May Issue 1

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2017 May Issue 1

Legacy, a Coláiste Dhúlaigh

student publication that aims to bridge the many gaps between our student’s, course’s, the college and industry.

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ndustry is tough.! But like any complex eco system it also thrives on connections

and collaboration. The more visible you are and the more you can offer others the

Legacy’s three goals in life are this:

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o provide a platform where the work of students can be presented and

showcased to industry.

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ou can learn more about Legacy on the inside back cover or online at

the website below, but for now just enjoy

contents

LEGACY

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W

elcome to the first edition of

a selection of what this years graduates

o provide a platform upon which the

have to offer.

college can showcase the work it

does in preparing students for industry. inally, to focus more industry attention

35 About the Legacy Project

Hugh Shelley Legacy Designer/Editor 2017

on both the college and the students

graduating from it and entering industry.

better you will do, if you have something to give back.

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his publications aim is to encourage that habit of collaboration and

hopefully also begin a tradition of having a sense of identity with being “Dhúlaigh”

04 Andre Parra Graphic Design

06 Emer Anne Hayde Photography

08 Sarah Jane Kelly Alumni / Industry

11 Anthony Thompson BIM/Revit

13 Zoe Melia Photography

10 Callum Harrison Graphic Design

14 George Boyle IDI / Industry

32 Wiktoria Kowalska Journalism

26 Karen Rooney Graphic Design

33 Ariyana Ahmad Graphic Design / Illustration

28 Horticulture

23 Ciara Brown Journalism

34 Luke Ryan Photography

30 Vera Klute Artist / Industry

24 Hairdressing

Credits Concept Hugh Shelley Grá Design Grá[email protected] Callum Harrison [email protected]

Design/Editor/Content/All Cover Art Hugh Shelley Grá Design All video & audio interviews conducted by Hugh Shelley - Grá Design unless otherwise stated

16 Amy Goldsmith Photography

17 Dry Ice Theatre Company

20 Kathleen Chambers Graphic Design

Video Content Art Direction Hugh Shelley Grá Design Callum Harrison Published by Grá Design / Coláiste Dhúlaigh

Check out Legacy online at

www.legacy-project.000webhostapp.com where you can download this publication and also check out our video interviews.

Creativity by Design

All images & artwork is the creative property of the featured artist or of Hugh Shelley of Grá Design, unless otherwise stated, and as such is protected by Copywrite Law.

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Andre Parra Graphic Designer

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hen Legacy caught up with artist Andre Parra this January it was in a rare moment of calm when the peace of the festive break was still in the air, and while that peace wasn’t to last much longer he was only too happy to take the time out to give us his take on the Graphic Design life in Coláiste Dhúlaigh. So Andre, tell us a little about who you are. Well, my name is Andre Parra, I’m doing a graphic design course that I’m enjoying very much because it allows me to do different things. So, I like to be a graphic designer but I’d like to be an illustrator also, it is interesting and flexible for that.

I was an actor in Brazil and I’ve worked a lot, since age six. I moved on to Sao Paulo & graduated in dramatic arts and then decided to learn English because my dream was to go to Hollywood one day. I ended up in Ireland and stopped acting, I began to draw & paint and then graphic design grew from that. I’ve loved arts since I was a child, I love drawing, I love being in the industry, I love movies. That’s my passion, I love everything to do with the arts.

Do you think the college has helped you to develop as an artist? I think since I started here in the college it has helped me a lot, I can see the way I was at the start & the way I am now and I think my work speaks for itself, so yes, definitely.

So what’s graduate?

the

plan

after

you

After I graduate I want to continue what I’m doing but maybe extend it a little more, maybe bring in animation at some point, it’s different & new for me. I’m doing graphic design & illustration at the moment but I think animation is my next step, definitely.

What would you say is the most valuable things you gained while here?

If you could come back in five years, what would you say to someone starting out?

I believe that since I started, my skills have developed very much. The most valuable tool I have collected while at the college..? I think it was the self confidence I got into my work, I think that was the most important tool that I got while here.

If I could give some advice to anyone planning to study here it would be to be as involved & as committed as you can be because it will pay off, it’s paying off for me.

Give us a couple of words to describe the college. Committed, Supportive, and Welcoming. I think the college is very committed & supportive towards the students, they will let you do whatever it is you want to do, and it welcomes any kind of student. The Graphic Design course I’m doing is an exciting course, it’s a fun and a very mindset aware kind of course in that it allows you to be who you want to be.

Be as involved and as committed as you can be because it will pay off, it’s paying off for me.

Andre Parra is available for commissions and can be found online at andreparra.com and on most social media. Interview conducted by Hugh Shelley & Callum Harisson

Emer Ann Hayde

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You have to learn how to advertise yourself, sell yourself and be confidant enough to do whatever you want to do. But you have to be willing to work for it, you have to be hungry enough to chase the job. You have to want it.

Photographer

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orking in the industry is surely one of the best way’s to gain practical experience in your field, but what happens when you want to know the why behind the what. ?

Legacy got the chance to talk with photographer Emer Ann Hayde who is finding out why having a good grounding in the history of you’re craft is so important. My name is Emer Ann Hyde and I’m studying photography in Coláiste Dhúlaigh and at the moment I’m finding it really good, getting experience wise.

living. Although I have to say I really love doing weddings, I’m a bit of a surrealist though so left to my own devices I would be pushing the boundaries of colours and style.

I had been working in studios alright but I didn’t have the background knowledge, understanding the reasons behind why we do what we do, the science behind it. So this year is really filling in the gaps for me.

Does this course allow you to experiment like that.?

