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We love a challenge and when Production Designer James Hatt got in touch with an urgent job we sprang into action. We were asked to design, machine and finish a piece of “modern art” for an advertisement for Google France.

Project Breakdown

With only five working days to create and install the piece in the studio we could not afford to waste any time. CAD/CAM supervisor Richard North started by drawing a triangular cylinder in Freeform Plus and manipulating the drawing into a more fluid complex shape to be milled on our KUKA robotic arm.

Due to the complexity of the shape, the sculpture had to be divided into smaller sections and was then machined from a single large block of high density polystyrene.

After being cut out, the sections were then glued together by our technicians, as well as being thoroughly sanded and primed to make sure the piece has a seamless flow to it. The piece was then given a bright turquoise coating, before being shipped to France where the final lustrous gloss was painted on as it was being installed on set to ensure a flawless finish.

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Making the “Toothpaste” sculpture for Iconoclast Productions recent Google commercial through Production Designer James Hatt gave us a superb opportunity to use our fully digital modelling and machining pipeline at to show off what it can do. The brief was to create a sculpture that would not look too out of place in an art gallery and might remind an observer of a squiggle of toothpaste. When I say “fully” I mean that apart from a few pencil sketches to work out what was needed it was entirely designed in CAD and machined on our in house 7 axis robot. Once the shape had been machined it was hand finished and delivered to the studio. Not bad for 5 days work start to finish.

Simon Taylor

Artem Supervisor