Clothes ‘from the future’ brand – Vollebak – has created the first-ever billboard for Mars in a bid to promote its new three-dimensional logo.
Working with advanced engineering techniques and highly corrosion resistant materials, the 45cm x 65cm x 5cm billboard is precision-cut from hard anodised aluminium 6082T6 – a material used by NASA on the Mars Curiosity Rover. The creation is also designed to be assembled by robot.
The entire surface of the Mars billboard is ‘hard anodized’ to increase its corrosion resistance. According to Vollebak, anodization thickens the natural oxide layer on the surface of a metal, creating a strong barrier against the electrochemical reactions which can cause corrosion.
“Launching a new logo is kind of risky when you’re a big brand. Everyone laughs at it, tells you their kid could have done it, and then gasps at how much money you spent,” Vollebak co-founder Steve Tidball said. “Luckily we’re not a big brand, and we can do whatever we want. We design clothes for an extreme future on and off planet Earth, so we thought the perfect way to launch our new logo would be to create the kind of billboard that can survive life on the harsh Martian surface.”
The billboard is made up of 11 individual pieces which assemble and lock into place with an ancient Japanese joinery technique called tsugite, a pillar of Japanese architecture between the 12th and 19th century.
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Vollebak co-founder Nick Tidball said: “Instead of screws, nails, welding or glue, tsugite relies solely on interlocking joints and counter tension to produce astonishingly strong structures. Once you’ve put the first 10 pieces of the billboard together, the Vollebak V logo is the last piece in the jigsaw that locks the entire billboard in place.”
Nick’s twin brother Steve Tidball added: “The simplicity of the tsugite method means that the billboard can be disassembled and packed up, either for terrestrial or interplanetary transportation. So we’ve also built a custom flight case for the billboard to travel in.”
“We know it’ll be years and perhaps decades before we’re able to send the Mars Billboard on its journey to Mars. So in the meantime, we’re asking our customers to help us take the Mars Billboard on a World Tour of Earth. That way it will be the first billboard to visit two planets.”
Anyone wants to own their own Mars Billboard can contact Vollebak on [email protected] – ‘individual Mars Billboards will be made to order, with price available on application’.
