Miroslav Lucan is an artist, designer and photographer that has built a reputation for his street art murals. Born in the Czech Republic, he has now found home in Bournemouth for the past 15 years.
The inspiration behind commissioning Miroslav was a desire to build a connection between "place and people", within the local context of Dorset. For my company Datacenta Hosting, this was more than just decorating a clinical work unit with colour.
I first met Miroslav at the Southbourne Revival event in the summer of 2019. He painted an outdoor installation over the course of two days. It turned out to be a huge octopus over four wide panels and after the event, it lived on, being displayed in a local restaurant before settling on the wall of a micro-brewery.
Families had selfies taken with it and was such a brilliant visual addition to a community music event. Aside from the cost of materials, Miroslav did this for free. When the glass dividing wall was installed at our new data centre facility, I knew this was an opportunity for a business to repay the contribution.
Aside from a few hanging pictures at home I know very little of the art world, how much things cost and how artists make a living. However, it did occur to me that an artist can only afford to do free community work, if they are getting enough paid work. A virtuous circle needs to be drawn.
Living in East Dorset and having a business location in West Dorset I wanted to find a way to connect the two. I still have other ideas brewing but this was the first idea.
Miroslav came out to the data centre and we talked about what we do as a business and why I personally do the things I do. We also touched on how we have moved from place to place before finding somewhere that we have lived the longest in our lives.
He worked with the colours of the building structure and our branding and came up with designs that took in the technical nature of the business as well as the stunning scenery of Dorset. It was a really great feeling when he was drawing two canoes off Old Harry Rocks, I asked what colour he was going to fill them, and he said orange. The only bit of orange across the three designs but encapsulated the orange colour from the e-mango company logo. Even though the brief was brief, he knew exactly what was needed.
Everything is a talking point, from the moment visitors walk through the main door to be faced by the computer guardian with matrix-style numbers, down to why the canoes are orange.
Before the reveal. It was all done in reverse and even Miroslav hadn't seen the end result until we both turned it around.
It is a lovely small investment in many ways and something I would recommend any business to consider. Think of it as marketing content, if that floats your boat, which can be used time and time again.
