Behind the scenes: how we built this newsletter in a weekend

A look at the tools, decisions, and happy accidents that shaped Neon from idea to launch in 48 hours.

Neon started as a conversation over coffee. We wanted to build something that felt different from the typical newsletter — something with personality and energy.

The tech stack is deliberately simple: Ghost for the CMS, a custom theme built with vanilla CSS and minimal JavaScript. No React, no build pipeline for content.

The design process was equally straightforward. We started with a mood board of neon signs, cyberpunk aesthetics, and brutalist typography. The constraint: bold without being unreadable.

The hardest part was not the technology or the design — it was finding the right voice. We went through three complete rewrites of our first issue before it felt right.