The Spiral ribbon outside the centre incorporates Diab core materials with structural engineering completed by CCG’s Australian office. It was manufactured by Mouldings Design from Henderson, Western Australia. For over 30 years Mouldings Design has been supplying engineered fiberglass products to the mining, construction, transport and marine industries. Mouldings Design has been undergoing a transition to closed moulding and now specializes in this process.
The design of the logo as a helical ribbon, although simple in concept, proved difficult to manufacture in more traditional materials. The use of sandwich composites allowed the complex shape to be easily achieved by the team at Mouldings Design. CCG was able to provide Mouldings design with developed shapes for the core composite ribbon to speed the manufacture.
A pragmatic approach was taken in the construction of the logo sculpture, with a lightweight central aluminium frame used to support the sandwich panel ribbon. An added advantage of the core material was the resulting light weight of the logo. This minimised the impact on the shopping centre structure, which a heavier construction may have caused. With the lightweight of the core composite ribbon the supporting frame was able to be minimized and neatly camouflaged by the ribbon, resulting in the appearance of the logo floating above the entrance.
The ribbon itself consisted of a Divinycell Matrix IPN foam core with stitched E-glass skins using a vinylester resin. The ribbon weighed in at 72 kg and the total sculpture at 155 kg. The Vicinity Logo sculpture shows the way composites can be used to economically form complex and stunning shapes that may otherwise remain on the designer’s desk.
