How Dublin Works: Elisa Capitanio

Elisa Capitanio is Head of Design at social media intelligence agency Storyful. She also runs her own independent abstract art business.

Here’s her experience of working in Dublin:

A master of both digital design and abstract art

Elisa Capitanio came to Ireland more than a decade ago completely by chance. Living in Italy, she longed for a change of pace, so she left her home in 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 played a big part in inspiring her colourful abstract art. Elisa chose Dublin for its fast market and inspiring tech community.

Of working in Dublin’s tech industry, Elisa says: “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] that help each other a lot.”

Leading in tech during the week

Elisa works as Head of Design at Storyful. She leads a team of talented designers, who work on internal and client-facing applications that allow analysts and journalists to understand online content better.

Her 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 called Kinzen. News Corp acquired Storyful back in 2013 and, since then, the company has become more international and diverse.

While the company is staying true to its Irish roots with its Dublin headquarters, it has outposts in New York, Los Angeles and Sydney too.

Elisa lives close to the countryside in North County Dublin and commutes to her office on Baggot Street by train. (Storyful’s offices aren’t based in the Dublin Docklands, like most of the city’s tech companies.) The commute can take a while, but she uses this time wisely.

During her journey, Elisa 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. This inspires her and gives her a yearning to create.

The art part of her life

On the weekend, Elisa paints – a lot! She uses natural sponges to create unique colour gradients that resemble the sky – which is her favourite thing about Ireland. Elisa believes the sky is much closer here than in 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.

As well as following Elisa Capitanio on social, you can also visit her website. Here she sells her work, shares free resources, runs classes and posts about upcoming exhibitions.

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.

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