Just arrived back from an amazing trip to the sunny Los Angeles for the International Design Awards ceremony in the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood! It was brilliant to be recognised among such a talented and creative group of international designers.
The IDA awards celebrate and promote creative talent and expertise in graphic design and other areas such as architecture, fashion and product design.
I received an Honourable Mention Award in the IDA Awards for the brand identity and design of Origin Chain Brand Identity, a blockchain software solutions providing users with reliable proof-of-origin services and another award for the brand identity for Brid Kehoe Coaching, a life coach practice helping guide people towards meeting their goals.
The ceremony was very exciting, with a cocktail reception beforehand, where there was a lot of mingling of creatives in the beautiful Pacific Design Centre.
Another great year kicked off at Offset Dublin this year with some brilliant and inspiring speakers!
The highlight for me was the work of talented Cuban-American illustrator Edel Rodriguez. His work highlights the challenges America are facing with their current president Trump, in a humorous and often simple manner which hits the nail on the head in communicating it’s message.
I also found Dublin photographer Richard Gilligan’s work and the story of his journey to success very inspiring. He followed his passion which lead him to his current success, by mixing his two loves – skateboarding and photography; capturing his subjects in skateparks around the world to create unique results.
Other highlights were Steve Simpson’s beautiful illustrative packaging work and Anna Ginsburg’s illustrative films which challenge feminist subject matter – she is a very confident, bubbly speaker and kept everyone hooked on what she had to say.
This year the event was held at the Point Village, which didn’t quite live up to the previous venue of the Grand Canal Theatre, but hopefully it will be moved back there next year.
All in all, it was a great top up of inspiration from the international design leaders speaking and as always, it was enjoyable meeting and exchanging ideas with fellow creatives.
Edel Rodriguez’s work
“Design should be useful & beautiful” – Workgroup
Steve Simpson’s work
Simpson speaking
Richard Gilligan speaking – featuring photography at Ballymun’s towers
Great to hear that Clare Lynch Creative received an award for the ‘Most Innovative in Graphic Design 2019’ in County Dublin in the Irish Enterprise Awards 2019.
Featured in the EU Business News, the Irish Enterprise Awards 2019 recognise the outstanding achievements of companies and business enterprises based in the Republic of Ireland.
Awards Coordinator, Katherine Benton commented: “Boasting a network of industrious business professionals and organisations committed to achieving business excellence, the Republic of Ireland is home to a variety of ventures worthy of praise, and I am incredibly proud to be the one able to offer this. Congratulations to all of my winners, I will be following your future endeavours with great interest.”
Thank you all for being brilliant to work with during 2018! Here’s to another successful year ahead, full of new ideas, experiences and amazing brand launches.
This compact, foldable 2019 calendar was created as a fun, playful and positive card, helping you to plan your goals for the year ahead.
If you don’t have one already, you can order a printed calendar or download it here.
Well done Esri Ireland in the launch at #EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum of their ArcGIS for Schools Program – providing free access to Esri’s Online Digital Mapping Platform for every school in Ireland!
The application can be accessed through browsers on internet-connected devices – lesson plans open up interactive projects on climate change, the designing of cities and towns, geography, demographics and Irish history to gather data for projects. Schools can sign up for free at schools.esri-ireland.ie – they already have 50 schools signed up, with the aim of reaching 200 by the end of 2018. The aim of this initiative is to help address the evident Stem skills shortage in Ireland, by developing key spatial analysis, and critical thinking skills at a grassroots level.
Clare Lynch Creative worked with them on the graphic design collateral for the launch. Promotional collateral designed included branding aimed at both primary and secondary schools, posters, flyers and exhibition graphics for the opening event. The event was a huge success and received widespread media coverage.
Esri were delighted with the result and the branding was commented on throughout the launch event and implementation.
It was a great achievement to receive a Carbon Award in the Frēsh 18 Design Awards for the packaging design work of Polski Polish Bread. I really enjoyed working on it, so to receive great recognition for the standard of work, gives an added sense of accomplishment that it has been received well by creative judges and peers in the design industry.
The POLSKI Bread range was created by authentic Polish bakery Inter Europol, exclusively for Tesco consumers across the UK. Known for their taste, purity, and authenticity, they’re the largest clean-label bakery in Poland, producing real slow-rise sourdough bread and other bakery products using traditional stone-baking methods for over 30 countries worldwide.
“The brief was to design a new packaging brand for a range of Polish bread to be launched in Tesco stores across the UK. The main target audience is consumers who love Polish food, therefore it was important to ensure that the branding made a clear, instant connection to Poland, for strong shelf stand-out.
The result is engaging design, carefully tailored to their target audience.
Find out more about the work here or see the winning entry on the Frēsh 18 Design Awards website.
