Curious...and curiouser
Speculation continues to mount today that The Curious Group is set to be placed into administration following the discovery of a significant debt which saw the resignation of most of its digital team and the break away of its Design and Architecture divis
Most of the Curious Digital staff have resigned – around 30 - to set up a newly formed digital agency called Bourne which will have offices in Glasgow, London and New York.
It is understood that the break away has taken place as a result of the discovery of a debt going back several years.
The Group was made up of a design and architecture division, a digital division and an advertising division. It is understood that three members of Curious Digital remain at the company, while it is unknown what has become of the advertising division at the time of writing.
Earlier today, Douglas McConville, managing director of Curious Design & Architecture confirmed that it was now company in its own right and that it was unaffected by recent news.
McConville said: “By all accounts Dan Kersh and Lawrence Craig seemed to be building a very successful digital agency with a truly global client base. It’s a shame that they have had such a public fall out. We wish them both the best. Curious Design and Architecture is a wholly separate entity and for us, it is, as it always has been, very much business as usual.”
It is also understood that Lawrence Craig was still overseeing the digital side of the company following the resignations and break away of the other division.
Stephen Burns, who co-founded the architecture and design business alongside Stephen Halpin as Curious Oranj which merged with Coltas in 2006 to form Curious Group, remains a director of the now independent architecture business.
Halpin left the company last year to launch his own business, Merchant Soul.
Meanwhile, Jo Blake, another director of Curious Group left the business as a result of the break up of the group several weeks ago.
Bourne will be headed up by Dan Kersh and is already working with clients such as Dell, Ricoh, McAfee, Salesforce and is in the final stages of pitching for work with Microsoft and American Express.
Kersh explained: "We can't really comment on the situation at Curious Group but we hope that Bourne will go onto bigger and better things in the future... Our vision is simple. We want to produce great work, with a focused team of specialists working in an environment that allows for creativity, innovation and growth."
At the time of writing no one from The Curious Group had returned The Drum's calls.