A big thank you to the B4B network for such a lovely feature about Clare Lynch Creative and our design work. It’s always good to get nice mentions like this as it helps other businesses who are interested in getting Brand Identity, Packaging and Design work to be aware of our services and encourages them to get in touch to enquire about their own projects. Thanks again B4B! You can read the article here…
Our latest brand to launch ‘Oat in the City’ Irish oatmeal drinks were featured on RTE radio on 3rd July 2021, where Kilbeggan-based farm owner Liam Lynam tells the story of how the character Eoin the Oat came to market, featured on his range of healthy and sustainable oat-milk drinks, and the story about how we came up with the the brand name. They are off to a successful start so far and are available to purchase in Aldi stores throughout Ireland, Donnybrook Fair stores in Malahide and Donnybrook in Dublin, Nolans in Clontarf and selected Super Valu’s.
Have a listen to the interview here and keep an eye out for Eoin the Oat, the brand character, on the front of the brand packaging on the range of Oat in the City oatmeal drinks:
I love to see my client’s do well, it’s a sign that their brand packaging has worked well and communicates the ethos and values of their product and brand to consumers.
Some successes of Flying Squirrel, a vegan plant-based cheese range are as follows:
Colm Farrell, the owner of Flying Squirrel is extremely passionate about what he does – creating delicious plant-based vegan cheese, free from any harm to animals and good to the environment. His passion, genuine nature and friendly, fun spirit translate across everything he does and I think this has helped his success. I love to see clients like Colm shine and reach their goals.
Flying Squirrel vegan cheese is currently stocked in a number of locations including Super Valu Deansgrange, @supervaluchurchtown #supervaluastonquay @thecarrotstail @its_a__trap_ and @thehappypear
After winning Gold in the Muse Awards 2020, their linked marketing company ‘MuseDotWorld’ requested an interview with me on my thoughts on design, my experiences in the design industry, working with clients on their brand packaging. You can read more about it here.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This book is great for teaching the complete background and history to graphic design. It’s a really thick, content-heavy book full of useful information and stories – it’s great to educate yourself on where the beginning of graphic design stems from. It’s important to understand this as it can help connect the past, present and future of design and form the decisions you make, adding more substance and context to your design work.
Again, this book teaches about the background and history in graphic design – the more you understand this, the better designer you can be, by playing on or remodernising styles in a new way or understanding the reasons as to why good design works.
I found this book along with Josef Müller-Brockmann’s book below brilliant in understanding grids and how they can create structure and bring design together through working with them. Sometimes you have to know the rules to break them! So when you can understand how using grids can enhance your design work, you can then afford to break them at times to add visual interest and create a unique point of interest.
Typography is an key element of graphic design. Learning about kerning, font choices, alignment, visual hierarchy and of course… dreaded widows, will really enhance your skills and knowledge and enable you to become a better designer.
Swiss design is known to be leading in design. As mentioned above, I loved learning about grids – it was a real eye-opener and offered so much more opportunities to create good design that worked well and looked visually appealing. Swiss designer Josef Müller-Brockmann is the master of grids and this book gives you a whole new system and way of working to add structure and order to your design work.
I love the title of this book. Irish designer Adrian O’Shaughnessy shares his tips and tricks on how to make it in the design world and many of the things that he has learned along the way. This is especially a good book if you want to become a freelancer or are thinking of setting up your own studio. It’s a good book to dip in and out of for helpful pointers.
This book is inspiring and makes you think. It is more advertising focussed and features clever ways of looking at things and selling products /services by portraying the story or idea in unique ways. It’s a large, easy to read book, which will leave you enthusiastic about creating your own ideas and how you can look at things differently.
Another book I love I added in as an extra. This isn’t strictly a graphic design book, although it is a creative book, centred around the design industry. I think you can find it inspiring no matter what you work at. It encourages the reader to think differently…bigger…to do the opposite…and to challenge what you see and think. It’s a small book which is inspiring, really easy to read and a great book to keep after you have first read it, to dip in and out of it, for fresh ideas or motivation when you need it.
The award-winning designer Paul Rand’s ‘Thoughts on Design‘ is another good book to read if you have got through this list! Happy reading and good luck bringing your design career ambitions to life or becoming a better designer if you are already working in the creative industry 🙂
Congrats to Tales for Tadpoles for their continued development!
Their latest store to officially open is on the popular location of Drury Street – ideally situated in Dublin 2, a key destination for Dublin city-centre shoppers. Once again, their store’s merchandise is displayed with great warmth and charm – the perfect way to house the lovely childhood stories and characters in their collection of classic children’s books, gifts and memorabilia.
No doubt it will be a busy store in the run up to the Christmas season!
Find out more about Tales for Tadpoles and their wide range of unique gifts here: www.talesfortadpoles.com
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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:
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.
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…
I love the packaging of this little L’Occitane gift I received recently and couldn’t help but add a post about it!
The designers of it are obviously very trend-aware as it falls close to Pantone’s Color of the Year in 2016 – which is Rose Quartz and Serenity. It’s not quite a match to serenity but still manages to convey the soft, tranquil tones of this year’s official Pantone colours of the year.
You can read more about it in this article:
http://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2016
It reminded me of an article I read on it on LinkedIn recently also, which you can read here.
