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.
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.
It was great to take part in the monthly St Stephens Green Art Exhibition, where artists feature their paintings all around St Stephens Green Park, where passers-by can enjoy the art and purchase paintings.
I chose to display a collection I had created based around the concept of communication and the wonder of the story of ‘The Tower of Babel’; the story of how we all ended up speaking different languages. The paintings represent the bricks that make up the tower of Babel, with each brick depicting a different language / hieroglyphic or form of communication; various symbols from different languages falling in confusion when the tower collapsed; being tongue-tied with the confusion of so many different languages in the world;tow modern communication such as emojis and the universal understanding in communication such as thumbs up / fingers crossed / the ok hand gesture. They are painted in gouache acrylic in a bright and modern graphic way, with colours that really pop. With art being subjective, the viewer can take their own interpretation of what each painting is and what it may represent for them.
Being part of the exhibition is a great experience – some highlights include meeting and being inspired by other artists and talking to the public about art and what it means to them. I also had some greeting cards available to purchase, which many people enjoyed. They can be purchased here and also ordered at a number of sizes and formats here.
In 2017, I participated in a programme which facilitates the exchange of skills and ideas of entrepreneurs working in different countries around Europe. The idea is where you work alongside people in other similar creative fields and gain inspiration and grow from eachother’s experiences and skillset.
The project I chose to participate in was with Argo Navis, spending a month in Galicia in Northern Spain. Argo Navis is a project started by six young people from Bueu who decided to create an innovative youth entrepreneurship platform that encourages engagement and collaboration. Their team consists of experts in many different creative fields such as photography, graphic design, and architecture; together they use interdisciplinary activities to promote a cultural agenda of local and sustainable development. Their space is facing the sea-front and this is a strong inspiration to their work. Every month Argo Navis uses these activities to engage the local community in creative and collaborative events covering important topics such as: giving meaning to life, sketching your own future, facing challenges and being creative. To achieve this goal, they needed an entrepreneur willing to cooperate and contribute, as well as to spread and internationalize the initiative. Their main motivation towards the exchange in the framework is to gain knowledge, skills and an entrepreneurial attitude allowing all of us to found and develop together our own personal projects, initiatives and ideas in a collaborative way that will be operating transnationally in Europe.
They are passionate about working with the local community and the opportunity to invent and implement creative ideas that deliver incredible cultural and social impact, and as a result build a better future. Bueu is a village in the metropolitan area of Rías Baixas on the southwestern coast of Galicia, Spain. Despite its northern location on the Atlantic Ocean seashore and its incredible landscape, the recent economic meltdown in Spain has badly affected the town and its people. According to data collected by Spain, over half a million young people (called “expatriate”) have left the country in order to find better job conditions in Europe. This is especially prevalent in Bueu, where the local economy, which is mostly based on tourism and maritime resources, does not offer a potential future to its many young graduates.
Nevertheless, the opportunities are there. New ways of working, based on social and collaborative principles, closely linked with local development, have started to appear globally as a way of starting something new. Argo Navis is a way of showing everyone that exploring creative methods for promoting young entrepreneurship based on a social commitment can foster economic development in a more inclusive, fair, and sustainable manner.
During the month, we worked on a number of projects, including a summer social media campaign (in English, Spanish and Galician) to further highlight and spread the word of the Argo Navis initiative and a winter campaign to promote an upcoming competition. It was a really enjoyable experience learning about Galician culture, working alongside passionate and creative people and seeing things from a new perspective. The people are very warm and welcoming and strongly associate with the Celtic culture in their music and warmth. They are very passionate, creative and well-educated people and extremely proud of their Galician roots.
Please see is a video we worked on during the month (best listened to with sound), some images of the work I created during the experience (photography taken by their photographer Alba Sotelo). Find out more about Argo Navis here.
Designing for the Future: Trends we Need to Consider Now
Design is something that has been around since the beginning of time. From the ten commandments of Moses or the Egyptian and stone age petroglyphs – using design to communicate a message is something that remains consistent.
It was great to be part of the group illustration exhibition recently in Filmbase, Temple Bar in Dublin city centre. There was lots of excitement with putting up our framed art after a year of hard work in developing our illustration style leading to all the prep work involved preparing for an exhibition. There was a huge turn-out on the opening night, everyone agreed it was a great success.
