The project
The client wanted a genuinely warm gold rather than a cooler yellow, which meant a phosphor-coated tube rather than colored glass — we mounted a canary gold sample against their storefront brick before committing to the full run, since phosphor colors read noticeably different against brick than against a white pattern board. The underline rule beneath the script uses ruby-red glass with an argon/mercury fill rather than neon gas, for a more uniform, consistent red across its full run than plain neon-in-clear-glass tends to hold over a long straight section.
Wired as two sections joined at the shop’s roofline junction box, sized to a single 30mA transformer rated comfortably above the run’s real footage and 13mm tube diameter.