thinktocat

GitHub moved from office 2.0 to office 3.0 in 2014. We took over an old dry fruit packaging plant in the SoMa district in San Francisco. The new digs required a complete gutting of the office building. Once the interior was rebuilt, we needed to make sure it reflected the company culture.

Under the imaginative leadership of Scott Chacon, we decided that an 8’ bronze octocat sculpture was needed for the lobby.

Process

My first step was research. Creating a bronze sculpture was completely new to me. I had only created a couple clay sculptures up to that point and this was much bigger in almost every way.

I sourced a fabricator and foundry while sketching the pose. Once we landed on design and manufacturer, the project was a go. I built an armature at home and began sculpting.

There was a good bit of back-and-worth between us and the fabricator Dean Weldon Manufacturing to get it just right.

HQ Lobby

Our patina’d friend still sits in the HQ lobby, forever contemplative. The piece has even been included in a variety of news articles. Some are clear on who this character is, and some still have some learning to do.

My Role

I wore a lot of hats on this one. I had some great support from our other animator João Ribeiro, but here are some specifics that I was responsible for:

• Design Lead

• Concepts

• Illustrator

• Sculptor

• Project Manager