How Dublin Works: Elisa Capitanio

Elisa Capitanio is a UX Designer at social media intelligence agency Storyful, and also runs her own independent abstract art business.

She came to Ireland nine years ago completely by chance. Living in Italy, she longed for a change of pace, so she left her home of Bergamo and moved to London. Dublin came calling with an opportunity for Elisa to try her hand at being a web designer, so she packed her bags for a second time and moved country again. Since then, Ireland has become her permanent home and has inspired her art.

She chose Dublin for its fast market and inspiring tech community.

Of working in Dublin’s tech industry, Elisa said:

“I love how people are always open to talk about what they do. Something that definitely helped me a lot in the beginning when I didn’t know anybody is that there are loads of different cultures, and people [in Dublin] help each other a lot.”

Elisa works as a Lead Product Designer in Storyful. She leads a team of 4 talented designers, who work on designing internal and client-facing applications that allow analysts and journalists to understand online content better. The team recently released a proprietary design system which supports other internal projects and the design of reports and documentation for clients. Storyful was initially founded by former Prime Time journalist Mark Little (who now runs another successful tech startup, Kinzen, with Áine Kerr). News Corp acquired it in 2013, and since then the company has become more international and diverse. While it’s staying true to its Irish roots by being headquartered in Dublin, it has outposts in New York, London and Sydney.

Elisa lives in the countryside and commutes to her office on Baggot Street by train from North County Dublin every day. During this time, she works on her art business, answering emails, writing newsletters and uploading social media content. She also takes time each day to watch the sunrise as she travels, as it inspires her and gives her a buzz to create.

On the weekend she paints – a lot! She uses natural sponges to create her unique colour gradients that resemble the sky, which is her favourite thing about Ireland. Elisa believes it’s much closer than any other city she has been to. She paints mostly with blue shades, taking time for each colour to settle on the canvas, embracing the sponges and their forced repetitive movements.

Elisa believes that creativity is the force that makes you wonder, and painting makes her come alive!

Elisa is very active on Instagram where she posts daily updates about her process, new paintings, promotions and everything else she’s working on. Along with following her on social, you can also learn more by visiting her website, where she sells her work and posts updates about art shows she’ll be exhibiting at.

Laurence is a writer, cyclist and gardener. He’s always finding new things to like about Dublin, the city where’s he’s spent most of his life.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...

How Dublin Works: The Guinness Enterprise Centre

The Guinness Enterprise Centre, on Taylor’s Lane in the heart of Dublin’s Liberties, is managed by Dublin Business Innovation Centre and has been named the no.1 university associated business incubation centre in the world. In the first of two articles about the GEC, Dublin.ie talks to Eamonn Sayers, the centre’s manager since 2011. Dublin.ie: I’m an entrepreneur. I’ve got an idea. What can the GEC do for me here? Eamonn Sayers: The first step here is that we’ll try and put you in front of an entrepreneur who’s in the same industry. We’ll say have a chat with this person, see what they’re thinking. If you’ve identified your target market, again we’ll say we know someone here who’s in the same market and they’ll have a coffee with you too. Dublin.ie: Then what happens? Eamonn Sayers: Our role here is to help your company grow and scale. We help to make it become better and we help to make you a better entrepreneur. We create an environment and a community and a sense of belonging that makes entrepreneurs very comfortable, makes them enjoy the fact that this is their office, this is their workplace, so that both the entrepreneur and their teams are in the best place to grow their businesses.

Read More

How Dublin Works: Chloé Roux, Airbnb

“You’re always fine-tuning so it’s always challenging; you’re always looking for improvements, no matter what they are, small ones or bigger ones” The Job: Airbnb: the online community marketplace that has transformed the way we book our holiday accommodation. We Irish have taken to the notion of renting out our houses, apartments and spare rooms to visiting folk particularly well, with the number of Dublin hosts growing at somewhat furious rate. Who she is: Chloé Roux, a project manager with Airbnb in Dublin. Originally from Lebanon, she did her MBA in Milan an

Read More

How Dublin Works: Digital Docklands

Dublin’s docks met the same sorry fate in the 1970s as those elsewhere around the world, the arrival of containers revolutionising shipping and decimating dockland employment. Work that had sustained inner-city communities for generations suddenly evaporated. The Docklands became empty, desolate wastelands until the first regeneration project came in the shape of Charles Haughey’s Irish Financial Services Centre in the late 80s. The IFSC was developed on the north side of the Liffey behind Connolly train station. While banks and other financial services moved into the area, it had little impact at first on the citizens of Dublin. And at night there was a tumbleweed feel to th

Read More