I put this up a few months back on drawger but had to immediately take it down because I realized it hadn't gone to print yet, so I'm putting it back up. It was an interesting project, and I recently got a copy of it in the mail, beautifully produced by Carton Levert.
Creativity is the engine of the modern economy. I like the way this sounds, and it happened to be the theme I was given.
Here are the cover and selected interiors for a recent project commissioned by the country of Ireland's Western Development Commission. Economists there had completed a study focusing on the creative industries and their economic impact within the seven western states of Ireland.
These western states make up what is sort of the common US view of Ireland; rural, rainy, farms and sheep, steep cliffs overlooking crashing waves, etc. The study aims to point out that areas that develop strong arts economies tend to encourage more tourism and other positive economic developments. Go arts!
Libby Carton of Carton LeVert Design in Rathmullan assigned these for a brochure and p.o.p. stuff for the survey's release. Luckily, she encouraged me to try and be as abstract as the client could stand. This proved to cause more back and forth than is ideal, but in the end it all worked out.
I developed the idea of the eyes becoming gears from their brief, which essentially summed up the survey's concept as "the creative engine". The client needed me to somehow incorporate regional imagery that was specific to western Ireland, but Libby wanted me to keep it as ambiguous and abstract as possible, so it was a bit of a juggle.
Once they agreed upon my gears concept, their main request before I developed the other six interior pieces was that the gears and eyes somehow are used thematically throughout.
I decided first that the compositions could all share an emphasis on the left hand, or "west", side of the field. The survey also had identified twelve different creative industries, so I used these divisions to help focus the imagery in the different pieces.
I attempted to be more subtle about doing things like using horses, which Ireland is known for, and avoiding cliches like celtic knots, leprechauns and pints of Guinness! The client had a bit of a problem in that the West of Ireland should have work horses, not race horses...luckily, they let up on that change.
This one originally had a lower case g instead of the ampersand, but they had me switch it because there's a famous hotel in Eastern Ireland called "g hotel" that used the exact same g!
This one originally had double doors opening in the floor plan at the bottom, but the client thought it looked like the McDonald's golden arches! For some reason they also had a problem with the pincushion.
This one was a battle to keep the rock wall, a common feature in Western ireland and a visual which I really liked. This image was "chosen" by American Illustration.
It was a bit odd to group TV, Radio and crafts together, but that's what the study had done.
I really enjoyed working with Libby, I can tell her design will be tops based on her art direction and willingness to go to battle for me on when it was called for.
