Design & Build

A Bowie-inspired spaceman landing on Planet Earth in a hail of fireworks? No problem. A 15m steel lighthouse animated by fire, music and special effects, seen everywhere from Canada to Singapore? All in a day’s work.

We sometimes make this stuff look easy, but it’s the product of years of experience – of trial and error, research and experiment.

On these pages, you can find out more about our extraordinary creations, from monster floats to floating monsters. And if you’d like us to help you bring your own idea to life, drop us a line. Did we mention we love a challenge?

Moving in both senses of the word, the mechanical creations we develop spark the imaginations of those who cross their paths. There's nothing our teams of skilled artists and makers can’t design and build from scratch, turning pencil sketches and pipe dreams into everything from revolving solar systems to a clockwork lighthouse.

There’s nothing like a beautiful parade float to leave crowds slack-jawed with awe – and no one builds them with more skill, imagination or attention to detail than us.

If you thought Thomas Paine, writer and revolutionary died in 1809, think again. He’s just one of hundreds of figures – real and imagined, human and otherwise – who we’ve animated in puppet form over the last 30 years. You can meet Zara's giant baby, the Ychan Bannog, some shadow puppets and many others elsewhere on this site.