What are you enjoying most.? One of my favorite classes here is with Helen, one of the college’s designers, in the design class, learning about complementary colours. Things that your eye notices subconsciously, that maybe you don’t notice, it’s really fascinating. My passions.? Well I do a lot of work, perhaps some I’m not that as passionate about, to earn a

Well we don’t really use that kind of photography for the course but you learn about it which is good because you’re not just learning one style or one way of working.

Do you think your course if relevant to your industry.? I find the course is really beneficial if you want to become successful or actually get into the field afterwards, it’s giving you the practical stuff to be able to go out and do it on your own. It’s not

just about the art of photography, though you do learn about that, it’s focused on the end results, getting you work. That’s what it’s geared towards, even the end of year exhibition which everyone should really go see, (Shameless plug), is preparing you to work with other people as part of the exhibit, getting people to know about it, getting posters ready for it, stuff you will really need to know whether you want to go into the art side of things or open your own studio. You have to put yourself out there. The course here gives you confidence to do that kind of thing.

I find the course is really beneficial if you want to become successful or actually get into the field afterwards, it’s giving you the practical stuff to be able to go out and do it on your own.

What’s your dream job. Wow, I’d actually love to be traveling around, I’d love to work for the Documentary Channel or something similar, traveling around taking images of the natural world as it is. I would love to get into photojournalism, I find the concept really interesting, you’re not only trying to sell the photograph and hoping that everyone gets it. You have an article, you’re writing down and actually seeing and telling everyone what’s going on here. The photograph catches the attention, but the article is what makes the think afterwards.

What tools do you think you’ve gathered in your time at Coláiste Dhúlaigh.? Organisational skills and work flow. In my interview for the course I was asked what I wanted to get from it and my answer was focus,

I need to be able to focus and refine my own selection process. You could shoot all day but you need to know how to narrow it all down and get your work flow right, otherwise you could be left with millions of images. I have been refining my own process now, so it’s really good. With Helen’s class I now have my business cards, letterheads, business plan, a lot of stuff there and it’s all helping me to go forward and launch myself as a business. I’ve even started to make my own website with the skills she has given me. It’s brilliant.

How would you describe the course.? Fun - Energetic - Relaxed. There’s a nice vibe in here I have to say, the canteen is the belly of the whole place. Everyone loves that canteen, even the lecturers all mingle with the students there, you don’t dread coming in, and everyone’s really helpful. It’s all good.

For more information on Emer Ann Hayde you can check her out on Flickr.com/photos/emerannhayde or at [email protected] All Images copyright Emer Ann Hayde

Sarah Jane Kelly

How did the idea for Kiva come about. That was the brainchild of Andrew Kavanagh, the owner and founder of Kavaleer. He read an article a few years ago about a female Indian designer who was speaking about growing up in India. That idea stuck with him and he obviously wanted to base it in Ireland. It’s really relevant.

Industry Expert Animation

Kiva’s Dad and her Granny moved over from India and her Mum is Irish. This is mirrored by the voice actor who plays the role of Kiva; her dad is from Pakistan and her mum is from Carlow. Her mother was saying how great it was to be able to show this to the kids in her Educate Together School, showing that there are people with loads of different backgrounds in Ireland.

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ey Frame 2017 was held recently in the Coolock campus and if you didn’t take the opportunity to see some of the great speakers then you certainly missed out.

Legacy had a chat with Sarah Jane Kelly, past alumni and production manager with Kavaleer Productions as she told us about the industry.

What advice would you give to someone in their final year of animation. For instance, did you find it hard finding employment after you graduated.

If you get your film out of the way when you come to April or May you can start hitting the ground running. I know when I did my film in the college here I did it over the Easter holidays, so from May I was just going to extra courses run by the industry, mixing events, networking events. Just putting my face out there, emailing people. I met people in studios just for coffee, even though “we’ve no jobs” just to chat to them about how to get into the industry. That’s how I madfe connections that got me started in the industry. Just getting yourself out there a little bit.

What tools or skills did you collect while in Coláiste Dhúlaigh. So many tools, this is probably one of the best run courses because it teaches you a broad level of the skills needed in the animation industry. It gives you a little bit about every stage of the process. Speaking with people who have gone to other colleges, I feel maybe they’re specialising earlier and you’re in danger of perhaps pigeonholing yourself. Some might do , for example , just a lot of background design in first year, but here you have to do a little bit of everything. Doing group projects here is essential because that really mirrors the real world. You do a lot of projects on your own in some colleges but you never work alone once you get into the industry so I think the group projects are of huge benefit.

Andrew would have devised the show and developed the idea for about five years, a lot of shows would take about five years to get into production, getting funding for it is the big difficulty so studios normally around the world trying to sell it to distributors and broadcasting companies prior to full production of a Series.

Every February the Animation department produce this fantastic event to let you hear from and meet some of the people working in the industry and hear first hand about the challenges and opportunities available to those who are willing to go the distance.

Thats a really good question, I would say that the final year is just so busy, so from the start of the year just be organised with your film, don’t let that take over. For a lot of people, thats all they can do, which is understandable, you’re busy and you want to get your best marks.

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I was lucky that when opportunities fell in my lap I just grabbed them when they came.

On your Linked In profile it mentions you were an assistance for four months, an assistant for eight months and then a manager. That seems like a fairly fast progression. Yes it wouldn’t be the norm. When I started at Kavaleer our production didn’t have a Production Manager in place yet so I came in as an assistant to the producer. She had been a production manager for years so she kinda took me under her wing and trained me up, really fast tracked me. My previous experience of working in a bank and sports science, which would have been a lot of performance psychology and organising data that really stood to me as well. I was quite inexperienced in the animation world but experienced in finance and science so I think that helped me, but no, it wouldn’t be the norm. You would usually do a role for a whole production and then look to progress in the next production. I was really lucky and when opportunities arose to progress I grabbed them with both hands.

