Posts Tagged yachtsmith
Halifax 2011 Canada Games – commemorative gift
Posted by Dean Gallant in 2011 Canada Games, recent work, various on March 24th, 2011
The Halifax 2011 Canada Games wanted to produce a unique, custom gift item to present to the Provincial Sport Ministers, and various VIPs for their contribution to the Games.
I designed this in collaboration with local company, Yachtsmith International who fabricated the torch for us. It’s about five inches tall, and sits comfortably on a desk or mantle. As with the torch, I was responsible for concept and technical design, while Yachtsmith took care of the quality fabrication.
There were a little over 100 produced. The wood base is Padauk, and the leaf/wave element is cut from 1/16 inch stainless steel.
Halifax 2011 Canada Games - commemorative gift
I designed a torch!
Posted by Dean Gallant in 2011 Canada Games, recent work, various on May 3rd, 2010
Halifax 2011 Canada Games torch
I’m really proud of this.
I’ve had the opportunity through my employment with the Halifax 2011 Canada Games Host Society to design the 2011 games torch. I’m excited to see the impact and exposure that the torch is going to have over the next year and it’s just a great legacy to have my name attached to.
The major challenge of this design was to represent the four founding cultures of Nova Scotia: Acadian, Gaelic, African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaq, while maintaining consistency with the 2011 brand. Also, with the recent mass exposure, I have to contend with everyone comparing it to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic torch!
We decided to go with a nautically inspired form, winter colours, and decorative elements of the 2011 Games.
It’s been really interesting to follow a concept from my head, through into engineering and production.
For fabrication, we worked with a local company, Yachtsmith International who normally build custom Yachts. I’m really pleased with the job they’ve done, both in working out the functional logistics, and in the construction and attention to detail. It’s built of fiberglass, with a repurposed/modified martini shaker(!) to contain the fuel and wick for the flame.
There were four torches built, and they will be appearing at community events across Nova Scotia from now until Games-time.
While designing this torch, I made a number of models out of paper and a few people had the same idea that we should encourage people to make their own paper torches. So I developed with a template and we made an instructional video and put it the website.
At least once, I want to see a mass of school kids waving their paper torches and cheering while the torch gets run past them. That would make me really happy.