The theme I chose was the wonder of the Tower of Babel – the story of how we all ended up speaking different languages. The concept shows the confusion that followed the collapse of the tower in the story where everyone began speaking different languages, with the tongue-tiedness that the language barrier brought. I featured some of the earliest forms of communication – ancient hieroglyhics and pictograms – in a bright and modern graphic way, using gouache colours that pop. I went on to show how language and communication has developed to today – where we use smiley faces and hand gestures to communicate which work through all languages. I enjoyed researching this theme, learning about the Rosetta stone and Egyptian hieroglyphics. There are some beautiful symbols used among all the languages and, although it would be simpler if we all spoke the one language, I would hate to see such individuality and beauty of each language’s unique symbols and form of communicating ever to become extinct.
One of the advantages of the location was that during the week, there was still a lot of visitors popping in as the artworks are displayed in the windows of Filmbase and attract plenty of passers-by and art lovers. Many of us had our own pop-up shops selling our giclee prints and greeting cards, which still continued to attract interest throughout the week.
My greeting cards and prints are available to purchase on Etsy at:
Looking forward to the exhibition of the illustration course I have been attending over the last year. It’s on in Filmbase in Temple Bar, Dublin 2, opening 6.30pm on the 6th June and continuing until 10th June. It’s been great fun to be part of and I’ve met some really talented and friendly people along the way.
There’s a pop-up shop selling our giclee prints and greeting cards also. Come along and check out all the great work.
Poster artwork by Virginia Fiorini, graphic design by Fintan Wall.
Dublin’s annual creative design event, hosted in Grand Canal dock, was full of talented speakers and designers eager to soak up inspiration and pick up some design tips and goodies. This year had a high focus on illustration, which was great to see. I am currently enrolled in a one-year illustration course, to develop my illustration style and bring more illustration in to my graphic design work, so it was great to hear about illustrators who are doing well in the industry. Here are a few of the talented designers and illustrators that caught my eye this year:
Marion Deuchars
Marion Deuchars is a Scottish award-winning illlustrator and hand letterer. She is well-known for her children’s book designs, an area of graphic design I would love to get in to in the future, so I found her talk inspiring. She also works with brand and advertising agencies. Her illustration style is playful and appeals to children and adults alike. See more of her work here.
The Project Twins
Great to see young Irish designers speaking at such a big event. This duo hail from Cork and have accomplished a lot already in their careers. The printmakers have spent time in a residency in the Facebook offices, which sounds like it was a lot of creative fun and have been featured in a huge amount of shows and exhibitions. Their work is simple but quirky; their bright and playful illustrations clearly deliver each project message with accuracy and bring a smile to your face. Purchase a print for your home or studio here.
And last, but certainly not least, advertising agency Chemistry
I love Chemistry’s ideas. Their work is the type of work I look at and wish I had done it myself! For the sad death of the All Blacks rugby player Jonah Lomu, they designed this beautiful image below of the New Zealand fern with one of it’s leaves fallen, which very simply and eloquently reflected the tragedy of New Zealand and the All Blacks loss of such an important player and Kiwi legend.
Another strong campaign they spoke about was the ‘I want to get Cancer’ campaign. I must admit this was quite a controversial one. When I first saw it on a bus stop and then on a TV advert, I had mixed feelings. I understood the point but still didn’t like to see those words as they seemed like a negative affirmation at first glance and because of it’s in your face nature, it could pose insensitive to someone with a family member dealing with or having lost someone to cancer. However, the talk really brought more insight to this campaign. They asked half of the audience to stand up and said that by 2020, it is predicted that 1 in 2 of us will get cancer. The figure was quite striking and by separating the audience like that, it really hit home. They said they needed a message that really got attention and drove awareness with people that this isn’t something we should be turning a blind eye to, that we need to be more proactive rather than reactive with fighting it. Some of the team working on this campaign had actually fought cancer themselves, so they were actually in a strong position to speak up about it, after having gone through it personally. They spoke about how the campaign had been really effective and brought in a lot more calls and awareness, therefore it hit the objective of the brief very well and brought the desired outcome.
I also loved their LIDL Christmas advert, which was touching and well created with the story based around families and coming together to be there for eachother.
View it below:
Another striking image they created for an article on the history of the events at Chernobyl, using charred Russian Dolls was also very effective. I think they have the ability to deliver a message effectively in a way that touches on your heart strings and makes you think about the issue.
So that sums up my Offset 2017 highlights – there were many more talented designers speaking but I could only pick a few! Now to put that inspiration to good use…
Here’s to a creatively satisfying year ahead for us all with many successes, achievements and of course fun!
This is a great time to reset goals and start over on any plans or ideas that you may have put to the side. Thanks for all your continued support in 2016, it’s been great working on such a great mix of projects with lovely people. Wishing you all luck in reaching your goals this year 🙂
