If you go down to the polytechnic today, you'd better go in disguise.
For the largest bear that ever there was has been designed and built by design students, and is ready to be rolled out in public for the first time at the Santa Parade on Sunday.
Design lecturer Chris Fersterer (above) said the large, but as yet unnamed bear, was the result of a two and a-half week interdisciplinary project for 15 first and second-year fashion, product, interior and communication design students.
Working with wood, steel and dacron meant learning ''completely different skills'', with fashion students, for instance, having to come to grips with tools such as drills.
The students had a ''very clear user focus'' for their float, which had to appeal to children and families, Mr Fersterer said.
They settled on a large version of a child's trolley and, after toying with ideas from large blocks to cats to put in it, decided, considering time restraints, on the giant bear.
To build the bear, the students enlarged a pattern on a projector, used that to map the internal structure, then built a light steel frame, with mesh and dacron on top.
The project was completed just before the end of the polytechnic year.
