59, a Journey studio, were pleased to work on Hong Kong Design Centre’s latest exhibition, which tells the story of Hong Kong’s neon signs. These iconic visual symbols have shaped the region’s busy landscape both historically and within the contemporary world.
Using footage provided by Tetra Neon Exchange, we created The Light Within The Light Without, a 7-minute looping immersive artwork divided into four chapters; Taking a Sign Down, Young Masters, History and Advertising, and Calligraphy and the Mechanics of Making.
Our piece is inspired by the passion and knowledge of collaborators at Tetra Neon Exchange and their wider family of master craftsmen, artists, technicians, academics, sign owners, and lovers of Neon. This creation has been an exploration into the evolution of Neon as a key visual language in the physical, cinematic, imagined, remembered, and incipient cityscape of Hong Kong.
Changes in building regulations have led to the majority of Hong Kong’s neon signs being taken down. From a hey-day of 10’s of thousands of signs populating the streets of Hong Kong, today, fewer than 500 remain. This lends a poignancy to this celebration of the art and craft of Neon sign-making.
The filmic artwork is located in ‘The Box’ space on the first out of four floors of the exhibition, and the experience journeys kaleidoscopically through the past, present, future, craft, art, and resonance of Neon in Hong Kong. The Box, an 8-metre by 7-metre immersive gallery screen room, is part of the wider exhibition on the ground floor curated by Serious Staging, whom we worked closely with on our scope of the exhibition design.
It was an honour to help tell the story of Hong Kong’s Neons using our video and animation design. The free exhibition at the Hong Kong Design Centre runs from December 2025 to early 2026.