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Design a Callcard Winner 1998 Interview (Cian Curran)
Submitted by webmaster on Sat, 22/09/2012 - 18:50
This week we've managed to get an interview with "Design a Callcard 1998" Winner Cian Curran from Galway
Hi Cian, thanks for taking time out to chat to us. What have you been doing with yourself?
I am currently in the process of moving back to Dublin after an extended stay in my home town of Galway. After the heady days of school art competitions, i went to Dublin to study architecture and spent about eighteen months working in Galway and Dublin after graduation. I did a bit more study and sort of veered away from the world of art after that but never strayed from design and creativity. I keep threatening to go back painting but never do. I am however still doing a bt of logo design.
It must have been a pretty exciting time in your past…Tell us a bit about the experience?
It really has been a long time so my memory of the process and the event is not great. I have always made a point of crediting my art teacher Kieren Dowling with my success in the competition as it was he who suggested that I enter it. In fact I believe it was him who sent it off for me. I was in art class one evening after school making a drawing of a Peacock feather and for some reason decided to turn it into a fish bone. Mr. Dowling was adamant that what I was drawing was just the sort of thing that would win a competition like the callcard competition and that I should enter.
Of course the marketing dept. or press office of Eircom (Telecom Eireann?) or whomever couldn’t write that down on the release so they came up with some blurb about the design being some sort of commentary on bio engineering or something. That was almost as humorous as when Ronan Keating climbed out of his Landrover in Dublin Castle at the winners reception some months later.
Suffice it to say that I don’t think I knew too much about the competition prior to entering it.
You must have been a bit of a celebrity in Collaiste Einde for a while after that?
Yes, its still up on a part of their website here
What did you get for being the overall 1998 winner of the competition?
I got taken to a dinner at Dublin Castle where I was presented with my award in the company of Ronan Keating. I was told that since the competition had only ever been won by girls, they had hired a girls celebrity to present the award. I was eighteen or nineteen years of age and could only laugh. I think I won a computer for the school too and I seem to remember a not to shabby remuneration package for my teacher.
Did you get any Callcards as prizes too?
Yeah I got something like two hundred EUR/£10 cards, and I managed to get away with one of the giant four foot long foam cards, which I thought was pretty cool at the time.
Wow, Brilliant! In the past (prior or post winning), would you have collected Callcards?
i didn’t collect them per se but i did hold onto some of the nicer ones i saw around.
Besides your own, would you have a favorite Callcard illustration?
I’m sure i would a but you would have to refresh my memory.. perhaps you could have a voting mechanism on your site where people could pick their favorite.
Definitely, something we've planned, we have a vote for your favorite Disney Card on our Facebook Page at present. We plan to do similar in the future with the best ever "Design a Callcard" illustration. Anything else you'd like to tell or warn our blog readers?
Yeah to this day i get slagged by my mother for having my picture taken with Ronan Keating!
That's hard lived down for sure Cian! Thanks so much for taking time out to chat to us. We wish you all the best now and in the future mate!
See Cians original entry here. If you have a similar story to share, please let us know!
See Cians original entry here. If you have a similar story to share, please let us know!