Hello Hinterland Book Illustration

Hello Hinterland: Book Illustration

Hello Hinterland is a collection of illustrated stories and poetry, rhymes, observations and folk tales, celebrating the connections between culture and heritage in the wide and embracing landscape of Fingal County, on the East Coast of Ireland. This was my first book illustration project and I feel very proud and excited with the result.

The project came to life when poet and author of Hello Hinterland, Martin Holohan, approached me as he was seeking an illustrator for his new poetry book. I have done illustration as part of my graphic design, branding and packaging design projects and smaller side projects, but this was my first time to fully illustrate a picture book from start to finish, along with creating and putting the book together using my graphic design skills.

The process was really enjoyable. Martin gave me free creative range in terms of how each illustration could be. He wanted it to be a collaborative process, where I take inspiration from the words in each poem using my creative thinking, rather than him directing me on how each poem should look. There was a lovely freedom to this process. We began by working on the first five poems, where I presented him with the illustrations for these select few. His response was as it continued to be throughout, what we might call ‘the dream client!’ where he was blown away and completely enthusiastic and excited about each poetry illustration he was presented with.

When creating each poem, I loved deciphering the meanings of each one, many with clever words related to Irish culture and history, current times, Irish mythology and the local Irish Fingal landscape. The illustrations are full of life and character, reflecting the words in the poetry. Martin wanted the book to appeal to younger children, along with older audiences – therefore, I brought a lot of colour and brightness in to the illustrations – aiming to draw the younger audience in easily with an immediate impact, where as the words will naturally interest and entertain an older audience.

I began by drawing some loose sketch ideas for each one, and then developed them in Adobe Illustrator. I created the book structure in Adobe Indesign. I kept the text of the poetry in the same position on the double-paged spreads for each poem, and ensured that the illustrations I created fitted well with the text so that they could be both enjoyed in an easy-to-read style, with a natural flow to how the text and image are viewed together. The picture book is 100 pages, with almost 40 poetry illustrations, each one spread spaciously across two pages (a spread). Each chapter is clearly divided with a colourised spreads for each.

The aims for Hello Hinterland is for it to be a coffee table book in people’s homes, where they can often pick it up and have a read while enjoying a relaxing break from their day to get lost in the stories and themes of the poetry. Another goal for the book is for it to be enjoyed by schools and libraries throughout Ireland. It was printed as a hard-back book with heavy paper stock for this reason – it needed to be durable to withstand a lot of handling by children and the thick paper stock was also a way to present the colourful illustrations to the fullest. Martin would also like it to be seen and used as a ‘Walking Heritage Trail’ through the people and places living along the beautiful landscape of Fingal County, by the sea.

Chapter 1: Hello Hinterland

The Perfect Lawns of Lusk

Senescence

I like how this poem talks about embracing growing old – the illustration cleverly narrates the words from the poem.

Hello Hinterland

This illustration that depicts a female character, with long flowing hair that doubles-up as sea waves, is inspired by the lines in the poem that mention Irish legend Cuchulainn’s wife Emer, who is said to have hailed from Lusk. It incorporates the references to the sea and rolling hills of Lusk into her portrait.

This poem features one of the strongest lines in the poetry book ‘You gave me a lovely… lonely rural life’. This refers to how author and poet, Martin Holohan, thought when he was moving from Dublin city to Lusk (in the hinterland rural outskirts area of Dublin) that he might find it too quiet and remote, but instead, he thrived in that loneliness… whether it be with long luxurious cycling trips out on his bike, the unfolding of his passion for writing and creativity and having the time and headspace free to indulge in it and let all his ideas flow out on to the page, all of this accompanied with an occasional trip for a quiet refreshment in the quaint ‘Man O’ War’ establishment. He found that he fell in love with this quieter ‘lonely’ life. The word lonely can have negative associations, but for Martin – he found moving to the hinterlands actually turned out to be an opportunity to embrace and fall in love with this loneliness and from it, creativity flowed from his heart unstoppably to create the book Hello Hinterland and many other writing projects currently in the pipeline.

