As a child in primary school, art was always the one thing I was interested in – my number one subject.

If you had a project that you had to hand in, mine were always illustrated –  wherever I could I was always adding a visual element. My sister is a graphic designer. She’s older than me, so she was my first influence and the person that I was like: wow, I want to do that. Because I’d see her coming home with really cool projects and from then I knew.

I’m from Kildare. I grew up in Ballymore Eustace. Our house was outside of the village, so it was very much the countryside. I studied in Limerick: I went to Limerick School of Art and Design. When I graduated from college, I worked in Limerick city for two and a half years. And I had my own freelance clients as well, so I had a full-time job and freelance clients. And then moved up to Dublin. I worked for an agency for nine years in Dublin.

I set up Associate in 2009. I was ready to move things a bit further in terms of my career. I interviewed for other jobs, but I decided that it was actually best if I just did it myself.

I wanted to be a bit more client-facing and to work with clients from the very beginning of a project right up until the very end. I offer a unique service, whereby it’s just myself – the client has a dedicated person from the very beginning to the end of the project. And it works out quite well. You can build up excellent relationships with your clients.

Design should never be just a designer coming up with what they think is right – it’s always going to be a combination of the client’s knowledge, the designer’s knowledge. And then sometimes you might need to delve into what the customer experience should be and what they would expect. Each project is unique in that way, where you have a kind of a combination of different things – that you’ll all arrive at the same point that’s the right approach for that particular project.

Capel Street’s great: it’s got a good bit of a buzz going on and lots of activity.

I go on holidays, but I’m always bringing the laptop with me. I have to be contactable. Certain times of the year would be a good time to go when my clients would be on holidays as well. It kind of works out. You figure out that kind of routine. But in terms of the average person working for a company, you can book your holidays and off you go and someone else will kind of look after stuff until you get back. I don’t have that.

I specialise in design for print. That’s what my passion would be. I work with government bodies, and I work with local authorities, I work with private companies like solicitors and people setting up food projects. So it’s a really broad range, it kind of goes across everything.

The buzz of city life is
good for a graphic designer

Associate’s offices are on Capel Street. I’ve lived and worked in Dublin for a long time. I was living in the IFSC, right in the centre, and then I moved out to Blackrock, then Sandyford. Now I live in Kildare – reversing back into country living. I drive to the Red Cow, and then I get the Luas to the city.

I was always Dublin city centre-based for work. A lot of my clients are from Dublin. And I think having an office there is handy. Because clients can pop into me, it’s nice and central;

it’s easy enough to get to. And I would visit my clients as well, quite a lot. I’ll go to their offices. You’re hopping on a Luas and going down to the IFSC to pop into a client, so it’s handy, it’s easy.

Capel Street’s great: it’s got a good bit of a buzz going on and lots of activity. You’ve a lot of really nice cafés and restaurants. There are a lot of graphic designers on Capel Street. To be in a city centre is good for seeing what’s happening – trends. And, you know, to kind of be inspired as well. The buzz of city life is good for a graphic designer.

associate.ie

Ciara Cantwell was talking to Karl Whitney