Really excited for the upcoming launch event for a book I illustrated, ‘Hello Hinterland’. The event will take place at Hodges Figgis Waterstones on Dawson Street, Dublin 2 on 28th April 2022 from 6-8pm.
Hello Hinterland is a collection of illustrated stories and poetry celebrating the culture and heritage of Fingal county on the east coast of Ireland, written by Martin Holohan. It’s colourful illustrations make it appealing to children, but it is a book for adults also, we want it to be enjoyed by everyone.
It was a pleasure to work on our first book together, from start to finish to this launch event. Martin is a charismatic person and writer. He gave me the freedom to work on the illustrations without direction, inspired by his writing. I then put the book design layout together using my graphic design skills, and we worked to get a quality hard-back print. Hopefully everyone will enjoy reading the book as much as we enjoyed creating it.
It is available to be purchased at Hodges Figgis (Waterstones) bookstore on Dawson Street (Dublin 2) and on their online store, Tales 4 Tadpoles bookstore on Drury Street (Dublin 2) and will be rolling out to a range of other bookstores in Dublin and Ireland in the coming months. It can also be ordered online from the book publisher Choice Publishing.
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…
I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to visit Mix Some Noise 2016 on a recent trip to Singapore.
Noise Singapore is an initiative of the National Arts Council to make noise about the young creative talent in Singapore, using many different platforms throughout the city to showcase the level of creativity. It’s aim is to support, inspire and encourage local young creatives in developing their relationship with the arts.
Have a look at some of the inspiring international art on display:
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:
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…
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…
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.
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…
Offsketch is an Illustration Event held in connection with Offset and Illustrators Ireland:
A gathering of illustrators including myself joined up to sketch around various locations across Dublin city centre, led by well-known illustrators Steve Simpson and Steve Doogan. It was an enjoyable drawing day (despite some rain here and there!) and it was great to visit some new hidden-away places in Dublin to sketch.
The exhibition of work was held in Ogilvy Dublin. It was interesting and inspiring to see the range of different styles of drawing or subject point by each illustrator displayed in the exhibition, some samples can be viewed above.
A great build-up towards Offset 2016.
If you enjoy sketching, another good event to check out in Dublin is Melissa Doran’s drawing in the Botanic Gardens events. It’s a relaxing way to draw and connect with other illustrators amidst the colourful flowers and trees in the lovely gardens and greenhouses of the Botanics in Glasnevin. Find out more here.
It was great to see Tales for Tadpoles stall at the Dublin Flea market in Newmarket this month.
They have a great selection of classic treats for children from books, framed prints, notebooks, cushions, stationery and bookmarks. They feature classic illustrations and stories such as Le Petit Prince, The Princess and the Pea, Alice in Wonderland and many more of our childhood favourites.
Here are a few pieces purchased yesterday:
They have an online store and can be found at various craft markets around Dublin. Clare Lynch Creative is proud to have worked with Tales for Tadpoles to design their company logo.
Looking forward to see their first store premises opening later in the year!
One4All ran a competition where they asked Irish designers to design a gift card for one of their ranges such as ‘Congratulations’, ‘Weddings and ‘Engagement’ or ‘New Baby’.
Clare Lynch Creative was pleased to be chosen as one of the winning entries. The chosen theme with was ‘New Baby’ and the gift card will be available to buy in stores from January 2014.
This gift card makes reference to something very Irish, which is of course – the rain – but in a fun way! The baby is being sheltered and taken care of in the cosy little nook under the umbrella and what surrounds him/her is a big celebration of colour and love, which is of course what a baby brings to the world. Also, the colourful assortment represent the huge and varied range which can be purchased with a One4All gift card, these colours used are the One4All brand colours. The design is generic in relation to gender so the gift card could be purchased for a girl or a boy. The card is cute, fun and joyful – all things a new baby brings in to the life of people around them.
Check out Clare Lynch Creative’s entry, along with a little video clip about the competition below:
[/slideshow]