You mentioned that you studied sport science in Limerick which seems quite a difference from animation. Do you think it helped in any way? Yeah in a roundabout kinda way it really did, they were my two hobbies, sport & art. I pursued sport as a career and kept art as a hobby, where I should have done it the other way around perhaps. It didhelp though much more than I thought it would. In production you have data collection & attention to detail which in science is obviously really important. The biggest thing that I realised is that managing a team of successful sports people is very similar to managing a team of artists so studying performance psychology really helped me I think.

What would the primary day to day role of a production manager be in a studio environment. Day to day you’re overseeing all the different areas of production, while everyone is concentrating on their one area, you have to have your eye on the bigger picture making sure that work is pabetween departments so that every stage is being met. So it’s organisation, making sure deadlines are being hit, motivating people as well, sometimes people don’t feel like being creative. That’s where you have to try keep the train moving!

So with the scheduling being so tight, what happens if production goes over a bit on time.? Yeah that happens regularly, and I know this is my first production but everyone says it. It’s a tough area to determine, you can set out that an animator will do 40 seconds a week, and that might be over estimated, you know, the animator may be out sick or something. The only thing we can’t move is the deadline for delivery to the Broadcaster. So if something falls behind you’re sqeezing the next phase to get it back on track as the deadline has to be met. That’s kinda my main role as well, to make sure that that doesn’t happen, make sure that every stage doesn’t fall behind because it will fall on the animators as they are the final wheel in the cog. They need the most time and you have to try buy them as much time as you can. Maybe get the artists at the earlier stages of the production pipeline to finish quicker, ahead of schedule ideally, rather than fall behind.

What kind of advice would you give for animators putting together a resume. Well, it’s not that formal an industry so it’s just a quick “Hi”, a brief introduction of yourself, what area you’re keen to get into. Also, point out you are a good team player. Just show your enthusiasm I think, and watch the details. Showing you’ve prepared at every stage is important. A good cover letter is useful too.

This interview was conducted in collaboration with, and led by, Ciara Brown & Wiktoria Kowalska on the Journalism Department.

Doing group projects here is essential because that really mirrors the real world.

Sarah Jane Kelly can be contacted at sarahjanekelly.blogspot.ie Images: Sarah Jane Kelly/Kavaleer Journalism Contributors: [email protected] [email protected]

BIM & project management

Building Information Modelling (Revit) With Project Management

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egacy had the chance to talk to one of the students from the Springboard course initiative which gives people the opportunity to get traction in their professional field.

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Anthony Thompson

Practice, Practice, Practice.

Callum Harrison - callumharrison.myportfolio.com

twitter.com/Leo2096

facebook.com/callumharrisondesign

Tell us a little about yourself and what you’re doing. My name is Anthony Thompson, I’m doing studying BIM (Building Information Modeling), REVIT with Project management course and that lasts for one academic year. Before I started this course I was unemployed and spent a lot of time doing research on a number of issues such as health & safety. Learning is one of my passions, and biking, I have a lot of passions really but one of them is learning new things and finding the truth in the things around us. My course has helped me look at things from a different perspective & perhaps learn a lot more.

What’s next after your course.? Once I finish the course here I plan to get some experience with IFS, a Facilities Solutions company, which I am due to start soon. I’m confident that will go well & will get a position with them going forward. The directors of the company came from an architectural technician background like myself, we have that in common & they were impressed with the work I have shown them, so I’m on the right path.

Did you find the course here beneficial.? I think the course here has been good in that it has enabled me to make some good connections.

What advice would you give to anyone taking it? Practice, Practice, Practice, and learn as much as possible with regards to building information modeling and REVIT, and any other package that comes with it. Get as much information as they can, get the experience with Auto-desk.

Give us a couple of words to describe the college. Accommodating - Friendly - Fun

And the course.? Intensive, to say the least - Informative - Good. Very worth it, I’ve learned a lot.

Anthony Thompson can be contacted on [email protected]

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Zoe Melia Photographer

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o matter what your style, the photography course on the Coolock campus caters for all tastes and lets you explore your creativity to the fullest. We met with photographer Zoe Melia.

I love when we’re working on group projects, when everyone is connected to each other. You get to understand what everyone else is doing.

My name is Zoe Melia and I’m doing the level 6 Photography course. My step dad introduced me to photography years ago & I’ve loved it ever since.

What do you love to shoot.? I love to shoot landscapes but I’m starting to shoot a lot more portraits lately. Environmental portraits taking into account the landscape around people, buildings, flowers that kind of thing.

What do you love about your course.? I really like documentary photography, you get to get out & about, you’re not just studying history and that, you’re actually getting out, or you’re getting studio time. I also love when we’re working on group projects when everyone is connected to each other. You get to understand what everyone else is doing.

Are you doing.?

enjoying

what

you’re

I would like if there was more class time but you can book studio time to get your own work done. I love playing with different lighting & backgrounds, it’s great experience. Plus, it’s bigger than my studio at home so you’re able to try out & learn different techniques, so yeah, I am.

What kind of work do you want to do.? My dream job would be to maybe open my own studio & gallery space. I’ve seen one in Clontarf & it just looks amazing. The course is fun, energetic, and interesting too. I’ve learned so many thing’s already.

Zoe Melia can be contacted on [email protected]

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ind us t r y

Legacy was there and was able to take a few notes, here’s a little of what George had to say. My name is George, I am the founder of Fumbally Exchange which is a social enterprise group, and president of the IDI (Institute of Designers in Ireland) and I’m an architect. I’m here today to talk to you a little bit about social enterprise & what it’s like to start a business in the design environment. I’m sure all of you will want to move on to a career in the design & creative environment whether it be as an employee & PAYE worker, which I worked as for many many years, or as someone who forges their own path. So this question of who are that you get whenever you stand up to talk in front of a group of people, I keep saying “I’m not the same person who got up this morning & I won’t be the same when I go to bed later tonight.” It’s all a bit Alice in wonderland as a concept.

