Calgary is a city fuelled by entrepreneurs and energy companies, but it’s the arts ecosystem that gives the city vibrancy and soul. Business and art are often perceived as being at cross purposes, but one need to look no further than Carvel Creative for proof that art, business and technology are fantastic and successful bedfellows. Carvel Creative provides both sides of the formula, with a team of artists and designers working alongside skilled tradespeople to produce incredible pieces of art.
Carvel is the result of three diverse but complementary creative careers coming together to help artists bring their ideas to life. Adam Weir, Suzanne Doherty and Shane Hurl first crossed paths in local art circles in 2014 and forged a friendship that got them thinking about how they could start an art-based business that would bridge the divide between artists and fabrication. The theoretical discussion turned to reality in 2015 when they rented a 10,000-square-foot shop and hung out their shingle. Together, they had all bases covered to facilitate almost anything a client could ask for at Carvel Creative.
“Each of us has a creative schooling but also creative industry backgrounds. We’re all very experienced in our own department. Suzanne handles our extremely complex and challenging paint finishes. Shane takes care of sculpting and running the production shop. I take care of the project management and design,” says Adam Weir, co-owner of Carvel Creative.
From the start, it was important that the company support local businesses, such as by partnering with Alberta foundries and trades to deliver amazing results for established and aspiring Canadian artists. The trio started out taking on any creative project that came their way, fabricating everything from parade floats to children’s spaces for the Calgary Public Library. As it slowly grew in those early days, the founders figured out what they wanted to do at Carvel and built a talented team around them that would help them combine art and design with trades and technology.
“I think one of our strengths is how we merge old-school traditional techniques and processes with all the new technologies that we are capable of using. We’ve hand-picked our team and we’re very fortunate in that all of the staff is super skilled and has been in the business for a long time,” says Shane Hurl, co-owner of Carvel Creative.
The founders surrounded themselves with extremely accomplished designers, metal workers, machinists, painters and sculptors who produce 3D models and detailed designs, have those designs professionally engineered and then bring them from vision to reality in fabrication. The onsite CNC machines allow them to create 3D shapes and molds in a variety of materials while the large-scale 3D printers create patterns for sculptures. Throughout the process, the team does it all, from intricate hand sculpting and complex coating processes to metal fabrication and welding.
The team quickly earned a reputation for forging strong relationships in the community and producing quality work on time and on budget. Carvel soon found its niche, partnering with construction coordinators and art departments on television and film projects, as well as with artists and designers involved in public art projects. “It’s all relationship building and maintaining, and we do a very good job of that,” says Weir, and because of this, Carvel has a number of repeat entertainment business partners that look to the company for unique props and set pieces, and a list of artists for whom they have fabricated multiple public art installations across Canada.
Carvel has contributed set and prop elements to a number of big and small screen productions, including Star Trek series Strange New Worlds, Discovery and Section 31, Prime Video’s The Boys and Gen V, The Comey Rule, John Wick Chapter 4, Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, and Ghostbusters Afterlife.
The company’s work can also be found in public spaces across the country, with a portfolio that includes a baby donkey sculpture in Toronto, a giant dodo bird in Montreal, a hockey-inspired sculpture at Rogers Place in Edmonton, a set of giant bronze unicycles in front of the BLVD Beltline in Calgary and dozens of installations in British Columbia including Douglas Coupland’s Charm Bracelet, Blob Kabob and Ducks.
“We really are turnkey. We will take a project from start to finish and we’ll handle every aspect of the project,” says Weir. “And we handle shipping and installation, including booking, doing all the permitting, road closures and pretty much everything that’s required to get the piece installed on site.”
Every project and every artist is different; whether the piece is a slick metal and glass fabrication or a figurative, highly detailed representation, the team understands what the artist is conveying and honours that intention in their fabrication.
As artists themselves, the owners take pride in fabricating a quality product for clients; these pieces are a representation of an artist’s vision and it’s their responsibility to do it justice. The team gets to know the artists well and has the ability to assimilate to the artist’s style to keep the end result true to the design. The three owners work in the trenches with the eight other professionals on the team so what they produce is exactly what the client imagined.
“Having the partners work in design and production areas of the company really helps with the product that we put out and the relationships that we have with our clients,” says Carvel co-owner Suzanne Doherty. “We find that we get to keep the relationships strong with our employees as well as clients by keeping the team smaller. That way the product that goes out the door is always going to have that high-end quality.”
This made-in-Canada company is shining a deserving light on local creatives as it fabricates unique movie props, set elements and prominent public art installations across the country. In the past 10 years, the Carvel Creative team has established a strong foothold in the Canadian arts community as they continually learn and improve their craft so they can better deliver on their passion for bringing artists’ visions to life.
Contact Information:
1607 41 Ave SE
Calgary, AB
(403) 273-9550
www.carvelcreative.com