Galway destination store Standun have finished runners-up in the quest to find Ireland’s most creative company.
Standun tied in second place with the Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney, with Donegal Yarns taking first place to be crowned Ireland’s most creative company.
The process was a long and gruelling one with contestants being given a brief to design a piece of artwork that would represent their business and their surroundings. The team was made up of employees from all areas of the business who were given six months to complete a piece of artwork that would be of a high enough standard to have on display in an art gallery. Each team was assigned an artist to guide them on their journey.
Standun decided to build a currach or boat that would be covered with an Aran blanket to depict both the area in which they are in and the Aran Sweater that is so important to their heritage. The team firstly built a frame to mimic the frame of a traditional currach and then used Aran blankets knitted together to cover the base of the boat. They painted the boat and the blankets black and sprayed it with PVA glue.
The theme of the boat was to remember the souls of fisherman lost at sea. Often the fishermen’s sweaters were used to identify their bodies, by the stitches in the Aran sweaters. The stitches could identify the villages they were from and the families they belonged to. When the team presented their concept to the artist, he recommended adding drama to the piece by breaking parts of it and putting a hole in the boat to create a wreckage.
Cliona Standun the Managing Director of Standun said it was such a wonderful experience to take part in the competition.
“Although it was a long and quite time consuming project, it was wonderful to put our joint energy and focus into something so creative and so different to our everyday roles. We certainly didn’t expect to reach the top three and we were thrilled to feature alongside such wonderful companies,” she said.