Fundamentally I’m an architect, I went to architecture school back in the 80’s, which seems a really long time ago. I got a job really quickly & climbed my way up the ladder becoming assistant director in one of the largest practices in Ireland. Shortly after having my 2nd kid they told us they were going out of business. My husband worked there too, we had tried to sell our apartment to buy a house, people who lived in our apartment also worked there. It was like the ultimate all eggs in one basket and all the eggs were broken. So I started my own practice which was a hell of a roller-coaster ride, and I had a feeling of complete & utter loneliness because I had always worked in a big room with loads of people. Most of the stuff I used to do was pretty big

Who you are is always in flux Identity is a matter of evolution and being creative & connected to that on a personal level is something not many people subscribe to. An awful lot of people think you are who you are and there’s all sorts of tests and horoscopes & matrices to tell you that you’re this kind or that kind of person. It’s all bullshit, basically who you are is always in flux & who you are is always in your power. It’s not very easy to explain that, I have this little mantra that says you can’t explain it to anyone on the outside, and you can’t understand it as someone on the outside looking in, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. So as I said, I’m the founder of Fumbally Exchange and there have been a lot of things written about me but mainly I have always had an affinity with the board game Dungeons & Dragons where you’re not good or bad but sort of neutral and you’re not orderly, you’re somewhat chaotic. So I pass in the middle of everything, I think that’s how I ended up who I am.

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Fumbally exchange came about in one of my quiet moments doing architecture, I asked the owner of the building I had designed if I could have a room there and he said I could have any room I wanted. I wanted a room for a lot of people who might be setting up or restructuring so he offered me the room for free. I didn’t want to take it for free because we’d all just sit around drinking coffee and bitching about how bad the world was. So we settled on a price and he said if I could get the space half full for a year he would let me run the project for 3 years. Within 3 weeks we were full. Fumbally Exchange is essentially a group, we go out and find work or we make work, and we try to make a difference.

who you are is always in your power.

scale & I didn’t want to move down in scale to doing house extensions like everyone else, I wanted to stay on the big jobs doing strategic vision & planning & using my imagination. That was the main thrust of my business. We were big award winners last year and we’re really enjoying where we are. The IDI is the representative body for all the creative people in Ireland so we’ve spent a lot of time this year writing a constitution, getting it incorporated and pulling it all together. It’s all really boring, getting your business registered and all that kind of stuff but believe me, those are the foundations on which everything evolves. Once you have that groundwork done it all becomes really easy after that.

One of the things I have learned along the way is that the attitude we were brought up with, that the more you put into life, and the more you head in one direction, the better things will get. But it seemed to me that this kind of thinking is what got us to where we are now in society, it has taken us to a kind of isolationism. So what I’ve discovered is that it’s the interconnectivity between things and people and between organisms is the magic where everything happens. This is something we have known for a very long time, that kind of fundamental root value, like tribalism or the extended family but it got corrupted a little when it got encapsulated into formal institutions like government and churches and armies. Since then it has become the powerhouse that runs the world which is the corporate trading or international banking and multinational community.

So we’re trying to break out of that and find ways at grassroots level to find the connection between people, creative process and human principles. It’s all a little lofty, sure, but that’s my kind of overarching aim.

This means that any money you get goes back into the business and that business is focused on some kind of objective. It’s not always being heroic or a messiah but it’s about fixing things that have been broken and that kind of stuff.

One of the first recent steps in this direction was when the Nintendo Wii came out. It was with a recognition that people didn’t want to sit in a garage playing a game, they wanted to connect, to get together, so this was the first play platform since the board game that actually brought people together in one room to do one recreational thing. Very clever.

This kind of thing is quite common across the world and through history. People who are at grassroots level tend to be the people who see what’s going on around them and invent solutions to problems that other people can’t fix so in that sense I think it’s social evolution that drives civilization.

The other thing about social impact is that really, all business should be like this, if conventional business were to be honest they are trying to mine the community for information about what they really want so they can make lots of money, and if it wants to hold it’s head up in society it would also be looking at ways of giving back by setting up a foundation and this foundation starts projects that invest in the community. Why do I think you should start a social enterprise.? It’s because life is too short not to do something that matters. All around you there are opportunities. Freedom is a state of mind, what you do with your future is up to you. You hold the pen that writes the story, you decide whether you stay in a cage or write your own journey.

At Fumbally Exchange we’ve tried to move away from that kind of tribalism that has pervaded society, that sense of us, because it’s suggestive of a sense of others, it suggests that there’s a kind of circle and you’re in it but others are not. It’s a bit like Lost. All through history there are these examples of people who band together at certain levels of society to do something chaotic but it’s right, it has a moral code or moral focus, and it’s disruptive and it makes people think, and it’s provocative. There’s a lot more people out there doing this other than me and I think that’s a marvelous thing. So I’ll talk a little bit about social enterprise. Business is a system and it has become kind of inflated, egotistical and in many ways corrupted. Social enterprise is something that works off impact instead of profit. All business has one goal, no matter how they talk about their values or moral system, the fact is there are only two types of business, those for profit and those not for profit. If you’re in business for profit then your responsibilities are to your stakeholders and make sure they make money. And basically I thought that sucks, so we went the not for profit route.

Life is too short not to do something that matters.

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his January, as part of the continuing series of “Meet the Industry” talks held by Coláiste Dhúlaigh, the founder of Fumbally Exchange and architect George Boyle dropped by to explain a little bit about what they do.

