Spires Art: Interview with Colm Mac Rory
Irish art consultant Colm Mac Rory, Founder and Managing Director of Spires Art, began working in the art field in 1988 with a primary focus on high-end hotel, leisure and commercial projects. Design Insider had the opportunity to speak with Colm about his creative approach, staying ahead of trends and steering a project to a successful outcome.
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Spires Art is one of Europe’s leading Art Consulting & Manufacturing companies. For the past 29 years, we have been advising, creating and installing art, mirrors, decorative glass, feature wallpapers etc… to the Hotel & Leisure Industry.
From concept to completion, Spire Arts manage the artisans and craftspeople selected to create each piece, ensuring their artwork meets their clients’ specification and works structurally with artistic integrity. You Dream It & They’ll Make It!
What is the most creative way you’ve used art?
CMR: There are often wonderful value-engineering techniques. We’ve rounded a lot of corners using specialist decorative glass, mirrors from silver to antique and very recently copper.
There are also a lot of wonderful ways to apply framed artwork to walls. Taking vast, long and boring hallways and staggering them with inbuilt LED lighting as the primary lighting source for that area, art can also be used on other surfaces, ceilings are great and they create instant statement pieces.
How do you stay ahead of the trends?
CMR: I have a unique process about how I approach each project. I’m not wholly trend-driven but fully aware of trends and I adore many of the new pieces that are introduced to the market internationally. Here at Spires Art, my design team and I like to be ahead of the current trends. We study trends from elsewhere – architecture, history of art, fashion and graphics – even signage.
We always look for positivity, enlightenment, joy and above all a sense of satisfaction and inner stillness for the parties involved. With this approach, it is a trend, designed, created and agreed by all, and you can’t go wrong with that.
If a project is going in the wrong direction, how do you redirect it?
CMR: I close my eyes, go to a place of calm, and quietly think and visualise. I then call my client and together we talk about what is going right, and then what is not going right, and why either of us feels it will not work. Together, we discuss options and I give them answers / solutions while we are talking.
What trends are you currently seeing in interior design?
CMR: Peace of mind and inner stillness combined with functionality and safety. These are the feelings that everyone desires. Our mantra is ‘What Story Would You Like Your Walls To Tell”. When you look at a piece of our art, it should make you smile. Upping the comfort level is what it is all about. We do this for every client, we get to know them and their surroundings.
Together, we study where pleasure, satisfaction and mostly where joy is missing and we do something about it. We thrive to make everything positive, warm and comfortable. People don’t want to take care of their surroundings, they want their surroundings to take care of them. Our little luxuries make all the difference. We help our clients to smile both inwardly and outwardly, people do notice.
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