Fresh New Start for Skye Creative Company
Cànan, the bilingual design and digital agency based in Sleat on the Isle of Skye has appointed an executive team to direct the company into what they hope will be an exciting new chapter. The executive team will consist of Vanessa Lopez as Operations Manager, Floraidh Forrest as Programmes Manager and Muriel Urquhart as Business Development Manager.
Vanessa Lopez, who is originally from Madrid said: “We are extremely happy about the appointment of the executive team, over the last year we have been without an appointed manager so we’ve all been taking responsibility for running the company. The roles that the three of us have taken are ones that we’ve been organically growing into over this time and play to our strengths as individuals”.
Flòraidh Forrest will join Vanessa on the executive team. Flòraidh is a native of South Uist and has been with Cànan for six years. She has been appointed Programmes Manager and will be in charge of developing and overseeing Cànan’s long-term, large-scale projects. As well as this she will still project manage FilmG, MG ALBA’s Gaelic Short Film Competition, which she has been doing since the project began in 2008. She said: “I love working for Cànan, as a team we all get on really well and I want to be involved in its strategic development. In this role I’ll be able to do that whilst still running FilmG, what I consider to be the most innovative Gaelic project in the country.”
Muriel Urquhart, a relative new-comer, joined Cànan in August 2013 when she was appointed the manager of FilmG’s Youth Training Initiative. Muriel is from Gress in Lewis but has been living in Sleat for ten years, she will now be in charge of growing new business as well as marketing. She said: “Since I’ve started working for Cànan I’ve been able to develop new skills whilst playing to my personal strengths. Business Development is something I’m particularly interested in. I too am very excited about my new role and will work to establish new leads for Cànan in both the private and public sector.”
Cànan began trading twenty years ago as a means of producing learning support materials for the Gaelic television series ‘Speaking our Language’. It now offers services in graphic and web design, app design & development, branding, photography and Gaelic translation. Cànan is currently producing websites for CeangalG, the European Union funded project that aims to increase the collaboration between public sector agencies in the border regions of Northern Ireland, Ireland and Scotland. It is also in the pre-production phase of the seventh FilmG competition.
Cànan also has a number of interesting projects in the pipeline so follow them on Facebook or twitter (@cananskye) to keep up to date with the latest developments.