Icons of Italian Design… In Dublin!

Peroni Nastro Azzurro and Alessi, are collaborating on a unique exhibition called, Icons of Italian Design. The exhibition is a celebration of modern Italian design through out the last 50 years and is organised in conjunction with the Institute of Designers in Ireland.

At the exhibition, Peroni Nastro Azzurro launched the Peroni Design Awards and is calling on design professionals, students, and design-enthusiasts over the age of 25 to enter the Peroni Design Awards. This national competition challenging designers to create an original item to enhance the enjoyment of Peroni. The competition will be judged by Matteo Alessi, Development Director for Alessi, in conjunction with key members of the Institute of Designers in Ireland and Design Week with the winner receiving a €2,000 cash prize.

The ten finalists will have their designs exhibited as part of Design Week in November 2013.

For more information on the awards contact peronidesign@drury.ie or www.facebook.com/lecool.dublin.

The exhibition is on at the Gallery of Photography, Temple Bar, Dublin, and runs from 9th – 18th May.

We All Love Offset

Bren introducing Offset 2013

The first week in April saw the opening of the 2013 Offset creative festival in Dublin’s Bord Gaís Energy Theatre.

Over 25 wold class creatives gave presentations this year, many home grown Irish talent like Niamh Sharkey, Ciarán ÓGaora, Eoghan Kidney and Gavin O’Sullivan took to the stage along side international peers such as Ben Bos, Bob Gill, Iain Tait and Vaughn Oliver.

The highlights are too many to count! Personally, Bob Gill’s stand up routine where he picked hecklers out of the crowed was one. The irreverence and humor of The Stone Twins and Vaughn Oliver was certainly something which raised an eyebrow or two. The beautifully elegant work of Louise Fili, photography from Oliviero Toscani  and the motion graphics from Eoghan Kidney were also personal highlights.

It’s at events like this you wish you had a bi-location ability as there is so much to see.

You can see some of last year’s talks over on Vimeo

See: iloveoffset.com

Louise Fili

Stone Twins

Bob Gill and Steven Heller

Niamh Sharkey

Ben Bos

Unestablished

Unestablished is a group show organised by final year Visual Communications students in DIT Mountjoy Square with the support of the DIT Foundation.

The exhibition will also include the launch of a publications of     various creative work from across Europe, including illustration, graphic design, photography, film and digital media. .

Pop along and show your support.

Location: The Basement, 27 South William Street, Dublin 2. Open 12.00pm-7.00pm until 27th April.

See: https://www.facebook.com/events/126264914228688/

G6 Series wins at IDI Awards

John Walsh (President, Institute of Designers in Ireland) Con Kennedy and Barry Sheehan (G6 Series)

The G6 Series has received a Highly Commended award from the Institute of Designers in Ireland for Design Eduction. The G6 Series is a programme of lectures, seminars, workshops and discussions about design. Run as a Design Week event, the G6 Series takes place in Room G6, DIT Mountjoy Square.

Following on from the positive feedback received from the “How I became a designer” talk at Design Week 2010, Barry Sheehan and I decided to expand on themes that came up for discussion as part of the questions and answers and develop these into a series of talks. Guest speakers discuss various topics relating to the practical side of working as a professional designer.

“This seems to be a great idea, bringing together the design professionals and the students to discuss issues common to both. The talks and themes are varied, light hearted and also serious. As a learning experience the G6 Series have provided an innovative approach to broadening opportunities for design students to interact with design professions” Jury’s Comments.

The G6 Series is run voluntary and guest speakers donate their time free of charge for the purpose of engaging with design students and helping broaden their knowledge of the various disciplines within the design sector. Without the ongoing commitment from our guest, the G6 Series would not be possible and we extend our thanks to all who have helped us out.

www.g6series.com

Design Week

Institute of Designers in Ireland Awards 2012

Con Kennedy MIDI, Chairman IDI Awards Committee

The 14th annual Institute of Designers in Ireland Awards took place in Dublin’s the Sugar Club on 8th November. The event celebrated the best of Irish design from the past year and is also one of the highlights of DesignWeek 2012.

This year, my role as Awards Chairman was also extended to Host!

We also had a special guest with comedian and former graphic designer, Jarlath Regan entertaining the crowd with his witty and edgy observations in forms of his brilliant greeting cards available at www.jigser.com

An international jury was assembled to evaluate the entries from diverse disciplines as interior & exhibition design, tv/theatre/film design, visual communication design, digital media, design education, furniture, universal design, sustainable design and product design.

IDI Grand Prix Winner: John Walsh (President ID),
David Phelan (Designer, Mode Vision), Joanne Cassells (Creative Director, Bradley Brand), Con Kennedy (Chairman IDI Awards Committee)

The Institute of Designers in Ireland is the professional body representing the interests of Irish designers. Its function is to promote high standards of design, to foster professionalism and to emphasise designers’ responsibility to society, to the client and to each other.

