Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tom Numan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Tom, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?
Coming up with the idea to use LED in place of traditional glass neon was one of necessity!
Like any good entrepreneurial story, the idea to substitute LED in for glass neon came a place of necessity. Many moons ago, when I was just starting college studying Graphic Design, I had the grand idea of decorating my dorm with a neon sign, something to complete the space and speak to my bar-loving side.
However, what I discovered about traditional neon signs was that the glass used was easily broken (especially when shipped), and released toxic gasses when it did – so it wasn’t going to be the best thing to have in a room regularly full of drunk people. Not to mention it was expensive, and I certainly didn’t have much money to my name. I couldn’t help but think there must be something else out there that could provide the same effect, without the price tag.
I searched high and low to see if a more modern technology would be able to replicate the look without the downsides. That’s when I discovered LED Flex Neon in 2013. Even though it was a fledgling technology at the time, my experience in the lighting design arena told me that this medium was the one.
LED Neon turned out to be an environmentally friendly, user-friendly, and wallet-friendly alternative without all the downsides of glass neon. I began ordering in a few lengths of the LED strip that was at the time more commonly used in home lighting (underside of tables, or the borders of interior ceilings). But soon worked out how to cut and bend it to make simple shapes, and I guess that was the lightbulb moment – pun intended!
Just like that, the ultimate evolution of the traditional neon sign was born, and it’s been shining bright ever since.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Not too long after discovering how LED strip could actually be used to replicate a neon sign, at a fraction of the price, I had friends asking for a sign of their own, and then friends of friends – and so on!
Without really thinking too much, Radikal Neon was born and I quickly set about producing the digital essentials of the time – like an Instagram, Facebook and Website. This helped legitimize the business, and helped me keep track of orders, and display the orders we’d already made.
To this day Radikal’s business model remains the same, we specialize in creating custom LED neon signs for our clients – the only things that have changed is the technology we now use to assist our clients in creating their dream neon, and the few extra faces we have between our two primary offices in NZ & California!
What really sets us apart from the others in our industry is our physical locations that clients can visit to get a good idea of what they want, select colors and ask us any questions they might have. The other thing would be our stellar customer service, no matter the job/issue/question, we can get it answered and answered fast.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me, the most rewarding thing is spending countless hours producing neon designs I’m incredibly proud of – then having the client purchase them – and display them proudly in their home/business. There’s huge satisfaction in driving around a city, and seeing signs you’ve designed shining brightly in shopfront windows.
That will never get old.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Having worked with and in a number of start-ups prior to launching my own I was fully aware of how important it is to pivot your offering when it’s needed. A huge mistake I see other start-ups making is that they are so stuck to their original idea, that they can’t see the shifting sands beneath them, that with a quick pivot could see them rocketing towards further success.
The one that sticks out to me the most is when I first launched the company. I wasn’t so keen to do custom neon signs, and instead released a series of pre-designed signs, these didn’t do as well as I’d hoped – but at the same time I was fielding a serious number of requests for custom signs, and found much more success in designing and selling than I had the pre-designed signs.
If I hadn’t seen the writing on the wall, and made the early pivot, the business as we know it today would not exist.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.radikalneonsigns.com/us/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/radikalneon/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/radikalneon
- Twitter: radikalneon
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJm4MJiZxLLD6X69OJZohfA
- Other: https://www.pinterest.nz/radikalneon/