The Neon Jungle

Interview with Evan Voyles in Tribeza Magazine, August 2003

Evan Voyles makes the kind of signs that people don't forget: the rabbit on the Uncommon Objects building, the globe floating above Chuy's, the big coffee cup tipped at the Little City Coffee House. But, keep in mind, these are not just signs; they are works of art that help to define the businesses where they hang. Over time, they become symbols for the city; the things that we envision in our mind's eye when we think about Austin.

Evan credits his mother for the name of his company, The Neon Jungle. That's how she referred to Burnet Road when he was a kid growing up in Austin. She had no idea that her son, educated at Yale in English, would someday create sign art and use her negative remark to name his company. For Evan, the name suggests that with creativity we can make our "self-made landscape" interesting, even beautiful. he though the would write novels, but ended up "writing urban poetry on big, tin canvas, and collecting cowboy boots as American folk art."

Look more closely at the sign hanging over the stores and cafés you frequent. If it's a memorable one, it just might be an Evan Voyles original.