There's a Boat in the Mornin'

Last week, when people on the Isle of Man celebrated their national (Tynwald) day, we used the bank holiday to discuss the future of our business here on the Island.

We started as upcyclers, grew up in furniture and interior design, became known for unique gifts on the high street, and now we‘re looking to diversify again to move us forward. Through it all, we’ve remained proudly Manx, creating pieces of patriotic furniture and artwork.

As part of a design project back in 2017 we were tasked with coming up with some new restaurant themes. For The Fishery in Port St Mary, we created a Manx-branded restaurant for Harbour Lights. Our "Alright Yessir' bright blue neon sign still takes pride of place... We were excited to be able to bring local colloquialisms that we’d been brought up hearing to life through art.

It was around the time that Gef the Mongoose first appeared on social media and so we were all celebrating being Manx and all the quirky craziness that it brings. Rather than ridiculing, we were honouring our roots with irony and a sense of humour.

Since then, there’s been an explosion of Manx designs which says a lot for national pride. For us, the down-side has been the thinly veiled rivalry: unbelievably, we’ve been called copycats, we even received a cease-and-desist letter from a fellow designer. We respond quickly, simply to prove we did ours first, and never rise to any odious challenge. Thanks to most of our design projects being documented on social media and in the local press, we can 'date stamp' all the original art work and custom pieces we’ve created. Having a real shop and face-to-face customers helps, it’s just always so disappointing whenever we experience the Manx Crab Syndrome that we laugh and make products about.

We’d never try to trade-mark Manx slang as you obviously you can't take ownership of history. Our design work has been copied countless times over the last decade and we let it go because everyone should be allowed to give it a go. That's life as a designer, your good ideas will always be “borrowed”. We don’t diss other Manx stuff, for the most part it makes us happy, of course the disclaimer being when it’s done well. We've always believed that if you're good enough at what you do and what you create, then healthy competition should never be an issue.  We openly support our peers - there’s room for  everyone. Live and let live as they say.

After 10 years as established creatives, our business model is changing and we aim to embrace the Manxness even further and go bold on the art side; we want to represent our Island and ensure that whatever’s being produced for peoples’ walls is being done well and in the right spirit. We want Manx students to put up Isle of Man vintage tourist posters on their Uni walls, ex-residents to take away amusing Manx humour to remind them of their old home, and keep up the funny stuff to make customers smile when they see it everyday. The Isle of Man is a special place and that’s what we’re serving up - Manx realness for the 21st century. So get back under your rocks, crabs, this Island provides enough inspiration for all of us!