Design Lecturing

I was honoured to visit the design students at BIFE this week to provide insights & tips and share my experiences in the design industry to aspiring design students.

I have been a guest lecture with the college for a number of years now and it’s always inspiring to meet the students and hear what their concerns and challenges are from studying graphic design to beginning their design careers.

I have always received very positive feedback from the design students and lecturer, noting that my visit is encouraging and inspiring. It’s rewarding to feel that I can give back by offering encouragement now that I am further along in my career path, as we all have to start somewhere – and hearing positive tips towards your chosen career path can make the route there seem possible and attainable.

October 2, 2019 /

100 Archive Selection 2018

I was delighted to make the final 100 Archive Selection for 2018 with the project ‘A Guide to Getting Lost’. Each year, the 100 Archive selects the best 100 design projects in Ireland that year and archives it as a record of what design in Ireland was like at that moment in time.

The 100 Archive Selection showcases the breadth of graphic and communication design in Ireland: designers working in all contexts creating a range of outputs in all shapes and sizes. It highlights the impact of design on life, culture, commerce and society in Ireland and demonstrates the extent of Irish design’s diversity, maturity and quality.

The launch event, which announced the top 100 design projects for 2018, was held on May 21st, 2019 at the lovely 1WML building within the Windmill Quarter in Dublin’s city centre. It was a great night, jam-packed with Irish designers eager to find out the final selection.

The selected entry can be viewed here.

June 1, 2019 /

International Design Award Winner 2019

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.

See more on the IDA Awards website or on my website.

Proud IDA Award Winner!
IDA Awards 2019
Pacific Design Centre, West Hollywood
Winner times two!
Silver Screen Theatre
Drinks Reception

April 30, 2019 /

Offset Dublin 2019

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
Edel Rodriguez’s work

April 8, 2019 /

Esri ArcGIS for Schools Program Launch

Esri ArcGIS for Schools Program Launch

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.

See more about the software capabilities here.

November 6, 2018 /

Frēsh 18 Award Winner – Packaging Design

Frēsh 18 Carbon Award Winner

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.

August 8, 2018 /

IDA Design Awards Winner – Brand Identity

International Design Awards 2017 Winner

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.

July 29, 2018 /

MARA Cultural Centre

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.

July 9, 2018 /

DesignWest Creative Growth Program

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.

July 9, 2018 /

Halftone Exhibition

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.

November 9, 2017 /

St Stephens Green Art Exhibition

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.

September 29, 2017 /

Entrepreneur Collaboration Programme

Entrepreneur Exchange Overseas Programme

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.