Ghosts of Malahide

Holohan’s Fable

One of my favourite poems is ‘Holohan’s Fable’. It’s about a couple so content in their daily routine, that when they win the lotto, they decide not to claim it – as they couldn’t be any happier! It’s a fable with a message about appreciating what you have in life.

Chapter 3: A Rural Romantic

Noctambulant

This beautifully illustrated book includes positive underlying themes of resilience, appreciating the little things in life, social inclusion and enjoying the local landscape, weaving through the book.

February is a Fraud

If The Moon Should Fall

This is another of my favourite poems from the book. I took the meaning to be to enjoy an appreciate the little things that we have in life. Sometimes we can over-complicate things in life, looking for potential things that could go wrong or imperfections. When, if we focus on all the good right in front of us, we might be surprised how content we can be with everything that we already have. I saw this as a romantic poem, encouraging the reader to let down their walls to let someone new, that they know they like, in to their world and to go with the flow and enjoy it. I reflected this and all the words of the poem in the illustration, with a little wink towards Salavatore Dali’s ‘end-of-the-world-like’ surrealist paintings.

Missing at the Man O’ War

Train Track Troubadour

Old Man of Balscadden

Bulling for Butlins on the 1st Day of Summer

The Refugee Song

Changing Time

Lost Poem from the Bog of Commons

Quote: “You Gave Me A Lovely… Lonely, Rural Life”

Martin Holohan is a storyteller living in Lusk, County Dublin. Martin loves to spend his time writing, cycling, singing, and not least travelling, especially by train across Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. Hello Hinterland is his Debut Collection of illustrated stories.

In this collection, the author has adopted the old role of Seanchai, the Bard, and the Poet of Irish Tales… and in that regard is of sorts a ‘Lore Keeper’. Lore Keepers are embedded in Irish Folklore and are particularly attracted to the Land themselves, especially where they currently live. It is their defining attribute to seek out and explore the spots and places that still have a strong spirit of the Myths and Legends of old.

The Lore Keeper aims to mix and match the past and present so as to bring New Tales and Observations from our beautiful island, Ėire.

The book, published by Choice Publishing Ltd, focuses on the journeys Martin makes across a wide and sometimes rural region and aptly incorporates people and places living close to the East Coast of Ireland there in Fingal County. Moreover, his real contribution is highlighting the ‘aspects of the everyday’ in places around that particular part of the country, which are remarkably only a short distance by train or car out of Dublin City.

Most notable are the titles…’The Perfect Lawns of Lusk‘, ’Twin Loves in the Little Town of Rush’ and ‘Hello Hinterland‘.

“Hello Hinterland is more than just a modern Illustrated Poetry Book…it acts too like a folklore companion guide towards a walking Heritage Trail…through the people and places… living along the beautiful landscape of Fingal County by the sea”.

Martin Holohan, Poet & Author of Hello Hinterland

You can hear Martin talking more about the book in this Near FM interview here…

Hello Hinterland Book Launch at Hodges Figgis Dublin

We held the book launch at the famous Dublin bookstore, Hodges Figgis, one of Dublin’s oldest bookstores, situated near Trinity college on Dawson Street. I designed the promotional collateral for the event, such as social media graphics, flyers, pull-up banners and large-scale posters for the front window display. This event was a lovely evening accompanied by refreshments, wine and cheese, where myself and Martin spoke to the guests about the creation of the book and the collaboration process and read some of our favourite poems from the book.

Book Signing at Hodges Figgis

Featured in the ‘Top 10’ Bookseller List at Hodges Figgis

Shortlisted for the IDI Awards 2022

The IDI Awards select and showcase the best of Irish design. The awards provide designers with a platform to showcase their talents, benchmark against their peers and provide inspiration for all.It was so exciting to be shortlisted for the Illustration of the book Hello Hinterland in the 2022 IDI Awards. It was an honour and great achievement to be shortlisted and recognised in the creative field among the many talented designers in Ireland.

