If power tools are at the top of most men’s holiday wish lists, Jason Cooper can probably skip the presents this year.
Owner and founder of Gist Décor, a sculpture design and creation company based out of Las Vegas, Cooper’s talented team of about 30 employees and artists have their work on display in just about every hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.
From restaurant decorations to elaborate murals and engraved pillars, these artistic sculptors are able to take a designer’s idea and make it into reality, specializing in themed sculptures from materials ranging from metal to fiberglass. But its star sculptor is not human. It’s a large, $500,000, five-axis, Computer Numerical Control (CNC) router.
Standing at 30 feet tall and about 30 feet wide, the computerized saw is one of the largest of its kind. But it’s not the size that impressed Cooper, it was its potential to drastically change Gist Décor’s business capacity, he said.
“This allows us to make things much cheaper and muster faster,” he added. “It’s drastically improved our efficiency.”
Cooper adopted much of the company’s framework and molds from his previous employer, Trevi. Having worked for the company for more than 10 years, Cooper’s dedication to the company resulted in a unique opportunity to take over assets, accounts and contracts when the company landed in bankruptcy. By the time the company folded in 2008, Cooper had created Gist Décor and was the new owner of several high profile hotel contracts worth millions.
“At first, I thought it was just going to be me and a couple of guys making a few fountains, but that changed very quickly,” Cooper said.
The initial plans were far exceeded as he took over the local hotel contracts, and earlier this year Cooper acquired his prized router, which greatly increased the company’s workload capacity.
This huge capacity for additional work is thanks to the efficiency with which the saw can work. The company encodes the desired movements into the saw using special software, which can take several days, depending on the intricacy of the work. With the help of laser scanners the program can accurately scale objects to any size. Once it is let loose, the saw can churn out the same amount of work as several people within a fraction of the time and be precise while doing so.
“Our efficiency on large sculptures has easily improved by maybe 40 to 50 percent, and even more on things like columns and other straightforward items,” Cooper said.
Overseas potential also is growing. American companies doing business overseas, such as the Wynn Macau, commission most jobs. Other possibilities are quickly surfacing as talks with developers blossom from across the border in Mexico to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
But while the possibilities are endless, most projects Cooper bids on are six to 12 months out, and Cooper says it’s important to not neglect the jobs that come his way in the meantime.
“Last year we were able to grow very quickly,” Cooper said. “The timing was right, and I was very fortunate. But I’m trying to leave myself really fluid and do whatever the market dictates.”
Gist Décor will have examples of the CNC router’s work on display during the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions show Nov. 16-20 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
