Geelong’s Custom Neon finds fans in Paris Hilton and Elon Musk
Paris Hilton used the products at her recent lavish wedding, while the Aussie mum discovered Elon Musk had bought one when he posted it on Twitter.
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A year ago celebrity Paris Hilton sent a voice message on Instagram to Custom Neon telling the Aussie brand that she loved their products and would be keen to work with them but co-founder Jess Munday said nothing ever came of it.
Fast forward to November this year and Hilton’s star studded bash not only included Kim Kardashian, Demi Lovato and Nicole Richie, but customised items from the Geelong-based business — all paid for by the bride.
“She us asked to create neon signs for her wedding and it was an awesome opportunity,” Mrs Munday told news.com.au.
“She had her wedding over three or four days I think and day two was a carnival themed party and in the party it had one of our neon signs – the biggest one, which said ‘That’s hot’.”
But the mum-of-two said that’s not the only celebrity fan of the business.
Billionaire and Tesla founder Elon Musk posted a neon sign with the phrase cyberviking on Twitter – a nod to cryptocurrency dogecoin.
“That tweet went viral and we said that looks like one of our signs and we checked our records and it was created by us,” she said. “He got it delivered to a place in California, which is very exciting.”
The idea for Custom Neon was born back in 2018 while Mrs Munday was pregnant with her first child.
“We were decorating my son’s nursery and my husband wanted to get a neon sign with the baby’s name and we looked around and couldn’t find one that was affordable and the process wasn’t easy to get a custom-made design,” she said.
“He had seen it on Pinterest and he thought it was cool that you could get your son’s name and at the time having a baby and revealing the name is a big deal, so there was the excitement of the baby coming and wanting something cool for the nursery.”
It led the couple to find a supplier to make the sign and they also decided to get a bunch made for their upcoming wedding, with phrases like all you need is love, better together and love you xo.
This launched a side hustle where they would rent out their wedding signs via Instagram but they started to get inquiries from local businesses and beyond, with up to 20 requests a week for customised pieces.
Their $500 investment for the first designed signs has now grown into a $10 million business in just three years, with Mrs Munday describing the journey as a “whirlwind” and a far cry from her job working in HR before she went on maternity leave.
She said the business is on track for a turnover of $18 million by the end of the current financial year.
People can create their designs via the website where they can choose 36 different fonts and 18 different colours, with pink and white the most popular, or Custom Neon employs a team of 32 people to create specific designs.
Costs for a sign vary depending on the size and complexity but average between $250 and $2500, she said.
The 32-year-old added there has been some interesting requests including some risque signs as well as people asking for pictures of themselves or their pet dogs to be turned into a neon sign.
“I think the most notable one we are doing is a large installation in W Hotel in Sydney and it’s the largest neon size in the southern hemisphere,” she revealed.
“It’s a huge emu that is going to go in the atrium in the new hotel they are building and it’s pink and that one is a hanging installation. It’s made up of multiple different pieces as it’s an emu and it is so large we had to get it engineered and work out how we going to fit it in and piece it together. It’s something new for us.”
For their three-year-old son Jagger, who was the catalyst for Custom Neon, he now has the luxury of choosing different signs, said Ms Munday.
“At the moment it’s a Batman shaped head with blue eyes that is his pride of place in his room at the moment,” she laughs.
Their signs have also appeared on reality renovation show The Block, as well as in a range of restaurants, bars and other businesses around the world.
When the pandemic hit it impacted the event side of their gig, but now business signage makes up 70 per cent of their orders, Mrs Munday added.
Interestingly, 60 per cent of their business comes from the US too.
“It’s such a huge part now and such a large country so there is much opportunity for growth,” she added.
“We are planning to expand further into the US and set up our own manufacturing there in the next year. We also just secured an office in LA and have five people starting.”
Mrs Munday said its hard to pick a favourite order since Custom Neon launched as generally they are “part of life’s milestone moments”.
But one that sticks with her was a sign they created for a bride called Lauren earlier this year.
She wanted a thoughtful way to honour her husband's late father at their wedding.
“She opted for a sign ‘Chamber’s Landing’ – this is the name of a famous bar in Lake Tahoe where all the family used to get together,” Mrs Munday explained.
“They hung the sign over the bar, so that they could incorporate (the groom’s) father into their celebrations.”
Originally published as Geelong’s Custom Neon finds fans in Paris Hilton and Elon Musk
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