Each spoke represents an element of the project. For the wheel to function, every element must be managed and accounted for.
Management will make or break a project. That’s why it all passes through us.
We use our extensive in-house capabilities and network of experienced partners to take on even the most complex problems and bring ideas from sketch, to rendering, to reality.
Our process has built in checkpoints for stakeholder approval at whichever level of granularity is desired. This process ensures the client’s vision and our’s are perfectly aligned.
Lighting can make or break a project. Our team is acutely aware of the demands and specifications of modern advanced lighting technology and techniques. We work with a national sourcing and lighting design partner early in our design phase so that lighting is considered through every step of the process in order to eliminate issues in the field.
We work closely with an experienced local partner on all your advanced projection mapping needs.
We can't own every tool but we can own strong relationships with our trusted vendors. We have local vendors that provide fiber laser cutting, laser tube cutting, waterjet cutting, powder coating, galvanizing and precision machining.
Our dedicated in-house installation crew is the end of the chain that starts in design, goes to fabrication, through paint/ finish and to your site. The same team that designs and builds it, installs it. Not only does this solve problems before they happen but it makes sure every install goes smoothly.
Our content design team will take you through each stage of early development of your project including concepting, brand development, content development, and presentation deck development. We build design books, 3D renderings and 3D fly-throughs for donor acquisition and stakeholder approval.
Our brilliant in-house engineering team provides mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, circuit board design, lighting system design and structural load analysis. We design, prototype and build all our interactive elements in-house.
Our advanced facility in the heart of downtown Houston is home to a full range of digital fabrication inputs and outputs. Advanced 3D scanning, 3D printing, 2D and 3D cutting and sculpting. We utilize our in-house 3-axis CNC routing, 5-axis hot wire foam carving, large scale 7-axis robot arm machining, 3-axis metal milling, 3D printing, and portable 3D scanning expertise to bring projects to life.
Our amazing team of fabrication specialists can tackle almost any material and process: traditional carpentry and millwork, advanced CNC-aided millwork, structural and finish welding in stainless, brass, aluminum and carbon steel, solid surface and plastic thermoforming, rockwork, mold-making, hard coating, durable and beautiful finishes.
Each project begins in design. It is the shared language we use to communicate with stakeholders, sub contractors, engineering, the fabrication shop and beyond. Our in-house design team takes a "snout to tail" approach-- concept development, graphic design, wayfinding, brand development, fabrication design, feasibility studies, shop drawings, permitting documentation and maintenance manuals.
All these elements are coordinated by our project management team. Through smart planning, thorough coordination and careful execution we have the resources and skills to take on even the most complex of projects.
We provide mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, circuit board design, lighting system design and structural load analysis. We design, prototype and build all our interactive elements in-house.
Each problem is analyzed and dissected until a potential solution is discovered. Each mechanism is rigorously designed in SolidWorks with in-house rapid prototyping. Each part is then thoroughly wear-tested through repeated use experiments. Only then does the final fabrication process begin.
All of our engineering is done under the same roof as the rest of our fabrication resulting in seamless integration into architectural and casework elements.
The process starts in design. Working from scratch, from a client's 3D model or from a 3D scan, our design team builds models and then breaks them into manageable parts.
Once the parts are created, the process on the fabrication floor begins. We start with 4' x 4' x 8' 2# polystyrene blocks that are processed to rough size at our 5-axis hot wire carver. Once roughly sized, a special base is attached and the foam part is sent to the robot arm.
The robot arm utilizes a wide cutting bit to do a rough pass and then a smaller ballnose cutting bit to do finish passes until the desired level of detail is achieved. Once the milling is done, our team sands and refines by hand until it's ready for hard coating.
Our two part hard coat system is sprayed onto the foam surface forming a durable, but not brittle surface. This surface coating protects the sculpted object from damage while giving our paint team a great surface to refine and finish.
