23 Questions!

Some of the Artisan staff LOVE an Irish accent so we were thrilled when the delightfully talented Julie M came knocking on our door. Take a moment to familiarise yourself with one of our newer international talents.

What sparked your passion for design?
CD covers, running my own batik card company in school, trips to galleries and museums in London and Dublin, cutting up old magazines and making new pictures out of them, my uncle’s architecture, postcards and flyers I’d pick up around town and other cities.
 
How creative were you as a youngster?
I was always making things out of cardboard boxes and toilet roll inserts when I was younger. Mary Fitzgerald’s Make and Do program on telly had a lot to do with it. If there was something to be made on the back of a Kelloggs cereal box, I did it. I painted, loved making clay pots and plaster moulds and trying and failing to make origami sculptures and things out of papier mache. Growing up in the Irish countryside meant that you had to be creative with your surroundings and invent things to do – a really good beginning as a creative thinker.
 
Do you come from a creative family?
I come from a family of painters and musicians, writers and amazing cooks. My mum and her two sisters and dad’s mum have paintings up and around my family home. My dad’s a great piano player, though he’s too shy to admit it. My older sister is a very good creative writer and my younger sister could be a chef if she really wanted to. So I guess that would be a yes.
 
Were they supportive of your desire to be a designer?
Yes, they were very supportive and helpful. My parents and a particular aunt and uncle were the ones buying me paints, origami sets, beads and allowing me to do art courses from a very young age. So it was a natural progression that I would end up doing something of a creative nature as a profession.

What sort of education and training have you had?
In 2000, I completed a year course in fine art. It involved completing several modules such as design, painting, ceramics, sculpture, drawing, photography and digital to get the NCVA Level 2 certificate. As well as developing a solid portfolio in that time, it was a great basis for my move to third level visual education. I then Graphic Design in Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dublin under the tuition of some great designers. The three year course involved a strongly typographic led design ethic, while teaching us layout, type rendering, creative thinking, exhibition design, photography, screen printing and motion graphics, as well as design history and cultural studies. My design education continued with my first studio job and does so with every new project.
 
Who did you want to work for when you first entered the industry?
There were some great design studios in Dublin that I was aware of while I was in college such as Creative Inc, Design Factory and Detail. I was also intrigued by the work of a Dutch studio called Thonik who had given a presentation to us when I was in third year. I would have been very happy to work for any of the good studios when I graduated. Happily I began my career in Design Factory having gotten the director of the studio to look at my portfolio at my graduate exhibition.
 
Tell us about your first project and what do you feel about it now?
That was a baptism of fire. I was fully able to come up with concepts for the new brand I was being briefed on, but had never dealt directly with a client and I was pretty much left on my own to manage the job. I took it onboard as all being part of what I had to do while working in a studio (with minor panics) – which it was. The job developed from the initial logotype and stationery designs into the designing of a brand architecture for the company’s product range along with a brochure which involved me commissioning and briefing a photographer in a different country. I had also never dealt with lithographic printing methods before so the whole job was a huge learning curve. I still stand over the design concept and the logotype, but I don’t think I’ll ever get a job or a client willing to pay to print 7 spot colours again!

What is your preferred software to work with and what has been the greatest
advancement in technology over the past 5 years? Adobe CS3. And the greatest advancement in technology… perhaps the iPhone and cold foiling. Oh, and Skype.
 
Is digital technology going to eliminate the need for print?
While digital technology is great, I don’t think it will ever eliminate the need for print! Paper is simply yummy and the tactility of a printed page is something that people will always love and need. You can’t have different paper weights or textures in an e-zine… and you can’t foil emboss a computer screen…  I don’t know about you, but I remember most of my fellow class mates loving the smell of fresh ink on the pages of new school books… or maybe that was just me.
 
