MAR/APR 2019_ _ 057Founded in 1945 and based in California’s Santa Barbara County,
Neal Feay Company is an aluminum fabricator whose portfolio is, to
say the least, broad. Encompassing everything from women’s acces-
sories for Hermès brand Petit H to the world’s biggest subwoofer,
the projects are “just all over the map,” says Neal Feay’s president,
Alex Rasmussen, grandson of the firm’s namesake founder.
For Marc Newson, one of a roster of major names with whom
he frequently collaborates (others include Peter Marino, Holly Hunt
and Joan Behnke), Rasmussen recently helped make the shimmer-
ing pink aluminum screens that the architect designed for last year’s
Azzedine Alaïa retrospective at the Design Museum in London.
“They got a beautiful, demountable Marc Newson piece for the price of
manufacturing,” quips Rasmussen. The core idea was to make metal
look like fabric, thereby changing the perception of what anodized
aluminum can be. Newson’s team designed the motif, while Neal
Feay engineered the deep-textured, double-sided surface using Rhino,
SolidWorks and Mastercam. The panels measure 3.5 by 11 metres
and are only 15 millimetres thick. The firm manufactured them in its
4,645-square-metre factory and sent them to London – via FedEx –
for just $2,400. marc-newson.com, nealfeay.com
ALUMINUM FOIL
When designer Marc Newson needed a shimmering
display feature for a landmark Azzedine Alaïa exhibition,
he called on the pros at Neal Feay