I was delighted to recently receive an Honorable Mention in the results of the 2017 International Design Awards for the brand identity, brand book and promotional collateral for my client Brid Kehoe Coaching.
Brid Kehoe Coaching are a holistic coaching practise who support clients in taking steps forward to change for the better and help them to uncover new routes to get there. They guide clients to improve wellbeing and focus, change career and much more through support, encouragement and introducing new creative strategies.
Find out more about the work here or see the winning entry on the IDA award winners website.
Conceptual artwork for a cultural centre in Connemara with the guidance. The architect designed the building focusing on it’s viewpoints and perspectives of facing mountains and the sea with large windows revealing views of each. I used this to guide the design for this project, focussing on the shapes and patterns of the local environment as graphic elements and the idea of revealing using the cutout shapes of the centre’s name ‘MARA’ and the folded layers of the poster, which folds down to a flyer.
The word MARA is a play on the word Connemara and stands for the attractions offered in the cultural centre, such as Music, Arts, Reading and Action. The wood version of the poster was created using the laser cutting process, where the design is etched / burnt in to the wood and the shapes are cut out as separate elements, which can be used around the centre.
Two Videos Displaying the Laser Cutting & Etching Process of Typography on Wood:
Video Displaying the 3D Printing Process of Icons:
DesignWest is a creative growth design program set in Letterfrack in Connemara. It is designed for creatives worldwide who have previously been through university and are established in their careers, who are now seeking to grow creatively through new experiences, being inspired and collaborating with their peers and working on projects outside of their general day to day scope. There are mentors from top design agencies such as Pentagram New York, R2 Design Portugal, Isidro Ferrer Spain and also a number of high profile Irish agencies such as Design Factory, Studio Or and Unthink.
It was a really great experience. We got to use a wide range of facilities such as letterpress printing with Sean Sills from the National Print Museum, riso printing with Studio Or, laser cutting and etching to wood, large scale format printing, debossing and stitching, 3D printing and the use of the wood work room and team. The reputable mentors gave inspiring talks, workshops and advice – really encouraging us to get playful and more hands-on with our creativity, breaking away from the computer screens, with a number of different activities. There was also plenty of practical advice which can be easily applied to our everyday workflow, on return to our own client work.
We were inspired by the local environment, the beautiful west of Ireland, and brought on a number of trips to places such as mussel and oyster farms, the grounds of Alcock & Brown – the first transatlantic flight, Inishbofin island and artist’s studios and talks – all of which went on to inspire our individual projects. In the evenings, we sometimes watched design films in a special screenings cinema and there were some exhibitions also. We had two exhibitions of our work, one of which will travel from Letterfrack to Dublin later this year. It was impressive to see the finished work come together for everyone in the exhibitions and the overall experience of meeting and working with so many international creatives was really enjoyable and good to have established a new network of peers working in the design industry worldwide.
DesignWest was a great way to re-immerse myself in design and creativity and be re-inspired going forward in my career, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The end result was graduating with a NFQ Level 9 Special Purpose Award Certificate in Design Research with the subject ‘Design Unplugged’ at GMIT.
It was great to be part of the Incognito art exhibition this year in aid of Jack & Jill children’s charity. Irish and International artists submit works to the Incognito exhibition. The artist’s names (some very well-known) will remain incognito until the art is purchased and the artist’s signature is revealed on the back.
This year, it included work by Tracey Emin, John Kelly, Peter Curling, Martin Gale, Olivia Golden, P.J. Crook, Ed Miliano, Abigail O’Brien, and Richard Gorman. All pieces were exhibited anonymously, and sold for €50 each at the Solomon Gallery on 6th, 7th and 8th of April 2018.
This year, they made a profit of over €93,000 which will provide nearly 6000 nursing hours to our very sick babies.
I was delighted to have my work selected to be in the Halftone 2017 exhibition, featured in the Library Project in Temple Bar, Dublin.
HALFTONE is an initiative by PhotoIreland Foundation, hosted every year at The Library Project. Running for 18 days, the fair brings together a large selection of works by established and emerging artists, showcasing Ireland’s exciting Art scene.
This humorous and playful collection, depicts the famous seagulls which heavily populate Dublin city centre’s boardwalk, along the River Liffey. These seagulls are known to circulate people eating their lunches, hoping to get a bite.
One print features these birds characteristics of being feisty, friendly and fearless. It also plays on the Dublin slang word for women or girls which is ‘birds’. On another print in the set, the birds have been given popular Dublin girls names. On two of the prints, there is a play on the famous Irish / Dublin song, ‘Molly Malone’, changing the lyrics to feature the birds. This again could refer to the seagulls or Dublin girls.
Images of Dublin’s boardwalk and Liffey in the city centre can be seen through the silhouettes of the seagulls.
See more on the Halftone website here or if you would like to purchase one of these prints, please see them on Etsy.
