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A (very) brief history/

[2010]

Award: ISTD Society of International Typography 2010, membership

Graduated: DIT Visual Communications (BA)

[2011]

Intern: Oxygen

Intern: Pylon

Freelance: Focus Print Production

Designer: Motion Storm Pictures @ the Design Exchange

[2012]

First Exhibition: The Wreck Collective @ Oli's Cafe

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Interview with 'this is greenhorn'/

[Link]

We catch up with the first graduate featured on our site, Olly Blake and discuss his work.

What got you interested in design initially? Did you always know that you wanted to be a designer?

I drew from an early age, which was encouraged greatly by my mother. At the age of 9, I went to a comic book festival in a small village, middle of Ireland. There I got a drawing lesson from Stan Lee, which I will never forget. He gave a demonstration on how to draw anatomy and after I showed him my doodles, he said he liked them a lot. We went to that festival two years in a row and I saw many good artists drinking and celebrating life. I knew then that I wanted to draw as a profession. In school, myself and a group of friends put together a comic book. It contained other people’s poetry and illustrations. I illustrated the type and made a logo for our team, we called ourselves “Fireskull.” This was the first taste of editorial design for me and something I’m proud of. I’ve always liked illustrated type, I tried to copy the way the bands I listen to wrote there names for their album covers quite a lot before I went to college.

You studied in DIT. How did you find the course there? Did you choose DIT specifically over other colleges or was it just a case of that was the course you got into?

I applied for a few colleges. I knew that DIT would be a good choice because the success rate for professions, such as photography, Illustration and design was high. I was going to do animation if I didn’t get into design. In fact, I still have a passion for motion design. If I get the chance to learn some animation again I would be very interested. Studying design has helped me develop a unique style and taste for other things. Now I love book design, editorial design and Motion design. I really appreciate the feel of a well produced piece of design work.

What was the main thing that came out of the course feeling you had learned?

I understand that being an attentive learner helps a lot and organization is key. Knowing how to organize documents and files; documenting everything and knowing each stage of the process. Creativity is a state of mind for me and I know the kind of environment that I work best in. The people who I learned from were the people in my course and they have inspired me the most in design. I am very grateful to the lecturers of DIT Visual Communications.

Your work is quite illustrative, is this your main passion?

I believe that each piece of design that I create should tell a story as it has a narrative and 99% of the time I rely on my drawing skills to feed that narrative. In other words my design process will involve me sketching out the final design concept in the development stage. Being illustrative is important to me and I can draw a design out by hand and work away from the computer, which I prefer. Drawing gives me foresight on how the final concept will look. I love Illustration and I think that talented illustrators working freelance generally don’t get as much exposure as they deserve.

Any new designers out there at the moment you particularly admire?

Well I can think of a few people whom I met during my college years that I know are going to make a big impression in Irish design. I admire other Illustrators but I try not to be influenced by them too much. I really love the work of Pylon, a Canadian based design firm, whom I had an internship with in Canada. And I will never forget the wise advice that I got from Illustrator, Kevin McSherry.