Full List of Winners >>

Design Week >>

Jarlath Regan >>

Pass it on: Movember Exhibition

Artists, photographers, illustrators and designers from all over Europe and Ireland will unite under one roof on Thursday the 8th of November for ‘Pass It On’, a Movember poster exhibition.

Taking place in the confines of the Fumbally Café in Dublin 8, the Movember exhibition is an initiative set up by Gianni Clifford with help from Dublin based artist Orlaith Ross who wanted to give the creative community a way to get involved in Movember and raise some awareness and funds for Action Prostate Cancer.

Pass It On – Con Kennedy

‘Pass It On’ is inspired by Movember & Sons, the sharing of information from generation to generation and the power of knowledge. Each of the 43 creatives have designed an A3 poster which you will be able to buy for just €10 with 100% of the proceeds going to Movember. The exhibition will run for the rest of the month, so if you can’t come on the night you’ll still be able to drop into The Fumbally and pick one up.

More>>>

52 Shades of Greed!

52 Shades of Greed is not your average deck of cards.

It’s way hotter than that.

Brought to you by a team of professional illustrators (more importantly my old pal and all round good-guy, Steve Simpson) and the Alt Banking group at Occupy Wall Street, 52 Shades of Greed is a deck of playing cards bearing illustrations of the people and financial institutions whose lust for money took the rest of us for a steamy car ride toward economic collapse. Ever seen Dick Fuld or the infamous Kathryn Wylde at work? These cards hold nothing back, depicting even those awkward financial instruments you can’t believe anyone invented.

Ever heard of a Collateralized Debt Obligation? Well…if you’ve never ended up on the side of town where these are bought and sold, this deck will provide a picture. An actual picture, drawn by a pro.

Ace Spades by Steve Simpson

Everyone will be talking about the 52 Shades of Greed because we all wanna know who screwed us and how they did it. And we want pictures.
The cards will direct the curious to a website to get the dirty details on each Shade of Greed.

We believe that educating people is the first step towards turning that steamy car ride around. We need to know what’s going on before we
can stop it.

The money we raise will pay for the production of the cards, including a stipend for each artist. Our plan is to print 1000 decks and distribute them at S17, the anniversary of the September 17th Day of Action. Everyone fueling the project with at least a $25 contribution will get a deck. We would like to raise enough to enable us to stage events related to art and financial education.

www.stevesimpson.com
www.52shadesofgreed.com
#52shadesofgreed

Punt Nua: Creative Economics

Recently I was contacted by Steven Ruane, who suggested the idea of organising an exhibition of work based on the concept of Punt Nua. We had the date of the 29th of May in mind as it was 2 days before the Referendum on the Fiscal Compact Treaty.

In less than 3 weeks we assembled 14 creatives and our guest speaker, Dr. Brian Lucey of Trinity College Dublin.

The participants included:
Con Kennedy
Damien Mulley
Eugene Langan
Fergus O’Neill
Kevin Devine
Maggie Moran & Denis Byrne
Marion Gilroy
Niall O’Loughlin
Siobhan Doyle
Stephen Lohan
Steve Simpson
Steven Ruane
Will St. Leger

Each creative was given an open brief, with the themes of political cronyism, corruption, collapse of the single European currency – but of course done in a satirical and humourous style.

The opening night was packed, with a Russian and and Italian News there to interview Brian!

Big thanks to everyone who participated, with special thanks to Maggie & Denis from DarcSpace and to Brian for the wonderfully witty speech.

The exhibition runs until 9th June and admission is free.

For more information see: http://www.darcspace.ie

#PuntNua featured on theJournal.ie

#PuntNua featured on LeCool Dublin

Punt Nua Commemorative Collection – Con Kennedy

Promissory Note – Con Kennedy

Been There, Seen That, Bought the Taoiseach – Con Kennedy

Namopoly: Crony Edition – Con Kennedy

#Mulleybucks – Damien Mulley & Tommie Kelly

Emergency Underpants – Fergus O’Neill

Namopoly – Kevin Devine

The Run of Ourselves – Maggie Moran & Denis Byrne

Waiting – Marion Gilroy

European Puppet – Niall O’Loughlin

Punt Portraits – Siobhan Doyle

Coalition – Stephen Lohan

Promise – Eugene Langan

£3 Pound Note – Will St. Leger

Invincible Browne – Steven Ruane

Señora Lavery – Steve Simpson

G6 Series identity featured in Design Trends for 2012

The G6 Series is a DesignWeek event run regularly in DIT Mountjoy Square. These free seminars, lectures and workshops are aimed at bridging the gap between practical industry and academic design education.

The identity was designed to represent collaboration between speakers and audience and the colour overlap, representative of developing something new. Part of the concept was that the colours used would change and evolve, wile the master identity remained a constant.

The identity for the G6 Series has been featured in the 2012 Logolounge design trends, highlighting the anaglyphic style of the identity as being one of note.

G6Series>>
Graphic Design USA>>
Logolounge 2012 Logo Trends>>

iPhone App interface design

Now available at Apple’s App Store