Original prints I’ve illustrated or designed.

IDENTITY DESIGN

Based in Dundalk, Ireland, Elk Studios are one of Ireland’s leading animation companies specialising in creating both 2D and 3D shows for young audiences. Founded by a team of industry veterans, Elk produce work for broadcasters such as the BBC and RTE.

In collaboration with illustrators Aisling Conroy and Andrew Hamilton von Metzradt the Elk iconography was crafted and developed. The core identity, consisting of the Elk head and brand wordmark, capture the spirit of modern Ireland by employing a playful and contemporary twist on traditional Celtic iconography.

This identity also reflects the flavour of the studios output and delivered on the core requirement of the initial design brief which was to create an identity that is both playful and professional.

Ident animations were concepted and created by Elk animators Gemma McGivern and Claire McLoughlin.

DESIGN

Working with the DAA to visually communicate their sustainability drive, I designed these papercut style creatives which were later animated by Barbara Masson using After Effects in studio. The campaign is running consistently across all digital screens at Dublin Airport and was ater translated into a guidebook for print.

Brand design for Rocket MXD. Marketing strategists that build consumer-inspired future growth strategies for C-suite businesses. The client wanted to emphasise trajectory, pace and a sense of injection into their identity.

As a Dubs fan, it was amazing to get to work on this brief for Ballygowan. My concept was to have the people and players represented as equally important to each other. Where is the spiritual home of Dublin gaelic games other than Croke Park? Inside the houses and on the streets of typical Dublin suburbs. I wanted to replicate the big game tunnel run-out, but this time the players would be running with their biggest fans flanking them, from typical Dublin suburbs.

Retouching was done by Featherwax in England, “B is for” concept was Adrian Fitzsimons (Havas) and photography was by Christopher Lindhorst.

I was responsible for concept, art direction, directing the shoot, players and fans, print production, typography and final artwork.

LEAD DESIGNER

I was the lead designer for Sports publishers Walton Media, who published Golf Digest, Golfing Magazine and The PGA Yearbook.

I was chief designer for the Solheim Cup when it was hosted at Killeen Castle in Ireland in 2011.

I worked with the European Tour during numerous Irish Opens, and really wanted to push what was normally expected from an official programme design. The results were a huge success, selling out completely on all three years and also resulting in a personal letter from (Former Chief Executive of the European Tour) George O'Grady CBE commending ‘outstanding’ design work.

During my time at Walton Media I designed over 100 print magazines, programmes and yearbooks – as well as over 60 monthly digital magazines.

Brand identity for Pathfinder, an online resource for young people with access to information regarding housing, education, contraception, justice, LGBTG rights and more. Pathfinder is a subsidiary of Spunout Ireland.

BRANDING / IDENTITY / ART DIRECTION

Branding and identity for new take away in Temple bar, Dublin. The client wanted something that was fun, playful and “not too serious”. I developed the character of the Mac Daddy as a naively drawn, charming hero icon, surrounded by a world of fellow characters (mac and cheese, cheese monster etc.) Using my own handwriting and taking inspiration from artists like David Shrigley, and visual references from Travis Scotts ‘Cactus Jacks’ record label as well as some American food trucks the look and feel came to life. First reactions from the client were “shock” when it was first presented but they later called back to say that they “could not stop looking at it!” Happily, they went with their gut and decided to roll it out. It appeared all over social to amazing reaction in 2021 and got plenty of associated PR.

DESIGN

I love good typography and I took part in the global 36 Days of Type Challenge in 2018. The goal is to work on a different letter / numerical each evening and post it to social that night. Although it was sometimes hard to work for 36 days straight (after work!) each evening, it was well worth the experience and I was a featured designer twice that year. Some examples here of some of the work featured.

https://www.36daysoftype.com/

TYPOGRAPHY, ART DIRECTION, RETOUCHING

This was the Nationwide out-of-home and digital campaign for 7up during Christmas 2018. Working with Peter O'Dwyer at Havas, we concept the execution together. I was responsible for all typography, art direction and retouching on final creatives, as well as directing the photo shoot with photographer Liam Murphy.

DESIGN / ART DIRECTION

Orecco are ‘World leaders in bio-analytics. Science-driven solutions to optimize player performance’ - a highly specialised organisation that are at the cutting edge of sports science.

I was asked to design and print their flagship brochure - which later fed into the look and feel of their website (web examples here are from UX designer Pablo Maronez).

I’m not a photographer, but do love photography. Some selects here I shot using my small Fuji X100T camera.

IDENTITY REFRESH

We were asked by Heineken Ireland to rebrand Murphy’s Irish Stout. The design ask was to bring Murphy’s into a more contemporary space, whilst maintaining the core elements of the brand (crest, wordmark). It was important that the rebrand should feel like an ‘evolution not a revolution’ and that the design and art direction reflected a ‘progression rather than a complete overhaul’. I worked as designer with Gary Boylan (CD Havas Dublin) and Peter O’Dwyer (ECD Havas Dublin) to develop the new identity and packaging.

ART DIRECTION, CONCEPT, DESIGN.

Final suite of digital creatives for start up app Wunderbook. An online portal to book classes and experiences from flower arranging to baking to cross fit and martial arts.

DESIGN & ART DIRECTION

I was tasked with the design for Hennessy’s role out of their “Modern Classic” Hennessy & Ginger campaign in 2018. The client wished to use the shape of the classic Cognac glass shape as an asset in the creative.

Taking this as a starting point, I experimented with some different iterations, finally landing on a technique that used the shape of the glass as a mask. I then further developed this mask into a layered visual - which houses the iconic Hennessy bottle. The final visual incorporates signature H&G colours (burgandy and warm yellow).

The campaign featured heavily in the on trade as well as on social and digital.

DESIGN

Printed pitch document for the National Dairy Council of Ireland. A quick turnaround, with a positive outcome, this was designed and printed in two days.

ART DIRECTION & DESIGN

For Hennessy’s 2018 “Grape to Glass” campaign. Client brief was to accentuate the use of grapes in the Hennessy distillation process as many people were unaware that Cognac was made from grapes. I used the vine form the bottle label, worked it into a multi-layered matt black design and included a neck label on every bottle that had the four stages of the distillation process.

A lot of the time with design challenges, I find that it’s best to work with what you have in front of you (a bottle, a label) and use that restriction to create something else entirely.

DESIGN

Brochure and media pack revamp for the student hub campus.

www.campus.ie

BRAND IDENTITY, PACKAGING DESIGN, CAN DESIGN, TAP DESIGN, OOH DESIGN

I worked with Heineken for over a year to develop the look and feel for their flagship new stout Island’s Edge. Their brief was to create an identity and brand story that visually represented where ‘city meets sea’ in a very progressive, disruptive way.

The use of bold colours (blue, orange) were early suggestions as category disrupting colours that would emphasise refreshment (blue) and boldness (orange). We incorporated both of these colours as well as introducing large areas of white space to emphasise a more refreshing stout, completely separate from the rest of the category - a visual space normally dominated by black or very dark colours.

Various selections from both social and print of some Hennessy designs.

Brand identity refresh for the software accountancy company Big Red Cloud.

ART DIRECTION, TYPOGRAPHY & DESIGN

Art direction and design for Club Zero’s hugely successful 2018 outdoor campaign. Everything shot and designed in house. The campaign was so successful Club decided to re-issue the creative for summer 2019.