One reason to get involved in social enterprise is that it’s so easy to get disillusioned with everything that goes on in the world, cynicism is rife. For the millennial generation it’s about searching for meaning, it’s about thinking big and having epiphanies. The way a social enterprise works is that you start with a problem, a problem is something that you obviously can’t bear, you need to get involved and you need to fix it, and somehow you come up with a solution. But how do you capture this thing, make this impact and get people excited in and get them to invest in if there’s no big return in it for them. I always explain it like a cup of coffee and what that experience feels like. You’re not paying for the coffee in the cup, you’re paying for the smell in your favorite coffee shop, the sound of the beans being ground and the whole experience and the feeling you are left with.

Social enterprise is something that works off impact instead of profit. Fumbally Exchange (FEx) is a not-for-profit movement of creative and innovative professionals who share co-working spaces. Based in Dublin, they also currently have hubs in Balbriggan (North County Dublin) and Waterford city center – with more are on the way. They are a community of design and innovation focused small businesses, sole traders and start-ups whose aim is to cultivate an open, professional atmosphere for creative and regenerative growth.

George Boyle is the president of the Institute of Designers in Ireland 2016/17 www.idi-design.ie Image: Hugh Shelley [email protected]

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he last of our photographic articles puts the focus on Amy Goldsmith who’s unique eye catches the atmosphere in the everyday details that surround us all. Legacy met her in the studio to get her take on Dhúlaigh life. Are you enjoying it.?

My name is Amy Goldsmith and I’m currently on the photography course in Coláiste Dhúlaigh, I’ve been interested in photography for about 4 years now. I’m on level 6 right now but I’m hoping next year to move on to the level 8.

I am, I really enjoy my photography and at the moment am enjoying shooting all types of images, just learning everything I can, lately though I have begun to really enjoy shooting portraits so I may focus in a little more on that. The course here is really good, I’ve learned a lot more this year than I probably have before now. I’m working really hard, learning more about the studio especially, I really needed to learn more in that area & It’s been great to get the time in there.

What kind of images do you like to create.? I used to do a lot of still life but my focus this year as I said has moved more to portraits, so concentrating on lighting setups and playing with them.

What’s your dream job.? My dream job would be to travel with my photography, I’m not sure weather I want to work with magazines or whatever but I really want to travel.

Has your time here helped.? I think this course has definitely given me a better chance of making the next step into a higher level in college than I did before. I’ve learned a lot more here & my portfolio is of a much higher standard now because of it.

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Theatre

Amy Goldsmith

Tell us a little about yourself Amy.

t hea t r e & a lumni

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Dry Ice

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p ho p ho t otgora g ra p hy p hy

What has the course here given you to prepare you for business.?

ou could be forgiven for not recognising the name Fame, and the 80’s phenomenon that gave birth to a love of leg warmers and high drama, and while you might not find any leg warmers on the Kilbarack campus, you would find an equally passionate and energetic group of actors, directors, designers and producers in the form of the Dry Ice theatre company. March saw the opening night of a week long production of broken something or other, Legacy was given backstage access to talk to the cast and crew to see just whats involved in studying at the Northside’s Julliard. Tell us a little about yourselves.

One thing to take with me into business…?? I think setting up the exhibition, we also get to work in groups which is great. But in terms of the exhibition we had to design posters and stuff like that and that helped, you have to learn to get yourself out there and publicise your work & having to do that really helped me for preparing to move into business.

My name is Malvina and like a number of the guys I’m doing a number of roles in the production. I have always enjoyed acting, though if I had the choice I would love to be acting in the theatre rather than movies. Before I came here I performed in Poland at regular drama festivals. These were more regular social event but I’m still very proud of them.

Can you think of one or two words to describe the course?

Does your course give you everything you had hoped to get.

It’s very good for helping you narrow into what ever area you want to work in, digital photography or documentary, the classes are really good.

I’ve learned a lot more here & my portfolio is of a much higher standard now because of it.

At first I thought this course was going to be just performing which is what I wanted originally, but actually it turned out to be so much more. They show you behind stage & how everything works. We get to do stage managing & lighting. All the shows we do are produced by ourselves, we do lights, sound, set design everyone is doing something. We also get to interact with professionals who come in as well but we get to experience what theatre life is actually like.

Would you choose this course again.? I would choose this course again, after this course I have actually gotten interested in lighting & lighting design, but it’s more written work than you expect. We still have a lot of fun, we don’t sit in class all the time but we still have to write about what we’re doing.

Tell us about what you do Mathilde.

Amy Goldsmith can be contacted on [email protected]

My name is Mathilde and I’m directing one of the pieces & acting in 2 other pieces later this week. I get to do a lot of things, lighting, directing, producing, it’s lots of fun. This week in one role I’m playing a crazy 70 year old woman and in the other I play a prostitute. They’re great roles and lots of fun with make up etc, but they come one after the other so it’s important I don’t get my lines wrong.

Before I came here I did fashion & design in the Netherlands, I was lucky enough to be able to work at the Paris Fashion week which can be a lot of pressure. I do some costume design for film or theatre or whatever productions I can get really.

So you’ll be used to the pressure then.? Well I’m doing a lot here that I have no previous experience with, for instance I’m doing sound design and thats a lot of pressure but I’m learning a lot.

Communication too has been so important, you’re taught how to be a professional in a theatre environment.

Do you think your course has prepared you for moving in to industry..? Oh definitely, I had hoped to go straight to Trinity to study but having done this course now I’m so glad I came here first. We have covered all aspects of the industry and I know now how to work with other people and know what they’re doing. Communication too has been so important, you’re taught how to be a professional in a theatre environment. If I apply for Trinity now I think I’ll be very well prepared.

So if you could come back in 5 years, what advice would you offer someone looking to take this course.? Don’t treat the course as a way to get points or to put on your CV, get as much work experience as you can, even if you’ve never done it before just do it, get what you can. There are a load of opportunities out there just grab them.

