Offset Dublin 2017

Offset Dublin 2017 – Highlights

Offset 2017 did not disappoint!

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.

View this clip to hear more about it here.

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…

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February 27, 2017 /

Phoenix Park Fun Run Design

Community Response Fun Run Campaign

Community Response approached Clare Lynch Creative to design posters and flyers to attract interest in their annual Fun Run. The Dublin-based charity provide help for people with substance abuse and this Fun Run helps raise awareness and funds for the charity.

The posters were designed to immediately have a feeling of energy and fun that the race itself is about. Using the lime green tone from their logo with a stampede of feet running haphazardly together across the poster, the message of the poster is clearly delivered.

The client loved the smiley face brought in to the race name lockup and went on to apply it to t-shirts, as seen below, along with other collateral to promote the run.

To sign up for the fun run on May 25th 2016 in Dublin’s Phoenix Park or read more about this charity, check out their website.

Have fun to all the runners!

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May 12, 2016 /

Offset Dublin 2016

Offset Dublin 2016 Highlights

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Each year, the Offset creative festival seems to be getting better. With more and more linked events created around it, it’s an inspiring festival that stands out on every creative’s calendar.

This year, among the range of great talent speaking, some highlights were:

Tado

This creative duo are very lovable and seem to work so well together. They are so inspired with their creative projects, they live eat and breathe the work when they are in the midst of each project. They create a massive selection of characters, all shapes and sizes, for children’s and adult projects including cartoons, branding and advertisements. You can’t help but fall in love with their enthusiastic fun personalities when presenting and all their playful creations. I like the interior graphics that they did for Sheffield Children’s Hospital, click below to see more of it…

Studio Dumbar

This Rotterdam-based branding company inspired the audience with some great projects. One that particularly stood out was the Alzheimer Netherland identity work. It was really interesting to see them show the process of a range of initial concepts that were discarded and their thought process with deciding this and then the chosen direction. The final identity is very cleverly created, whilst remaining very respectful to the Alzheimer community. It really demonstrated well the disease of alzheimers and how it can affect the memory and brain, with the sharpness and focus fading in and out, visually representing the condition accurately with great creative execution. View more about this campaign below…

Úna Burke

It’s inspiring to see a Irish fashion designer Úna Burke do so well at such a young age. The London-based designer’s work is intricate and detailed and her passion for what she does is immediately apparent. She has designed leather pieces for the Hunger Games, along with costume accessories for famous models and performers and worked with many of the greats. Her sculptural work is unique and highly creative, with a feeling of being from a previous era combined with a modern twist.

And finishing with the amazing Seb Lester

Seb Lester’s traditional hand-crafted calligraphy is a work of art, an art-form that is rare to see in modern times. It’s relaxing to watch the gentle swishes as his ink hits the paper and dances around from one point to another across the page to leave behind beautiful messages and artworks.

He talked about going back to his roots of what inspired him to follow a creative career path and advised any creatives in need of stimulation to do this. A quote he mentioned was ‘If you don’t ask, then you don’t get’ in relation to how he expressed interest in NASA in an interview online and he then got approached to design a logo for NASA space station which he would never have expected to become a reality! It’s a good motto to have when hesitating in anything in connection to following your dreams. His talk received a standing ovation at the end – a great roundup to 2016′ Offset event.

View a sample of Seb’s work and a video of him in action below…

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April 13, 2016 /

Vehicle Wrap Competition Winner

Clare Lynch Creative is grateful to be announced as the lucky winner of a vehicle wrap (car or van) by DMS Print, a print and vinyl wrapping company, based in Clane, Co. Kildare.

Customer’s names were then placed in a hat to decide who to award this free vehicle wrap to, along with the graphic design. The lucky winner was an existing client called Rubberstamp.io, an Irish company who provide an online software service for an easy-to-use Purchase Order Management System. They were delighted to have this great opportunity to have their vehicle branded with strong, unique graphics to help build their brand recognition and grow their customer base.

Take a look at the results in the photos below and check out DMS Print’s website and Facebook page to view more of the vehicles which they have expertly wrapped using mesh vinyl.