Given the amount of time this project spanned, from conception to completion, I am not even going to attempt to compose a adequate webpage for it. Really, this tradeshow/exhibit/performance was similar to ones I had done in the past (see AMGEN, MISYS).
This large mosaic was done for another pharmaceutical company (Roche). They had a very large exhibit booth at the 2005 American Society of Hematology (ASH).
A large mosaic which tied into the theme and slogan for one of the products was agreed upon (the mosaic was a 7' x 10' rendition of an advertisement of a grandfather teaching a granddaughter how to play guitar, it used about 50,000 pieces, including several thousand each of orange, light blue, and gray 1x1s).
What sets this project apart from past ones seems to be the amount of time beforehand I had this mosaic in my house. It was very nice to have plenty of lead time, but for some reason, I feel as if the pre-built mosaic lay on the floor of my parlor room for eons. I started it in October, had to move it out of the way during my October Puzzle Party, then I had other business travel in much of November.
In mid-November I had to deliver the pre-built mosaic to the display company in Cleveland, Ohio so that they could construct a large billboard/frame around it. They then kept it in storage until the ASH show. The tradeshow was actually in Atlanta, Georgia in mid-December (with the work done by James Trobaugh for the Festival of Trees, there were actually two separate LEGO exhibits in the Georgia World Congress Center at the same time); so at that time I simply drove up to Georgia's capital and re-encountered my work.
If this all seems a bit hectic, one should also know that originally the tradeshow was supposed to be held in New Orleans, Loisiana. But the weekend before we settled on all of the details, Hurricane Katrina showed her wrath.
Anyway, once I got to the show in Atlanta, I actually disassembled some of the mosaic so that I could then rebuild it during the exhibition (it was to be completed by the beginning of the third day).
This was the only real tricky part.
I had to, in a few hours, take apart enough of the mosaic so that I would be busy for about 16 hours during the following two days. Normally I would have just removed a single color of brick (so I could then rebuild easily without consulting the instructions), but taking out a single color from a pre-built, studs-out mosaic takes about the same time as putting those pieces back in. And I didn't have 16 hours to prepare.
So, I just took all of the pieces off of a few sections; knowing that having to rebuild those sections would take much longer than just taking all of those pieces off indiscriminantly.
I just kinda miscalculated HOW LONG.
During a typical studs-out mosaic build, when I'm sitting on my floor with LEGO pieces neatly sorted, and the instructions carefully placed on a work-board next to the 48x48 stud baseplate, I can usually cover said baseplate in about 2 hours (with typically small pieces used for dither effect, etc).
Now, imaging trying to cover a baseplate when the pieces are only sorted by color, the mosaic is mounted upright on a wall you are standing next to, and the instructions are taped to the side. You can't keep your eyes focused on the instructions, and your hands are too full holding and placing pieces to keep a finger on your place in those instructions.
Ugh.
Now you're talking about three and a half hours per baseplate.
Oops.
On the first day I feel behind a little. Despite working over 8 hours straight, I did NOT rebuild everything I had planned to (though, thank you to Kristina, one of the booth hostesses for helping [grin]).
I came in before the show opened on the second day and caught myself back up, so that by the end of that day I was where I expected to be. Here's where it stood by then (poorly lit Jenni, there, is not in charge of guarding the mosaic -- she and many of the other hostesses had the thankless task of only allowing "international" (non-US) attendees in the both -- FDA pharmaceutical regulations and such... who knows, I was just there to build).
Anyway, before the show on Monday (the final day), I came in early and replaced the final pre-built sections, so that the whole mosaic was complete for display at the opening of that session (sorry, I forgot to save a larger version of the picture to the right).
OK, I guess this webpage did up being a bit long (though it could have been much longer).
To summarize:
Big mosaic, no problems, everyone happy. Yay.