The IDI Irish Design Awards 2022 took place on November 17th, 2022 with a ceremony in the Marker Hotel in Dublin’s Grand Canal Docklands area in Dublin 2. It was a very special 50 year anniversary celebration named ‘JOY’, to mark the founding of IDI in 1972.

Thanks to @idi_ireland for organising – it was an amazing night in such a lovely venue and a great way to meet up with fellow designers.

See more at the www.HelloHinterland.ie website.

Available to purchase at Choice Publishing and:

In-store

– Alan Hanna’s Bookshop, 270 Rathmines Rd Lower, Rathmines, Dublin 6 – See location on map…

– Tales for Tadpoles, 3 Albert Walk, Bray, Co. Wicklow, A98 TC03 – See location on map…

– Antonia’s Bookstore, The Gate House, Navan Gate, Trim, Co. Meath – See location on map…

– Choice Publishing, Drogheda, Co. Louth – See location on map…

– Hodges Figgis on Dawson Street, Dublin 2 – See location on map…

Online:

Tales for Tadpoles:

www.talesfortadpoles.ie

Alan Hanna’s Bookstore:

www.alanhannas.com

Choice Publishing:

www.choicepublishing.ie

Waterstones / Hodges Figgis:

www.waterstones.com

Antonia’s Bookstore:

www.antoniasbookstore.com

Blackwells Book Stores:

https://blackwells.co.uk/

Browns Books:

https://www.brownsbfs.co.uk/

Library Stockists:

Maynooth Library, County Kildare

https://maynoothuniversity.com

Further Details about Hello Hinterland:

Published by: Choice Publishing in Hardback

Written by: Martin Holohan

Illustrated by: Clare Lynch

Edited by: Isabel Aust

ISBN: 978-1-913275-26-6

Priced: €25.00

Distributor: www.alanhannas.com

Website: www.holohanbooks.ie

Instagram: www.instagram.com/holohanbooks

August 22, 2022 /

Muckross Creamery Brand Packaging

Muckross Creamery is an Irish ice cream brand range, hand-crafted by the Fleming family. Their strap-line is ‘From Cow to Cone’ – communicating the freshness of their delicious ice cream.

Catherine and John Fleming live with their lovely family of six children, and of course… all their friendly farm cows, on their charming farm in Muckross, Killarney. John Fleming is a fifth-generation dairy farmer. His family have been farming in Muckross, Killarney since the 1840’s. Their mouth-watering ice cream is made using their own fresh milk, fresh cream and free-range eggs. Being a farm-based enterprise in Killarney, they source all the fresh ingredients and supplies for each scrumptious flavour of their artisan range locally, to support the local economy. Their short supply chain and values of commitment to quality and sustainable production contribute to the great taste of their ice-cream.

When they reached out to Clare Lynch Creative on re-branding, key aspects they wanted to convey were the natural and fresh qualities of their ice cream. Therefore, featuring one of their resident, friendly farm cows in their brand and packaging design was a natural progression. It was important to implement this in a well-crafted manner, to denote that they are a quality brand range of ice cream.

Further to that, the colours from the fresh ingredients used in the ice cream were used as an inspiration source to form the colour palette for the brand, along with the traditionally-associated dairy colour of blue – but freshened up in a slightly brighter and modern tone, linking with the summery feeling associated with ice cream.

Muckross Creamery Ice Cream Brand Identity & Packaging Design

The brand typography has a traditional feel to it – with a bold, rustic font selected and hand-tailored for the bespoke brandmark along with hand-written descriptors; to support the values the client wanted to convey of how the ice cream is hand-made on their farm with fresh, local ingredients. The grain texture and the hand-drawn fruit silhouettes on the packaging further support and highlight this. As their brand story is an important aspect to the brand, it is featured on the packs with a photo of the family (which has since gained a new little member!). Muckross Creamery is a Listowel Food Fair winner for it’s flavoursome and tasty ice cream, and this key USP is highlighted on the packaging. The cute tubs are earthy and recyclable, which adds to their popularity, both as it communicates the rustic, traditional qualities to consumers, and also to how they are a conscientious and sustainable company.

