Flight of Butterflies

Twenty nine cast aluminum butterfly sculptures installed across Chicago, each finished by a local artist.

Flight of Butterflies features 29 uniquely adorned butterfly sculptures installed across Chicago, from Lakeview to South Shore to Austin. Our team designed and crafted the butterflies, providing the foundation for local artists to embellish and bring them to life.

Each butterfly was digitally designed in two motifs, the Regal Fritillary and the Black Swallowtail, then 3D rendered to produce molds for the cast aluminum bodies. Custom CNC cut wood served as the positive for the molds, which kept production controlled given the quantity and the schedule.

Every casting was hand finished to a state that would take paint, so each artist could work directly on the surface.

Where an artist's work had not been built for the outdoors, we supplied material samples and methods that kept their idea intact while making it survive a Chicago year.