My approach to design is different than most. I believe it’s not so much where we finish that counts, but rather where we start. Let me illustrate.
When you mention sugar cubes - especially at work, most folks would immediately think about coffee time. That’s perfectly OK but my brain works a little differently. I immediately begin to wonder what we could fashion if we were to glue some together. These thoughts tend to get out of control in a hurry and before I know it I am imagining something VERY BIG that would involve a LOT of sugar cubes. Imagine what we could create if we REALLY let our mind go. This is the basis if good design.
My client who owns a garden center asked us to create something that would draw people a hundred miles to his place of business to buy poinsettias. Common sense told me that folks wouldn’t drive THAT FAR just to buy Christmas flowers. My client grew very nice poinsettias but they are also sold just about everywhere. The budget didn’t allow for much in the way of materials nor time, but we had about a week to pull it off. It was a very tall order. It required some pretty outlandish thinking to make it happen for we needed something MAGICAL!
The design came together pretty quickly. It simply had to for the unveiling was only a week away. Since the ceiling of the garden center was a bit over fourteen feet tall, the sugar cube castle was to be a teeny bit less. I welded up a steel frame and mounted it to a base with sturdy wheels on it and set to work. Gluing the first sugar cube went well. Rather than worry about the 64,277 sugar cubes I had to go I instead celebrated each one successfully glued in place instead. Cases and cases of sugar cubes surrounded the sculpture and acted as a fence to keep the curious public at bay. The garden center owner’s grand-daughter Katie who was four acted as my assistant. Without a doubt we were building he most magical thing in the whole world!
In less than the allotted time thee castle was completed. By that time word had spread through the community that something special was happening here and traffic was increasing by the hour. It was a news worthy event and the media was getting the word out in a hurry. People were indeed coming from more than a hundred miles away.
-grampa dan