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Previous: 18 October 2006

Designers of the new Coach Insignia restaurant atop GM's Renaissance Center HQ commissioned art works using the classic Fisher Body "Coach" icon. Ford GT designer Camilo Pardo responded with a brilliant chromed abstraction that has been called a "brilliant work of industrial sculpture."

DETROIT, MI (PRWEB) January 8, 2005 -- Hoping to drive home the spirit of the Motor City, the recently opened Coach Insignia restaurant will soon sport a new industrial sculpture co-created by a Ford automotive designer.


Ford GT designer Camilo Pardo teamed with industrialist Michael Chetcuti to create a 12-inch chromed aluminum "Coach" sculpture for the upscale restaurant that sits atop the GM Renaissance Center downtown.


More than three inches thick, the sculpture depicts the old Fisher Body coach insignia logo as a three-dimensional abstraction.


"The Detroit name is huge in design circles all over the world right now," said Ron Rea, designer of the Coach Insignia interior, who commissioned the work. "This piece says 'Detroit'."


"Beyond that, it is an absolutely stunning blend of design and high technology. It should be in the Museum of Modern Art," said Rea, a Detroit-based designer with an international reputation of his own.


Chetcuti-an avid design enthusiast and collector-and Camilo have discussed their shared affinity for industrial aesthetics since Chetcuti's Livonia-based firm Quality Metalcraft developed several key parts for Camilo's elegant design of the GT.


Based on a simple drawing Camilo made on a napkin, and bound only by size constraints from Rea, Chetcuti put all of his company's high-tech fabrication capabilities to work at executing the difficult Coach piece.


First, Quality Metalcraft engineers turned Camilo's drawing into a three-dimensional computer aided design using Unigraphics. Next, the block of solid billet aluminum was machined to exacting specifications-within two-tenths of a thousandth of an inch-using a wire electronic discharge machine (EDM).


"That's the only way you can get that sharp of an edge," Chetcuti said. "To do that by hand would take months."


After machining, the piece was actually in six pieces that were sent out for chrome plating before being screwed and doweled together at varying depths to produce the 3-D effect.


"It all worked. It all clicked," said Chetcuti, who owns the lone replica of the Coach sculpture.


"The fact that (the restaurant's piece) is number two of just two, that it is not going into production, that is what makes this a work of art," said Rea.


Chetcuti and Camilo worked so well together that the artist was able to make most of his design changes with a few phone calls. "When you have a design that flows, you can do it by phone," Camilo said. The multi-talented Camilo also paints large canvasses with a classic sports car or racing theme, and he has even designed and hand-sewn costumes worn by models at Ford auto show displays.


The collaborators plan to display the replica version of their coach design at their annual Designer's Night party January 11th at Camilo's downtown loft studio. Last year the two unveiled a suspended sculpture made of discarded GT 40 parts at the same event, which is open to anyone carrying a designer business card.


For further information contact:
Dave Collins

Quality Metalcraft Public Relations
248.543.2152

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Author: Dave Collins