Working with the students at this weeks shows are two industry professionals. Simon Burke on lighting and a Dhúlaigh Alumni, Fiona Keller on stage management. Legacy asked them about the importance of having industry links. I’m Fiona Keller, I studied Theatre in Coláiste Dhúlaigh a number of years ago but the course is so different now from when I was there. Simon Burke I’ve worked with Marie for a long time. I work for myself on about 3 or 4 gigs a year and for various companies. I work on a number of things, lighting, staging, that kind of thing.

Did the course then prepare you for industry Fiona. Yeah, kind of. I’m doing stage management now but there was no stage management on the course when I did it but it was good training for what is out there, and I think what the tutor Marie is doing with the students is definitely on the right track.

Have the changes in the course improved how the students are prepared for industry.? Sarah: Yeah definitely, Simon: I think it’s more a case of the course teaching the guys what’s expected of “them” by industry, rather than to expect what they will get out of it.

Fiona and I are working with a small number of the students who are interested in our side of the industry such as the sound & lighting for me and stage management and staging with Fiona.

So what kind of advice would you give to someone entering the industry.? Both: Don’t be an asshole, Learn how to interact with people in the industry correctly. It’s interesting, you get to work with a lot of people who might be a little strange or creative and you’re not working in a normal 9-5, you’re working 10-10 with a group of people who are trying to create something great. Just be a nice person, just be sound.

Isabelle Murphy, tell us what you’re up to this week. Well, I’m currently about to go on stage on a show that I had a very very small part in writing & directing so I’m really excited. I’ve directed a show last year, The Regina Monologues, which was great, it was an hour and a half long though so it was a bit tricky. This is the first one I’ve had a small part in writing. Before I came here I did my FETAC in Marino College, I’ve been here for 2 years now. I always had an interest in acting, my dad was an actor, and my sister is interested too. I played some parts in school, one of my first parts was to play the part of a gay man, which was really interesting and probably a little outside the normal parts for a 15 year old girl but it was fun.

One of the teachers then spoke to me about maybe thinking about giving acting some serious thought, so that was it for me. Before I came here I studied in Marino college which was a good college but in comparison to here it was a little one dimensional and narrow in what it focused on. The tutor was really good but was always busy because she was the only one, so when she had to head off to do something else I would say “Ok, let’s try this scene a little differently” so that was when I realised I wanted to get into directing rather than just acting. Sometimes you just have to take responsibility for what you’re doing, and take charge of yourself. In Coláiste Dhúlaigh you get to experience all aspects of the field from history and acting to lighting, sound, producing & directing. You get a much more comprehensive experience here, which is great because there can be a sort of hierarchy in theatre but getting a chance to see how much work goes into a production and seeing how hard other people work in different roles, you’re never going to get too big a head. It’s been great to experience the acting side but I’ve been able to try new things and see that my heart is now firmly set on directing.

One of my first parts was to play the part of a gay man, which was really interesting and probably a little outside the normal parts for a 15 year old girl, but it was fun. Do you think this course prepares you well for industry.? Yeah, definitely. I think it helps that the tutor has such a good connection with the industry, not only are you being prepared for how the industry works from the inside, you also have the opportunity of getting a call to work on some productions if a place opens up. So the industry link is crucial.

So if you could come back in 5 years time, what advice would you give to someone in your place now.?

We take a rather holistic approach to this course, the HND course has 3 different strands to it, there is a productions part to it, a performance strand and then a bit in the middle which is a bit of both which is what we do. My own background in the industry would be design & production so I would have very firm roots still in the industry and in film. We’re trying to promote more connections with the journalism & film courses and the theatre students. My thing is that they get a lot of industry style experience going into real theaters, seeing how actual performances work from the very beginning right to the end of the performance and bringing industry people like Fiona & Simon into the mix certainly helps. We try to give the guys a lot of different experiences, we’re doing a thing this year called the Medieval Fayre which will hopefully be held in the car park, this would be a very different style of theatre where they have to deal with possible weather issues, crowd management, and how to deal with the fact that there is nothing to contain sound, so how do you make the sound work for you.

Overseeing this merry band of players is course tutor Marie Tierney. Legacy asked her what the college is trying to achieve with this course.

We also do a small show in the Helix in November where a lot of them get exposed for the first time to a real theatre environment. That kind of exposure, and being exposed to people who are working in the industry is hugely important, there’s no substitute for it. I mean, you could spend your whole life in the classroom but 1 hour in a theatre environment could give you more. When we do things like this here in the Sean O’Cassey theatre, all the things we’ve taught them in class, suddenly they can see a context and understand how it fits and how the industry works.

Every year we get a number of people who get employment as a direct result of this festival so it’s quite important. We have students in the Gaiety & the Abbey and places like that. It’s not a huge industry but a lot of what they do here they can use, they have a lot of transferable skills. They can work in film or theatre or even event management. A lot of them find that they’re very good in a situation where they have to deal with people so in the hospitality industry they might find they are very good at talking in front of a large group of people.

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I’m hoping to get a package called a Nomad which is a program you place on a laptop so that you would pay for that and a good laptop but not have to spend 10 grand on a lighting board and that can be done cheaply enough.

You get out what you put in. A number of people on the course when asked to do something new would jump at the chance, they wouldn’t have a clue what they are doing but they are willing to learn so they pick up the new skills and experiences. So I’d say, even if you don’t know it, take every opportunity to gain experience. Just do it.

This is a pretty comprehensive course because they get to do everything, writing, acting, directing, sound, set design and lighting. So they get to see if they have a skill in a particular area.

Don’t be an Ass, Learn how to interact with people in the industry correctly.

