With a reputation for being able to create the impossible it is hard to categorise Talbot Designs. As specialists in bespoke Perspex® fabrication it really does mean that each project they complete is different.
Whether supplying unique displays for Oxford Street stores, working alongside architects, or producing company signage, the Talbot team maintain their reputation for high quality workmanship and finding solutions to meet testing project requirements.
Talbot MD Richard Woolff comments “we have built a reputation for liking a challenge. I struggle to remember a time we have said no to a request! Our team of craftsmen are really acrylic engineers – equally adept at working with architects with detailed CAD drawings as clients walking in with a sketch and an idea.”
As approved Perspex® fabricators they have built an enviable reputation amongst designers and project managers with the fact if they think it can be done, they will find a way.
Let there be light
A recent example of Talbot’s team going the extra mile is well illustrated at Winchester University. Working alongside Studio 4 Architects, Talbot were tasked with creating unique roof lights designed to appear to be piercing through the building ceiling.
In order to achieve these complex shapes the technical team at Talbot firstly set out plotting the quirky angles and irregular shapes in CAD to ensure the angels are uniform from above and below the roof space. Scaled models were then created to test the concept prior to full production. Lastly the diagrams were used to program their CNC machines to cut the opal frosted Perspex® and create the seamless appearance from roof to atrium.
Aesthetically the units resemble an iceberg from above penetrating the surface and creates questions over what happens below the roof, however the shapes also disguise a more functional use.
The unique light “spikes” in the roof are designed to reach up to catch low sunlight and transfer it to tapered prisms in the ceiling, efficiently dispersing the light into the atrium. At night, the process is reversed and LED lights illuminate the prisms and spikes with colour-changing light from within.
Working with Perspex® day in, day out means Talbot are experts with its properties. Using the diffusing properties of Perspex® Opal, the sculptures offer maximum light diffraction day and night.
No place like dome
It is a combination of its skilled team, commitment to the best materials and investment in machinery that helps set Talbot apart. A speciality of the team is creating large Perspex® domes under the Teedy™ range. They are able to create the largest domes in Europe at up to 2.2m diameter.
This expertise in niche fabrication means demand is very varied and their Teedy™ Perspex® domes have been used anywhere from museums to TV shows – their domes are even installed in the Arctic Circle where their superior optical qualities of Perspex® are used to help observe the stars.
Talbot has worked with Selfridges to create some dramatic visual displays in-store using their Perspex® domes. Precision, experience as well as patience was needed in equal measure when Talbot was required to drill a massive 13,000 holes in sequence around a Perspex® sphere. The end result was spectacular as the holes were filled with sticks of Swarovski crystals to create a huge illuminated pendant.
Visitors to the Selfridges Oxford Street store will have also seen another technique for using domes to create an eye catching retail display. Perspex® spheres with digitally printed vinyl graphics applied to the surface were illuminated and hung from the ceiling truss to create a dramatic skyline upon entry – another project created and installed on time and budget by the team.
A head for heights
Don’t be fooled to think that Talbot Designs are only working on large retail or architectural roll outs – their workshop is filled with jobs large and small.
Traditional signmaking forms a significant proportion of their work. Recently commissioned to produce Hollywood style built up lettering for the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), the letters sat on top of a new foundation wall, part of a fundraising effort for the RCGP. Whilst the signage required standard fabrication techniques of laser cutting and forming, in typical Talbot form the installation wasn’t quite as straightforward as normal as the team still needed to install the lettering at the top of the 9m wall!
To find out more about Talbot designs visit www.talbotdesigns.co.uk
In house fabrication
- Laser cutting
- CNC routing
- Drape forming
- Vacuum forming
- Drilling
- Printing