We will have a separate blog post between now and 10th May (Outstanding By Design) on Steve’s work with Mics Chilli, his food producer partner on the day.

In the meantime found this really nicely shot and post produced short interview with him. I have included some snippets from the interview underneath.

Illustrator and designer

Steves uncle was a cartoonist with Beano and Dandy and that is where it all kicked off for him.

He ended up doing technical Illustration in college and then TV animation in Manchester (Danger Mouse)

After 8 or 9 years he ended up back in Ireland and illustration. He hit the ground running with digital and is appreciative of the opportunities. But he does create everything with a pencil – drawn and redrawn. Then scanned into Photoshop.

Behind each piece of work is the client brief and the message they want to convey. It always has to be grounded in a brief – the client identifies the problem which they need solved. That problem solving is difficult. Recently Fade St menu cover very successful. The brief was a busy menu cover and he was given a lot of freedom in the execution.

For recent graduates

Starting off in illustration? Find your hook to stand out. First couple of years are a learning curve when you develop your drawing skills, your observation skills, your getting the message over skills.

With briefs they need to be inspiring yet practical.

He reckons that the balance of illustration and design is really important. Approach someone in a farmers market, understand their requirements and design for them.

More information and the full line up for Outstanding By Design here.

Keith

EVENT DETAILS

Timing
Date: Saturday 20th September 2014
Time: 6pm (sharp’ish) for 2 hours or thereabouts.

Venue: Highbank Orchard – http://www.highbankorchards.com. You will also be able to sample and buy from the wonderful range of Highbank Ciders – Proper, Medieval and Drivers.

Map showing entrance to Highbank – https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zFi7I69FJBfk.kkTe3qWzL_98

Link to buy tickets (only €8 to join us)

Who?

Brock Lewin, Badger And Dodo

He’s Australian. And have been chatting to him on and off pretty much since he started. Himself and Karl in Coffee Angel were at the first Foodcamp we ran with Savour Kilkenny and it was my first experience of coffee geeks. Haven’t fully recovered.

Jennifer Ryan, Ponaire

I met Jennifer in Clonmel in 2009 and discovered that her beans were fresh and tasty. Shortly after she moved to Limerick and I kinda lost track of her. This will be a catch up for me 🙂

Ferg Brown, Roasted Brown

Ferg makes lists. Like Best Coffee Shops in Dublin. He also roasts. Visit his place on Curved Street in Dublin when you are up there.

For anyone who knows about coffee the subtle mixture of art and science which brings about the perfect espresso or pour over is a thing of mystery. Each of our 3 roasters are masters of the roast. If you can’t tell who’s who in the photo above bring a copy on the night and make notes 😉

There will be tastings……

Link to buy tickets (only €8 to join us)

Keith

UPDATED 21st August to add Ferg and remove Petesy from 3FE who has moved on from being Colin’s roaster.

When I started to write Biabeag in November 2010 I quickly started to focus on a topic where my passion for great, real food and design converged – the brands and packaging which I saw every time I shopped.

So for about a year and a half I wrote regular blog posts, commissioned guest posts, reviewed books and gave talks on the topic of great artisan food packaging design.

This was and is important to me because so often I saw the obvious passion and talent of real food producers disappear when it came to their products on a shelf – lousy designs, obscure logos and confused messaging which gave no clues to the great food contained within.

I know at least part of why that happens because of my work in digital with clients – helping them through the process of website design. The lack of clarity around requirements, inability to pick relevant and good designers and no capability to manage the ongoing process all make the likely end result a source of disappointment.

Hence this day. Through 7 case studies combining food producers and designers we will find out what went right for each of them and get a sense of having a great brand/packaging in place helped increase sales and distribution.

I’m looking forward to it :-). And having Giles Calver,  the author of the book (What is Packaging Design) which  I reviewed in 2011 there will be an added bonus.

Click here for more information on the day and lineup.

Keith

EARLY DETAILS UPDATE – Real Bread Ireland  – a new network to encourage and support the baking of real bread will be launched on the evening.

Timing Date: Saturday 24th January 2015 Time: 6.30pm for 2 hours or thereabouts. Venue: Highbank Orchard – http://www.highbankorchards.com. You will also be able to sample and buy from the wonderful range of Highbank Ciders – Proper, Medieval and Drivers and sample and buy from their their new Orchard Spirit range.

Map showing entrance to Highbank – https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zFi7I69FJBfk.kkTe3qWzL_98 Link to buy tickets (only €8 to join us if you book in advance, €5 for Slow Food Ireland members). €10 on door

Whats happening on the night? Josephine Plettenburg (Speltbakers), Joe Fitzmaurice (RiotRye) and Declan Ryan (Arbutus Bakery) all return to Highbank to continue the night of discussion and munching of real bread. For the first hour we’ll be hearing about their stories since the first gathering in January 2014 and exploring topics such as aggressive sourdoughs and the provenance and growing methods of the flours which each of them use. The second hour will be special.

They will be joined on stage by a number of other bakers including Patrick Ryan from Firehouse (Dublin) and Kemal Scarpello SlowFoodCo (Donegal) to launch Real Bread Ireland.

This is a new network to support and encourage real bread baking (by both bakeries and consumers) and to make it easier to identify and find. The bakers will be looking to discuss and debate how the new network should operate.

Link to buy tickets (only €8 to join us). If you want to sign up for my email newsletter click here.

Keith