In February 2020 I was commissioned by Moss Architects to create a piece for the Argo AI production/office space in Detroit, MI. Argo is a self-driving technology company so they wanted a piece made from license plates that reflected forward motion. With that as my directive I spent a month working on concepts for the design based on my traditional quilt patterns. The concept phase led to the final design: a linear collage that is based on a street map of downtown Detroit.

The piece is 30’ long and required over 600 license plates to complete. I began sourcing the plates from various online vendors while I was working on my color palette. Moss creates a visual vocabulary for each Argo office that reflects the culture of each individual location. For the Michigan space they wanted to focus on the over 3000 miles of coastline so the colors and textures are based in nature. I took a picture of a beautiful crab that ended up being the inspiration for my palette.

The most time consuming element of the project was determining how many of each plate would get what color and then physically painting all 600+ plates (primer + color) on flat surfaces with good ventilation… I’d say this phase took five or six weeks.

The most fun part - actually assembling the collage - was unfortunately the shortest part. I designed the piece to be built as four separate panels that could fit into the back of a van to be transported to Michigan, assembled, and completed on site. It took four full days to build the collage and a final day for a once over with the nailer and paint touch ups.

I picked up the van on a Sunday and loaded everything that evening and hit the road early Monday morning for the four hour drive. I spent four days in Detroit (an amazing city that I fell deeply in love with) with three days on site. The crew there installed it perfectly and I completed the assembly and added more nails and did more paint touch ups and then, reluctantly, made the trip home.

My piece is just one component of the huge project by Moss. It’s not complete yet so my photos still show a construction site. I will post final photography when I have it.

This is the largest piece I have ever designed and built. I loved every aspect of the project from concept to completion.

iPhone pics are mine. Beautiful photos are Matt Dayak.