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But getting them time in a theatre environment and using equipment is important, getting a chance to learn things like Qlab and such. We have a small theatre in Kilbarack and even places like the Sean O’Cassey which wouldn’t be very advanced, forces them to bring things in and be creative about how the solve problems with AV etc. Problem solving is a huge part of a production. It’s very hard to not interfere, it’s very hard, but I try to leave them at it when they say “I don’t know what to do..” but they go away and work it out themselves and at the very least when they see it being solved in context they understand that this is how it works.

How could the college help this program.? How else could the college help….?? Build us a theatre perhaps….?? Failing that though the college is very supportive of everything we try to do, perhaps if they could provide a few more hours in the week, it’s very hard to get everything done in the time we have but unfortunately there has to be a set amount of time given over to rehearsal period and production period before you walk out onto the stage. You can’t just click your fingers and it happens, so there’s not a lot you can do about that. We are looking at ways of incorporating classroom learning into a professional environment which means they’re getting more context.

You could spend your whole life in the classroom but 1 hour in a theatre environment could give you more.

What do you think could be done to improve their chances. Perhaps exposure to the newer technology, one of the things they’re doing in here, they’re working on a very advanced lighting board that a friend of mine has kindly lent us, there’s only about 3 of these in Ireland so they’re getting exposed to and learning that now.

The Dry Ice theatre group can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DryIceTheatre Images: Hugh Shelley [email protected]

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Kathleen Chambers

Designer

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his years crop of graphic designers is a particularly talented bunch with more than a few characters thrown in for good measure, but in design, its often the strength of character that forges the designers style. Legacy caught up with another of this years crop, Kathleen Chambers to talk about her plans. What did you do before this course Kathleen.? I did a bit of web design and I also did an internship with a EPIC (Empowering People In Care), a charity that works with young people in care, they were offering a course in web design, that was in about 2009.

Have you done a lot of charity work.? I have, I try to do as much as I can. I started doing graphic design for EPIC the year before I started college. They had their first conference and I designed their conference materials for them. So that was their conference pack’s, leaflets, posters and other images, digital infographics and advertisements. This was all before I started studying design formally, I was tired with where my career was going and decided to go do something I really wanted to do which was graphic design.

Did you do art in school.? When I was in school I had the choice of doing either music or art which was a tough choice. I tried so hard to get into the art course but they wouldn’t allow me to do both. I have such a passion for music but really wanted to follow my art dream too, but I had to choose. I was told I could do art but I would have to give up music. I couldn’t give up music.

Has the course concentrated your mind any.? Yeah, it has. Before I knew what I really liked I knew I loved layouts and advertising, but I didn’t realise how much I’d really come to love Typography, I wish we had focused a bit more on it, different styles and that, Helvetica, serif and sans serif fonts etc. But it would have been great of we could have looked at how other countries have their own font identities like Britain has its own very particular font, Ireland has it’s own. I’d like to explore for example how Spain expresses it’s identity through typography.

So 5 years on, if you got the chance to come back. What advice would you offer someone in your position now.? Don’t waste your time, have fun of course but put your head down and get the work done. But if there's something that’s in your heart, you might go to a lecturer and present your idea and they will make you consider it from all angles but you need to know in yourself that your going to say what it is you want to say so stay focused. Take all the feedback on board and do listen but stay focused, don’t get distracted by what you think others might think about your work.

What's next for you. I hope to go further to either DIT or NCAD, I obviously want to work with a graphic design company but I would also really like to keep working with charities. I think there are a lot of people out there who do really great work and have great ideas but don’t have a way to communicate it correctly. As a graphic designer we know the value of the look of something, It’s what entices & encourages people. So I’d love to find those people who are doing really good work and help them promote what they’re doing so they can get the funding they need to keep doing that work and do it on a larger scale. I don’t think this world can work without people helping each other, it’s not all about the money.

Stay focused, don’t get distracted by what you think others might think about your work.

You kept the love of it though. Yeah, in my spare time I used to draw a lot of stuff, I used to like drawing Disney images, but this didn’t help me in being an artist. So I hadn’t found my style yet, I hadn’t found my line,. With graphic design though you don’t have to have a line as such you can do so many things. You don’t have to be able to draw to be a graphic designer.

Kathleen Chambers can be contacted at kathleenchambersgraphics.wordpress.com & www.kathleenchambers.esy.es

IT’S OK TO ASK FOR HELP

Ciara Brown

Journalist

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Image Credit Kathleen Chambers Graphic Design

Maintaining your Mental Health

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aintaining your mental health is a very important part of everyone’s lives and it’s definitely a job that’s a lot harder for some people than others. Almost everyone has experienced the stress that comes with feeling overwhelmed at school or work. Everyone goes through this at some stage, and the majority of people deal with this by drawing into themselves and becoming more overwhelmed. But the solution for a lot of people is the exact opposite of that, it’s spending more time surrounded by friends and family. Going out with friends and family has a proven positive effect on your mental health. Friends boost your happiness, reduce your stress and improve your self-confidence. Adults with strong social support have a reduced risk of many significant health problems, including depression, high blood pressure and unhealthy body masses. So if you’re feeling too stressed with work, or something is really bothering you, drop everything and go take a breather with your friends or family. They’re helping you more than you realise. On the MayoClinic.org website, it states that friends increase your sense of belonging and purpose, and also boost your happiness and reduce your stress. According to the Facebook page Little Things, ‘’It’s the little things that you can do day to day to improve your well-being and protect your mental health.’’ People suffering from mental health problems often anticipate rejection from people, because of the stigma surrounding mental health, so they often avoid telling people how they’re feeling. So it is really important that you feel like you have friends and family that you feel like you can confide in.

One of the most important things about maintaining friendships is to get out from behind your TV or computer screen. Do not replace real world relationships with virtual interaction. It is extremely important to have supportive, loving people around you. On every single website with tips about managing your mental health, having supportive and loving relationships is always on the top of the list.