You can follow them on Instagram @muckrosscreamery

June 30, 2020 /

Katie’s Kombucha Brand Packaging

Katie’s Kombucha Packaging Design

Katie’s Kombucha is a healthy probiotic drink, which is good for the gut and immune system. It is a delicious, refreshing vegan soft drink range, made with love by Ballymaloe-trained chef, Katie McCann.

When it comes to health, the gut is a key area to begin with, known as the body’s ‘second brain’ – it is trusted to support the body to fuel our happiness, health and wellness. The drink is alive and contains a community of healthy bacteria living inside which is beneficial to our bodies. When you feel alive, you can create what you love and love what you create.

Katie’s Kombucha is naturally fermented in small batches and is a naturally functional food. There are two flavours launched to date – ‘Raspberry’ (flavoured with 100% Wicklow raspberries) and ‘Apple & Dandelion’ (flavoured with 100% organic apples). It is unpasteurised, sustainably produced, vegan, gluten free and has recyclable packaging. Katie’s Kombucha refreshes, rebalances, replenishes the body.

Some key factors Katie wanted to communicate with the brand was her passion for creating kombucha, how it is a healthy product that’s good for you and that it’s wholesome and natural.

As Katie and the passion she has for what she does is the essence of the brand, the design outcome created for the brand packaging design uses the silhouette of a woman, representing Katie. The silhouette of the woman (Katie) has the fruits which the kombucha consists of intertwined into the shape of her hair, in a natural and organic style.

To make the word ‘kombucha’ easy to read for those unfamiliar with it, the three syllables are in a stacked block reading ‘KOM-BU-CHA’ to make up the brandmark. The hand-tailored font in the logo is earthy and rustic, communicating the natural ethos and ingredients of the kombucha. A texture with a subtle grain has been integrated with the typography and silhouette to further accentuate the wholesome qualities of the brand.

Each favour is differentiated by colour (guided by the fruits each contains), along with it’s own fruit icon. There was a third flavour ‘ginger’ created, to be launched at a later date. A hand-written font is used for the flavour descriptions, further emphasising the hand-made and personal process to how Katie’s Kombucha is created. An additional detail created is the unique barcode, showcasing the silhouette of leaves and berries. A hand-drawn heart icon highlights the feature that the kombucha is 100% Vegan.

Another key factor to consider when designing the kombucha was Katie’s highly conscientious nature in relation to being sustainable and the environment. Therefore, she chose a uniquely-shaped bottle which is easy to recycle and we ensured to work with the printer to use the earthy, recycled paper stock ‘Shiro’ rather than a sticker to make them easily re-usable and recyclable. They are then sealed with a tamper-proof seal.

Katie loved how the results communicate her brand essence and values, with strong visual impact on shelves in stores and has received much positive feedback on the new packaging from her customers and on social media. It’s sales have grown to a wide range of stores such as many of the SuperValu’s throughout Dublin, online deliveries stockist Neighbourfood, 3FE cafes and a number of other unique stores and cafes around Dublin and Wicklow.

Please enjoy the below video with sound and follow Katie’s Kombucha on Instagram @katiekombucha

See the positive feedback I received from Katie here.

Design: Clare Lynch Creative

Photography: Brendan Ryan Photography

Photo Styling: Clare Lynch, Betsy Gach.

