Hasta La Ideas

It may be winter here in the northern hemisphere but, in Australia, summer is at its height, leading to all sorts of strange behaviour. Agency Publicis Mojo Melbourne decided to erect a series of statues of Summer Madness victims in Sydney and Melbourne to remind people to stay cool in the sun (on behalf of client, Frosty Fruits ice lollies). The models for the statues, however, were created in Hackney, east London, by the artist and modelmaker Wilfrid Wood…

After creating plasticine maquettes of his drawn designs, Wood then made polymer clay versions that were scanned in to a computer. “We ended up with wireframe models and these were then sent to Australia where something akin to a robotic arm drill-bit cut the enlarged form out of polystyrene,” he says. “In the meantime, I coloured up my white versions, shot them and sent over Pantone references.”

Despite the distance between Wood and the locations where his figures were set to appear, not to mention the differences in scale, the finished statues remain true to his original designs.

“I was expecting my figures to be used as little more than visual references and that the final statues would likely be quite a long way off what I had intended. Instead, it’s as if they had used the scaling tool in Photoshop on my 30cm figures and enlarged them up to four metres.”

The statues of ‘Dave’ and ‘Lana’ feature plaques that describe the particular act of Summer Madness taking place.

Here are some of Wood’s sketches for the Dave character:

Creative Director: Leon Wilson. Creatives: Lea Egan, Jonty Bell. Character design: Wilfred Wood. Sculptor: Josh Young. Agency producer: Trevor Hunter

Wilfrid Wood is represented by agency Dutch Uncle.