About Neon Flamingo — A Los Angeles Neon Sign Company

I'm Dani Bonnet. I bend glass for a living, which is a strange sentence to say out loud even after ten years of doing it.

I started learning neon in 2015. For the first few years I mostly just burned myself and broke a lot of glass. Somewhere around year four, my hands finally caught up to my ideas. I remember the first time a genuinely complicated design actually worked. I probably scared the neighbors with how loud I celebrated.

Here's the thing about this craft: there aren't a lot of us left. I'm honestly one of the youngest people still bending neon full-time in LA, which is a weird thing to be proud of and a little unsettling at the same time. Most of the shops that used to teach this have closed. The people who really know this trade are decades into their careers. I'd like to still be doing this at 70. I'd love even more if there was someone doing it after me.

What Neon Flamingo Is

Neon Flamingo is my studio in Echo Park, Los Angeles. I design and build custom neon and LED signs for businesses, film sets, brands, and regular people who just want something glowing and gorgeous on their wall.

Some projects are simple. A logo. A storefront sign. Some have been a little unhinged in the best way — a 20-foot freestanding sign built to survive actual desert winds, a hologram-and-neon hybrid piece for a corporate office, a full-size car sculpture made of light for a major auto brand. I never quite know what's coming next, and I like it that way.

Most of what leaves this shop, I build myself, start to finish. On bigger jobs I bring in a few people I trust — for bending, install, whatever the deadline needs.

The Art Side of Things

I also make fine art — neon art, really, with no boss telling me what it needs to say. Some of it has ended up in museums. Some of it has ended up leading to major brand commissions, because someone saw a personal piece and thought, "I want that, but for my company." I love when those two worlds bump into each other. Someday I'd like to spend most of my time here.

Why I Do This

Neon takes patience most things don't ask of you anymore. Real hands, real years, no shortcuts. In a world that keeps getting faster and cheaper, I still believe there's room for something built slow and built right.

If you've got an idea, weird or otherwise, I want to hear it.