“People think [design is] this veneer – that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
My work is an ongoing conversation between personal creative exploration and professional practice. The goal is to achieve a healthy balance between design that works strategically and design that creatively pushes at boundaries – whether those boundaries be personal, aesthetic, about the message or about the choice of medium. I derive energy and a sense of accomplishment from capturing the essence of a briefs' requirements, while engaging with the viewer in a meaningful, provocative and aesthetically pleasing way.
Crafts Council of Ireland - Strategic Plan
The brief for this project was to produce a typographic ‘tome’ but also required the inclusion of strong imagery which was to create impact without distraction. This design challenge was addressed through the use of dramatic fold out pages which held full bleed imagery and this element also functioned as section dividers. I also aimed to communicate the tactility of the crafts through the inclusion of the embossed basket on the front cover and by printing onto uncoated stock. Typographic devices were used as chapter indicators and typographic emphasis was further exploited in the strong use of ‘pull out’ text throughout.
When I work I follow a pattern that I have evolved and refined over the years. It involves ‘setting of the trajectory’ for the project at the outset , whereby I define the parameters of the brief, establishing clear objectives for myself before launching into the exploratory process of concept and visual development. Subject research and identifying keywords to helps to enhance my understanding of the communication challenge and expand my thinking beyond it. My own memories and experiences are a rich source of inspiration, along with referring to my influences (and the pages of a good thesaurus). There is a strong element of collecting and selecting in how I work – I collect, collate, curate, create – the gathering together of visual elements before really getting into the task of creating the visual entity itself. The process leads me to formulating a colour palette, investigating font choices and suitable imagery and exploring tactile finishing processes (embossing / cutting / paper stock / varnishing etc). I review, refine, examine, seek opinion, sleep on it, show the client, review again until I reach a point where I am satisfied the solution communicates in a revealing way, while engaging the viewer emotionally and intellectually.
Claremorris Open Exhibition - (COE)
Collateral for open submission art exhibition for which I have designed for the past 12 years. Examples shown here are designs for the exhibition catalogue. In many instances the artists will be exhibiting many works, but only one is to be featured in the catalogue – in the majority of cases I am in the fortunate position to curate which works appear in the catalogue, which is something I enjoy enormously. These designs demonstrate the recurring theme of tactility in my work. Tactility that hopefully engages the viewer and adds another layer of communication and intrigue to the designed piece.
“Words have meaning and typography has feeling. When you put them together it’s spectacular” Paula Scher
Visually my work is underpinned by formal typography, the use of rich colour, tactility and, when possible, abstracted / stimulating imagery. I aim to create a dialogue between the client, myself and the viewer, that by necessity can only be completed by the viewers own interpretation, ensuring a fluidity of communication. My work has really always involved attempts to imbue its own voice alongside that of the clients/tutors intended message. For me , the modernist idea that designers are passive passive conveyors of meaning, with no opinions of their own, is no longer valid.
I am inspired by designers who are committed to self expression within their work, and I have maintained many of the same creative influences over the years: Jonathon Barnbrook (subjectivity in graphic design, type designer); Tomato (embracing the message, contemporary mediums); Irma Boom (scale and integrity of her work, colour, personal voice); Bruce Mau (the range and scope of this work and conviction to ‘designer as author’); the writings of Rick Poyner (thought provoking, current).
Jon Barnbrook: Saatchi Gallery: The Saatchi Decade
Exhaustive survey of the Saatchi collection, quickly became one of the best selling art books of the year.
I have added to this list and it has evolved in time to include influences where the focus is often more aesthetic: Oded Ezer (tactile, playful typography):
Marian Bantjes (organic nature of her visuals that combine with inherent structure and organisation);
The questions that concern me in my work are not simply those of graphic design but issues of ambient information and meaning, questions of sense and message, when people see my work I am hopeful that they engage with it, question it, relate to it, remember it.
Below are some samples of my work, these 'shows' is made up of various projects over a number of years which I hope illustrate my ethos and the conceptual and visual approaches detailed in this statement:
Concept and visual development:
