that specializes in investigative, political, and social justice reporting. The article itself looks at the shadowy – and very well-connected – bail bonds industry and the final piece from ILD really connects with the subject matter.

The entire artwork took ten days to complete and Bruce Jamieson, I Love Dust’s senior designer noted: “With that piece, in particular, we wanted it to be realistic, so the viewer sees everything in place – all of the supports on the glass neon piping, the silicone end covers, and the wire cable ties.”

The initial type was sketched out in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, weighing different font options and studying how they might translate to the neon realm, before moving on to the modeling phase. “When that was set, we could light it and fill the shapes with color hits in Cinema 4D,” Jamieson explained.

“The light reacts and it starts to resemble a photograph of a neon sign. The final stage takes a lot of time to get together, thinking about how it’ll read or where it will glow.”

Personally I’m just astounded at the level of realism in the piece and love the ‘lights off’ version which is equally as stunning.

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