Video: Shane Caffrey

June 9, 2020 /

Inishbofin Guide Book

Inishbofin Guide

This is a guide to Inishbofin, a small island off the coast of Ireland. Inishbofin has a population of 180 people and relies heavily on tourism. This project explored a way of attracting more tourists to the island. The concept behind it is to create a series of landmarks around the island, which honour Inishbofin’s history and culture. As Inishbofin is an eco-friendly island, they seek to achieve sustainable tourism that does not negatively impact upon the island’s natural environment, while at the same time benefits and supports the local community. Therefore, the concept was each sculpture would be created with eco-friendly, sustainable materials such as wood, bog oak, stone and earthy materials which would be in harmony with the local landscape and for each one to be clever and creatively designed. Some of the landmarks/highlights I thought of were the famous Grace O’Malley, the Cleggan Disaster, the island’s Flora & Fauna wildlife, the Patron Saint of Bofin, Cromwell’s Barracks, the White Cow (the island’s name) and Cockles & Mussels. I explored different ways in which these sculptures would be created. The idea being that visitors can interact with the sculptures and will want to find each one, to take photographs with them and tick them off their list of cultural things to see on the island. Beside each sculpture would be a small plaque which also naturally blends in with the local environment, which tells the story behind the sculpture.

Taking visual cues from the Camino de Santiago, where there is the a subtle shell with an arrow showing the direction to walk, I designed an icon which would work in the same way for Inishbofin’s sculptures. It is a simple boat shape, where the sail is an arrow – the direction of the arrow indicates which way to walk to each attraction. These would be set subtly in stone around the island, to ensure not to impact the island’s beautiful and natural landscape.

The main piece was an A5, side-stitched booklet with a fold-out A3 map showing the location of each sculpture around the island in the centre-fold. It was riso-printed using a rigorous 7-colour process, with some lovely ‘happy accidents’ of colour offsets in the finished booklet. The cover was then debossed with the shape of the map. Each page uses modern typography and layouts. On researching the island, many people said how Inishbofin was a place that people come to get lost and find themselves in, enjoying the slower pace of life and the fresh sea air and nature. The expression ‘There’s plenty of time on the island’ is a commonly used expression. This inspired the name for this booklet, with the play of words ‘A Guide to Getting Lost’. I created an icon for each sculpture, which visitors can easily find on the map, and used some expressions throughout which represent the essence of life on Bofin.

At this stage of the project, I created a 3D wooden stylised map of the island, with laser etchings of the icons, and also created 3D-printed icons to represent each sculpture (although not aimed to be the finished sculpture design). For the numbers on the map, I tailored an old Irish Celtic font to create individual, unique numbers which still embody the Celtic feel, but with a modern twist. I then laser printed these personally-designed numbers on to wood, to have as physical items to display as part of the overall proposed exhibition display. The use of wood for the display stand added to the sustainability, eco-friendly culture with which Inishbofin is proud of.

July 27, 2018 /

CashAnalytics Re-Brand

CashAnalytics Re-Brand & Brand Guidelines

CashAnalytics Re-brand, Brand Guidelines & Marketing Collateral

CashAnalytics build software that solves problems using the latest cloud and web based technologies, that help large companies manage their day-to-day treasury, risk and compliance challenges in an efficient and controlled manner. They work with a broad spectrum of organisations ranging from mid-tier private equity backed companies to stock market listed multinational enterprises. They are experts in corporate cash and treasury management, compliance, software development, customer service and project management.

They liked their existing logo to some extent, but wanted a more modernised look and feel, to ensure their logo was contemporary and communicated how the services they offer use the latest software technology to create results in a fast time-frame compared to their competitors. To create this, the bars from the treasury building in the original logo were used to stand alone as a strong analytics symbol, along with the cleaner, modernised Futura typeface. This created a new, modern CashAnalytics logo, which still easily links to be an evolution of their previous logo. There is a secondary version of their logo, which includes their strapline ‘Cash and Liquidity Forecasting’, for more specific uses.

The brand was then further developed across stationery, infographics, web graphics, eNewsletters, eBooks, brochures, exhibition graphics and brand guidelines, to roll out the re-brand in a consistent manner across all CashAnalytics collateral. The client was very happy with the new streamlined result across all their points of contact with clients.

February 19, 2018 /