News

How Circa Las Vegas Is Using Art & Design To Shine A Light On Sin City’s Colorful Past

Walking around Circa Resort & Casino in downtown Las Vegas is an experience. This doesn’t sound like much of a compliment in a town like Vegas, but it is. You’re not simply walking to an experience, or from one—this is the experience. The property itself, from casino carpet to the art on the walls, is all one big howdy-do nod to the colorful, mad past of this glorious city and those who built it. 

You just have to know where to look. The hotel itself is an architectural marvel, spanning 1.25-million square feet with 777 rooms & suites, a two-story casino, the world’s largest sportsbook, Legacy Club, an impressive rooftop bar with stunning city views, the Stadium Swim pool amphitheater, and a high-tech parking garage dubbed Garage Mahal...

But, if it’s art you’re after, you can’t miss these Circa hotspots:

• Vegas Vickie. Las Vegas’ iconic neon kicking cowgirl, Vegas Vickie is the centerpiece of the Circa lobby. Fresh from a makeover by YESCO, the 100-year-old company synonymous with many of the city’s most internationally recognizable signs, Vickie debuted in 1980 and, a few years later, made major headlines when she married her neon counterpart, Vegas Vic, in 1994.

• Guest rooms. Circa’s room corridors showcase a selection of pieces transporting guests back in time with compositions of a Vegas Vickie sketch painting by YESCO artist Adolfo Gonzalez, a black-and-white polaroid series featuring handwritten calligraphy by Schin Loong, and playing card canvases and whimsical tributes to Dancing Dealers by Jelaine Faunce...

Read the full article written by Laura Parker at forbes.com

How neon signs became Las Vegas’s defining art form and calling card is a transporting tale of transatlantic time travel.

Neon’s journey to the Mojave Desert originated in a London laboratory in 1898, when chemists Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers drew six mysterious gases from thin air.

The “noble” sextet, so termed because they royally resist bonding with other atoms, included an element that the partners named neon after the Greek “neos” for “new.”

Neon is odorless and colorless. However, when extracted from liquified air, sealed in a vacuum tube, and zapped with electricity, as French inventor Georges Claude discovered in 1902, this invisible aristocrat glows crimson red. In 1912, he installed the world’s first neon sign at a Parisian barbershop.

Radiant enough to penetrate fog, his “liquid fire” cinematically transformed European cities. Neon reached the U.S. in 1923 after American entrepreneur Earle C. Anthony, dazzled by Claude’s works in Paris, commissioned two neon-scripted “Packard” displays for his Los Angeles automobile dealership.

As neon fever similarly revolutionized American cityscapes, Thomas Young emerged as the pioneer of the form. In 1910, Young’s father moved the family from northern England to Ogden, Utah, to seek a better life. Then 15, Young, who loved drawing and painting, apprenticed as a sign writer.

Enterprising, charismatic, and principled, Young founded his eponymous sign company in 1920 and started out hand-lettering windows in gold leaf and engraving brass coffin plates. Seeing the Packard signs in L.A. changed everything. Renaming his enterprise Young Electric Sign Company, later shortened to YESCO, Young and his growing team started manufacturing, installing, and servicing neon signs across the West. Meanwhile, landmark developments in Southern Nevada put YESCO on the path of destiny...

Read the full article written by Jeff Heilman at passportmagazine.com

YESCO Calgary sponsored and participated in the 31st Annual Rotary Soap Box Derby in Okotoks near Calgary, Canada It was a fantastic event. This was the local Rotary club's first major event since Covid and they were very concerned about attendance. The event turned into a huge success with nearly 70 drivers entered and a crowd of supporters cheering them on.

The Soap Box Derby organization provides "mentorship, competition, friendship and teamwork. It's rooted in family and community and creates champions." All traits that are shared in YESCO's mission as well.

Congratulations, Ryan Nix and the rest of the YESCO Calgary team.

Here is a link to the photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/HGbMaEn6DoaLvUu37

YESCO Fabricates and Installs New Signs at Southern Utah University

ST. GEORGE, UTAH (August 2021) - YESCO announces the fabrication and installation of new signs for Southern Utah University (SUU) in Cedar City, Utah.

The signage installed by YESCO includes three new double-sided video display kiosks with six Samsung 55-inch OHF screens at The Beverly Sorenson Center For The Arts on the SUU campus. These signs will provide information for events at the Engelstad Shakespeare Theater, Southern Utah Museum of Art and Randall L. Jones Theater.

FUN FACTS:

• It took YESCO 344 man-hours to complete the sign project.
• To ventilate each display and prevent it from overheating, the enclosure is compo9sed of 100 percent aluminum with internal baffles separating the intake and exhaust air.
• Each display features a pedestal enclosure for the video screen and rooftop.
• The original signs were installed in 2016.

