In early 2015 we were approached by the organizers of a private camp at a large festival in the deserts of Nevada to design and fabricate a series of 5 art cars based loosely on the theme of a pack of jungle animals.  Of course we wanted to create  something unique, well built, and achieve something new with technology that’s never been done before.  We decided that the carts we created would act like a single installation, 5 separate cars that act like one.  The DJ-Booth Lion, Fire-Breathing Elephant, a Rhino, Zebra, and a Tiger were the animals chosen for the project, each with its own unique personality and function within the pack.

The bodies of the animals were drawn by our art director Forest Stearns and meticulously 3D modeled to the client’s satisfaction.  We worked with our partners at Kreysler & Associates to cast the bodies in translucent fiberglass.  Fabrication of the inner frames and all carpentry was done by the talented folks over at Tesseract.works.  The completed forms were mounted onto Cushman industrial carts with custom steel frames fitted perfectly to the fiberglass shells.  The interiors were hand crafted by Hillary Andular & crew to reflect the exacting class and style of our client.  Complete with handmade leather seating, shag carpets, and even a full bar.

We developed a custom wireless system that linked the carts together regardless of where they were on the festival grounds.  A custom Android app built into the dashboards allowed the drivers to see the location of all the other carts on a GPS display.  It also gave control over a feature we called “pack mode” where the lighting and sound systems linked together with those of nearby carts, creating a full size stage consisting of 5 Danley sound systems.  All this without the use of a cell network of any kind.

The project was completed on time and on budget, successfully incorporating all the wild desires of the client and holding up well under the brutal desert conditions.