Hard Rain

"July, 1969. Mark Edwards, lost on the edge of the Sahara, is rescued by a Tuareg nomad, who takes him to his people, makes a fire and produces a cassette player. Bob Dylan sings “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”. As Dylan piles image upon image, the idea comes to Edwards of illustrating each line of the song. In the years that follow, he travels to over 150 countries to photograph our headlong collision with nature. Hard Rain is the result — an unforgettable collection of photographs illustrating Dylan’s prophetic lyric."

Mark Edwards' Hard Rain project is currently on display in the Botanic Gardens. It is an incredible collection of photographs. Bob Dylan described A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall as the song he had to write before the end of the world; the feverpitch height of Cold War, nuclear crisis, paranoia. The end was nigh and Dylan had these images in his head he had to share, so he crammed them all into this song. Beauty, horror, wonder, despair. The photographer's work captures and presents the truth in so many of these words.

Botanic Gardens, pt 2

A few more photos about the place this afternoon:

Botanic Gardens

Spent a few hours this afternoon in the Botanic Gardens.


Our next brief is to produce an graphic identity for 'Music in the Gardens', a free family concert featuring Dublin's St George's Brass Band. I had only been to the gardens once before; my class spent a whole day there as part of a drawing workshop when I was in my second year of college. We made drawings of the plants and the insides of the greenhouses: this wasn't much fun and the tutor didn't think much of my efforts. But I have to admit I enjoyed going back again today. Here are a few photos I took:




PS. The gardens are crawling with squirrels.

Office no. 2

Back on dry land for the last few days. Officeless tranmissions are now being broadcast from this table in the corner of a secret North Dublin kitchen.

How's your work?

SHIGOTO WA DOO DESU KA?
"The Japanese tend to tell you where they work, rather than what they do."

Upstarts, round one (pt 1)

Rumours have been confirmed that the first meeting of the Upstarts design group has taken place. No photographer was on hand to capture last night's gathering at the Image Now premises, although the following information has been gleaned from a combination of eyewitness accounts, Facebook profile updates, and secret police bugs cunningly concealed in the bottom of wine glasses distributed at the event. Read on.

Emmet has been building snowmen with Roger McGough and the letter S.


Austin shared his passion for hearing aids, button badges and Barcelona chairs.


Kate has been busily hoarding in Moore St and the land down under.

Upstarts, round one (pt 2)

A pie and bovril during the interval, and the second half was underway.

John told us about the Universe.


Sean copped out and showed everyone a notebook.


Kieren had a few things to say about Communist China, the Merchant of Venice, Limerick printmakers, Elvis, Lego, and a man who couldn’t see a lot.


And Aiden kept us all back late with tales of Mohammed Ali and Josef Muller-Brockmann.


The next brief was presented. Unfortunately the project seems destined to require a reccy on the Botanic Gardens in the howling wind and rain of this grim Irish summer. With that miserable prospect in mind, those present retired for a pint.

Some things I like... number three

Great Ideas was a beautiful series of books published by Penguin a few years ago. The individual covers were designed with ornate and evocative typography, embossed and debossed textures. Red and black were the only colours permitted for the first twenty books of the series, while a second twenty followed in cyan and black. The covers produced for the series were so wonderfully subtle and alluring.

Some things I like... number two

Stanley Donwood, for his bleak sense of humour and craft/handmade approach to his work. The artwork he produced for Thom Yorke’s The Eraser was fantastic, and there is a lot more of the hand-produced work and prints available on his Slowly Downward website. Here can also be found a collection of short story writing, as well as the link to subscribe to the ‘occasional’ Taligbro newsletter.

Some things I like... number one

Hard to know where to begin, so here are a few bits and pieces to get started with.



If I had to pick a design practice whose work I always want to look at again, it would be Why Not Associates. They create stunning work across a whole variety of disciplines. Their environmental collaborations alongside Gordon Young are particularly spectacular; magical examples of lifting typography, style and form from pages and screens and applying to our physical surroundings. I think it is very hard not to be inspired by the ingenuity and craftsmanship of these particular pieces.

The football-themed work the studio have put out over the years; club shop design for FC Barcelona and Hertha Berlin, various monographs, advertising and TV spots are also bang-on.

UCD Observer

Design and art direction of Volume XIII of the UCD student newspaper, which won awards for Editor of the Year (Stephen Carroll) and Design & Layout of the Year (myself) at the Student Media Awards, 2007.