“YESCO was grateful for the opportunity to design, fabricate and install these new displays at Southern Utah University,” said Kelly Harward, custom account manager, YESCO. “Our client is very pleased with the results.”

Click here to view more photos

YESCO Fabricates, Installs Nearly 4,000 Signs at Allegiant Stadium

YESCO, official partner of the Las Vegas Raiders, fabricates, installs nearly 4,000 signs at Allegiant Stadium. Signs Include Monumental Exterior, Interior Directional Signage.

LAS VEGAS (August 2021) – YESCO, the 101-year-old company known for creating, repairing and maintaining internationally recognizable signs, is a proud partner of the Las Vegas Raiders and Allegiant Stadium. When Allegiant Stadium opens on Aug. 14 for the Las Vegas Raiders’ first home game of 2021, YESCO will welcome fans with nearly 4,000 signs including all stadium naming signage, pylon signs and interior and exterior directional signs to enable guests to navigate the new stadium.

“As a proud partner of the Raiders and a valued building partner of Allegiant Stadium, we are excited for fans to enjoy the 2021 season in the stadium,” said Jeff Young, executive vice president, YESCO. “It’s enormously gratifying to be such a visible part of Las Vegas’ newest landmark structure.”

Encompassing approximately 50,000-man hours of work, the project included the installation of notable exterior signage such as the two rooftop signs spanning an impressive 564 feet each for a combined total of 115,056 square feet and comprising nearly two miles of outline lighting. Other signs, such as the stadium’s freestanding pylon sign, measures 124 feet in height and 44 feet in width, with the electronics portion measuring 80-by-36 feet.

To accentuate the dramatic architecture of the stadium, YESCO installed white light ribbons comprising one-and-a-half total miles of light band. Massive individual illuminated letters reading “Allegiant Stadium” on the interior and exterior of the facility range from 20 to 31 feet in height. At Raiders Headquarters, the Intermountain Healthcare Performance Center, YESCO also installed all building and directional signs, including the pinnacle, outdoor Raiders’ shield sign measuring 27 by 25 feet.

See more photos at lasvegassun.com

Specialized Equipment Required to Bring Iconic Neon Sign to Life

LAS VEGAS (August 2021) - YESCO, the 101-year-old company known for creating, repairing and maintaining internationally recognizable signs, announces the addition of a new, custom-made Neon Pumping Station now in service at the YESCO Las Vegas shop.

When neon signage enjoyed its height of popularity during the 20^th century, YESCO operated four neon pumping stations in their Las Vegas location. Currently, YESCO has two stations in operation and three full-time neon technicians on staff whose combined years of experience total nearly eight decades. On any given day, YESCO can produce 35 to 40 neon units. Generally, each unit takes approximately 30 to 45 minutes to create, though the colors used can affect this amount of time needed.

The first step in the neon fabrication process is the forming of the glass tube. The neon technician uses various styles of gas torches to form the glass into straight or complex shapes. These torches include the stable ribbon-fire torch, which has an adjustable flame width, a CrossFire torch, and hand torch. After the tube’s shape is established, electrodes are connected to the glass tube to facilitate the bombarding process, during which high voltage is applied to the glass tube to burn off any impurities. Any impurities that remain inside the tube could result in discoloration when the tube is illuminated. Following the bombarding process, gas is introduced to the tube via a vacuum pump, and the unit is sealed. Once this process is completed the unit is connected to a transformer and allowed to burn until the unit is stabilized.

The color coating used inside the glass tube combines with the gas used to create different colors once the gas is activated by electricity. For example, neon gas creates a red color and argon gas creates a blue color when pumped in clear glass. However, when glass tubes are coated with different color compounds, up to 100 different colors can be achieved.

“These devices are built to order, you cannot buy them off the shelf,” said Dan Beza, production manager, YESCO Las Vegas. “We have a second new station on order to replace an older model which has been in service for many, many years.”

Neon signs when well-built and protected from the outside elements, have an indefinite life expectancy.

Click here to see more photos.

New 65-foot Gibson Les Paul guitar monument stands tall outside Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa

CATOOSA — A spectacular landmark is lighting up the night sky east of Tulsa near Route 66.

A 65-foot replica of a Gibson Les Paul guitar made its debut this week at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa. Rendered in Heritage Cherry Sunburst and weighing 9.5 tons, it pays homage to the original Gibson Les Paul ‘50s instrument.

It rivals the height of other state Route 66 attractions, such as Tulsa’s Golden Driller (75 feet) and the 66-foot bottle sculpture at the Pops Soda Ranch in Arcadia.

Read the full article at tulsaworld.com