Whose work do you really admire and why?
Thonik, for their continually playful experimentation with type and ideas. They’re also very active in the idea that design is a way of living and not just a day job. Dave Comiskey, is a great illustrator and painter with a very hard working and diligent approach to his work which I greatly admire. I also love the humour in his work. New Graphic, are a new studio producing gorgeous work at the moment. Reza Abedini,  I just love his posters and the use of Arabic lettering, simply beautiful.
 
Who has been the greatest person that you’ve ever had the pleasure of working with and
what have they taught you? I have to say, my first studio housed some very talented designers such as Susan Madden, Alan Fitzpatrick and Meave Queally, along with the studio director Conor Clarke who formulated a continuing part of my design education and were excellent colleagues during my years in Design Factory. I learned my trade and how to develop myself as an independent professional designer there. During that time I also came into contact and had conversations with other great designers such as Anton Beeke, Russell Mills, Thomas Widdershoven and Nikki Gonnissen (Thonik), Hans Bockting (UNA) and Jacques Koeweiden and Paul Postma (Koeweiden Postma). Exposure to such experience and talent only makes me more determined to produce good design.

How would you describe your work?
Clean, organised, typographic and playful.
 
What are your plans for the future?
I would eventually like to co-run a studio, design shop and café, collaborating with talented designers, illustrators and makers of lovely cakes. A girl can dream…
 
What sort of company would you like to work with next?
A company with a good sense of humour, a love for design and the world around them that takes on and creates inspiring projects.

What is your opinion of Australian design?
I’ve only been in Australia (Melbourne specifically) for a few months as yet and already I have been hugely impressed by the amount and variation in local talent – from graphic design and fashion to street art and architecture. There is a constant buzz of industry in this area with plenty of design markets, an emphasis on the handmade and crafted and plenty of publications and zines such as Frankie, Spook and Three Thousand keeping anyone who’s interested (which seems to be the general populace) in touch with all things design. Work that is being produced in studios seems to be young and fresh with a good sense of humour.
 
What is the best/worst thing about being a designer in Australia?
The best thing is being surrounded by such a creative and design aware population.
If I have to think of a worst thing, I suppose it is being so far away from other countries. I used to love being able to pop over to Berlin or Amsterdam to get a dose of another country’s visual culture and to check out their galleries.

In your opinion, what is the greatest challenge the Australian design industry has to face
in the near future? It’s not so much a challenge for the Australian design industry, rather one for the design industry as a whole, which is the conversion to using fully sustainable and environmentally friendly materials and methods in the design process, while maintaining established high standards of design and production.

What is your creative outlet outside of design?
I love going to gigs and discovering new music. I was very happy to find Melbourne has a thriving live music scene with lots of great bands to check out. I’m also partial to the odd bit of singing and have been in a band and did some recording with other musicians. I co-founded a label with a friend of mine who’s a fashion designer and we were part of a local Dublin design market where we sold handmade clothing and accessories. We’re hoping to do some more of that now we’re in Melbourne. I also love film, going to book and music shops, reading and visiting museums and galleries.
 
What is the best designed bar in Melbourne?
I don’t think I’m as yet qualified to answer this question, as I feel I need maybe another year of intensive research into the area to be able to objectively compose a definitive answer… I do however know the bars that I’ve really liked since getting here. They would be, in no particular order, The Rooftop Bar, Section 8, The Lucky Coq and Madame Brussels.
 
What are your top 5 websites at the moment?
www.ticketek.com
www.threethousand.com
www.ted.com
www.agda.com.au
www.getartisan.com.au

What CD are you currently listening to and is it any good?
I’m not listening to any one CD in particular, but the bands I’ve been listening to a lot lately are:
Why? (mostly their album Alopoecia)
Mogwai (most reoccurring album for me is Mr. Beast)
EF (Give me Beauty… or Give me Death!)
LCD Soundsystem
Lykke Li
and The Beastie Boys…
 
If I was a font, I’d be...?
Univers – great family, versatile and can work in most situations



Do you need an A-List Artisan like Julie in your studio? Would you like to know more? Contact Mathew NOW!