Sandra Suy

I recently stumbled upon the work of Barcelona-based fashion illustrator Sandra Suy over on Australian blog Limeshot. Suy's work instantly won me over, with her ability to mix intricate drawing (she's clearly a very skilled draftsperson) with blocky printed elements and other textured details. And triangles. I'm a sucker for brightly-coloured triangles. Check out her range of editorial and personal work over on sandrasuy.com.

Storytelling

Last night saw the opening of Storytelling: a joint exhibition by costume and prop designers Harmless Creatures and illustrator and fashion designer Kitty Moss in two locations in Dublin. Obviously I couldn't make it, but Kitty and the Creatures were kind enough to send me some images and a film so I didn't miss out entirely :)

OFFSET2012, Part 2

(Making Marks panel discussion in OFFSET second room)

This article was first published in Architecture Ireland #262; read OFFSET2012 Part 1 here.

From Friday 9 to Sunday 11 March Ireland’s premier creative festival OFFSET returned for the third time to the newly-renamed Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. Over 25 designers, illustrators, animators, artists and more from Ireland and all over the world presented their work and shared insights into their practices to attendees twice in excess of the last edition (my guess is there must have been about 1500 people there). Over the course of 3 days in 2 rooms from 10 in the morning to 7 in the evening we the audience were exposed to top-quality work from many disciplines and saw the fruits of ambition, determination and a whole lot of labour. And now to condense all of that creative inspiration into 800 words or less... here goes...

Ilustrarte 2012 at Museu da Electricidade

(Image by Adelino Oliveira, via Wikimedia Commons)

On the banks of Lisbon's Tagus River, just a few minutes walk from where I live is Museu da Electricidade - the Electricity Museum. Originally a thermoelectric power station, Museu da Electricidade houses a permanent exhibition on electricity along with an ever-changing programme of exhibitions exploring contemporary art, design and architecture. A building whose first phase was completed in 1908, Museu da Electricidade is a beautiful example of industrial architecture, and its permanent exhibition consists primarily of the very equipment used to power Lisbon city and the surrounding region until 1972.

OFFSET2012, Part 1

(Image courtesy of OFFSET)

It's been a full ten days since OFFSET2012 ended. And it took most of this time for me to process what I saw and heard over the course of what really has become Ireland's premier creative festival. My first task was to try to condense 24 or so presentations, discussions and interviews over 3 days in 2 rooms in Bord Gáis Energy Theatre into a relatively coherent 800-word review for Architecture Ireland. That, which will be posted mid-April and entitled 'OFFSET2012, Part 2', was a difficult task, and while I think I just about managed coherent, keeping to 800-words was Not Easy. So much so that here's some further outpouring of thoughts and questions and excited reactions to the whole thing:

Get More Than You Give

The beautiful photo above, taken in St. Patrick's Park in Dublin, was devised by abgc and seanandyvette to raise awareness about the Irish Blood Transfusion Service and World Donor Day, which is tomorrow (Tuesday 13 June). I gave blood today. It might seem a little scary, but if you can at all I completely recommend you donate. Blood is needed in huge quantities all over the country every week and your donation could save someone's life, so any squeamishness you might experience will be completely overshadowed by the warm fuzzy feeling you'll have after your visit to the clinic. Like the IBTS say, you get more than you give.

Pop-Up Shop

Recently kicked off and running until mid-July, the RHA is now home not only to galleries, art books and coffee, but also to a series of pop-up design shops. Currently residing there is the Irish Design Shop's pop-up shop, and among other products, they're debuting work by Irish furniture designer Adrian Coen and prints by Yellowhammer. Adrian's "Hedgehooks" are a series of bespoke coat hooks made from various native Irish hardwoods sourced in Co. Galway, with a variety of finishes (or unfinishes) applied to them. Yellowhammer (or Alan Nagle, as he's known to his parents) has done a series of brightly coloured, crisp digital prints of Irish birds. They're fab, just look.

The shops will continue to pop-up every couple of weeks until mid-July. Take a look at the RHA website to see who's in the line-up.

Drawing Fashion

Images via Forever Making Lists and Private

Also showing in the Design Museum right now is Drawing Fashion, an exhibition charting the development of fashion illustration over the last century or so. It's a well-designed show with a great selection of beautiful illustrations from 1920s Vogue covers by LePape (above left), 60s and 70s illustrations by Antonio (above right is for Karl Lagerfeld) through to contemporary representations of fashion by Mats Gustafson (below), Francois Berthoud (bottom) and others. You can't help but notice how fashion illustration is a medium that can express a mood or atmosphere as adeptly as fashion photography. In fact, in the way that photography can realistically represent colour, fabric, form and so on, illustration is liberated; and judging by what's on display in the Design Museum, can elevate itself to an art form of its own, almost independent of the fashion it attempts to describe.

To Arlene

When not exhibiting at Generation at the National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, eating biscuits and drinking tea, Arlene Caffrey is flying the flag for the Togher, Co.Louth graphic design scene. In fact, Arlene might be the Togher graphic design scene in its entirety... A recent graduate of DIT's BA in Visual Communication, it's her collection of bespoke beer mats that caught I Like Local*s eye.

le cool dublin

le cool is a weekly email keeping you up-to-date on the best events, gigs, exhibitions and funtimes to be found in Dublin each week, with a tasty new cover each time it lands in your inbox (this week comes from photographer Richard Gilligan).