Curtins is an award winning, leading consultancy working within the built environment. They have a rich heritage that span 60 years, and are well known for their work as civil and structural engineers, with 14 offices located across the UK and Ireland.
In 2021 Rhiannon Carss, Head of Communications at Curtins, approached dot-art to commission a bespoke work of art to mark the company’s transition to an Employee Owned Trust. After being presented with several options, they chose to work with digital artist Olga Snell, who created a kaleidoscopic collage celebrating the company’s past, present and future.
Rhiannon tells us about how she found the experience:
- What initially attracted you to working with dot-art?
- It was important to us that our story was captured by a local artist from our founding city of Liverpool. We have so much history here, having first established the business out of a spare bedroom in Aigburth in 1960. We needed someone who ‘got’ us and got what we were about. I had total faith in Lucy and her team that they’d be able to find that for us.
- Did you look at any alternative options?
- Nope, it didn’t cross my mind that dot-art couldn’t deliver!
- What did you hope to gain from the project?
- We wanted a celebration of all that is Curtins as we marked the transition to an Employee Owned Trust. We were looking for someone to capture all that is great about us in an explosion of colour and shape. We hoped for something timeless that colleagues and visitors to our office could look at a hundred times over and still be delighted by seeing something new.
- Do you feel this has been achieved?
- Absolutely – we were looking for an artist who could understand how we tick so that they could identify what of our story should be brought through the art. From our cutting edge projects to our people to our charity work to our personal development programmes, from our founder to our graduates. What we have received celebrates all of this and more!
- How did you find the experience of working with dot-art?
- It was smooth and professional whilst also being great fun. Lucy immediately understood the brief, even if I did find it quite hard to articulate exactly what it was I was looking for initially. She asked the right questions and quickly honed in on what would work for Curtins. I also asked if it would be possible to interview the artist on film so that we could share the story with our colleagues across Curtins and this was readily agreed to.
- Do you have any other comments / feedback?
- I’d just like to say Thank You. We are now the proud owners of an original piece of art that I know our team and our clients will enjoy for many years.
Watch the video created by Curtins to mark their transition to Employee Owned Trust, featuring their commissioned artist, Olga Snell:
Curtins becomes an Employee Ownership Trust from Curtins on Vimeo.