If you have trouble maintaining your mental and emotional health, and you feel like whatever you do isn’t working, you should definitely seek professional help. Whether it’s in your college, work or community center, you should seek advice from a trained, caring professional. Finding a counselor or therapist when you’re on a budget is not as hard as it sounds, and it can definitely do the world of good.

The topic of mental health problems among young people was discussed in the BBC article, School league tables ‘should show well-being’. According to the article, figures published last month by the Office for National Statistics, showed the highest number of suicides by 15 to 19 years olds since 1998. A series of reports have highlighted concerns about unhappiness, anxiety and depression among young people. A report from the Higher Education Policy Institute showed that universities were struggling to cope with the rising demand for mental health services.

Ciara Brown 2016

It’s a good sign that many people are trying to access mental health services within their universities, but because of this demand, some people may not be seen to, or some people might feel too shy to talk to a stranger about how they’re feeling. This is why it’s so important to have supportive relationships with your friends and family. They’re the counselor that you don’t have to pay for, they’re there for you whenever your need it, whether it’s to give you advice, or just to give you a hug.

Adults with strong social support have a reduced risk of many significant health problems, including depression, high blood pressure and unhealthy body masses.

Ciara Brown studies journalism in the Coolock campus and can be reached at [email protected]

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Thinking about your last exam then, do you think you were right to panic or do you think you were prepared enough for it. Jemma: I think I work better under pressure, I would be panicking the night before and rushing to prepare but after the exam I would be happy that I had panicked a little bit.

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estled within the Kilbarrack campus you will find a number of courses that have a history of providing solid, hands on, practical training and experience for a number of different crafts. One of these is the course on Hairdressing. Legacy got a chance to meet a number of students on the course and had a chat with four of them, Jemma O’Connor, Fatima El Baggar, Nadine Connors and Nicole Fitzpatrick, to hear how they’re getting on.

Tell us who you are guys and what you’re doing.

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’m Jemma O’Connor, and before starting this course I was studying business but I absolutely hated it. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I decided to come here and do the hairdressing course before just running into a salon and starting an apprenticeship just in case I didn’t like what I was doing. When I started it though I really loved it, so I’m hoping that when I finish up the course in June and get all my exams I can get an apprenticeship.

Are you happy you made the change.?

If you were to come back in 5 years time, what advice would you give to anyone planning to do this course. Nadine: Enjoy it. All: Yeah, you have to enjoy the course, it’s a really good course. Jemma: I’d definitely advise them to do the junior trade exam, me and Nicole do the junior trade and we think its such a great stepping stone for your apprenticeship. When you come out of college you have your certificate and you then have something extra to add to your CV, and employers appreciate that you have been trying hard and have that one step further. A lot of what you learn in Junior trade you learn in class, so they kind of go together, it’s easier to learn in one class and do it in a practical sense in another, it really balances out. We’d definitely recommend it. Do you think it would be a good idea to collaborate with another course across the college.? Jemma: Definitely, we’d really love that. So with the theatre students, even if we helped out with their hair and makeup because we do makeup on our course also, so if there was a show we could do the styling and maybe the guys from media could record it and we’ would get to collaborate as a team.

Delighted. Yeah absolutely. I was really unhappy in business but now I have loads of good friends and it’s a lot easier to do something that you really like, it’s more like a hobby than a job.

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y name is Fatima, I’m a mature student, originally from Morocco but I’ve lived here since 1994, I used to be a sports healthcare worker before I started here but it has been a dream of mine to do hairdressing since I was very young. I hope to open my own business when I finish my course, either here or back home in Morocco.

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It’s more like a hobby than a job.

y name is Nadine, before I came to the college I was a full time Mammy, not an easy job when you’re trying to get assignments done, but I’m really enjoying my course. Like Jemma I want to get my apprenticeship after I finish up and work in a salon.

Do you think the course helps prepare you for that.? I really do, I think it’s made it really easy and they guide you in the right direction for whatever you want to do.

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y names Nicole and I’m from Dundalk. I started the course when I finished school at 18, I came here because it was the best option out of all the courses I looked at. I was prepared to travel to do the right course rather than settle for one just because it was closer to me.

Were you right.? I was, yeah. I think it’s like, with other courses I don’t think you’d get where we are now, it’s just more and more course work. But with Catherine and Kevin here we get a chance to do a lot of practical work. That’s what I like. Jemma: I think it’s even the classes we’re so close and that helps so much because if someone is struggling then we’re all struggling, we all learn the same and we all help each other out. Studying business, you go into a classroom but everyone learns differently where as here most of us are visual learners. Fatima: Catherine is very good too, she keeps a close eye on us and helps us out when we need it, she’s very good. Jemma: That makes it 10 time’s easier as well, you go into a room and you have all your friends, and if you don’t understand something Catherine is there to help you out, nothing is a big deal for her.

Whats the hardest part of the course. All: The exams !!! Fatima: I think that when you have an exam you get yourself into a bit of a panic before hand with the uncertainty.

Do the junior trade exam! Employers appreciate that you have been trying hard and have gone that one step further.

Featured: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Images: Hugh Shelley [email protected]

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Karen Rooney

Designer

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eturning to education after a number of years in industry wouldn’t be considered the easy route but Coláiste Dhúlaigh’s policy of welcoming students from both educational and industry directions pays off time and again. Legacy spoke to Karen Rooney who returned from industry to study graphic design and brought with her an amazing maturity in the work she produces.

Tell us a little about yourself Karen. I’m Karen Rooney and I’m currently studying graphic design in the Raheny campus. I was originally here on this course about 10 years ago but I got a job I left the course. That job went bust so I came back to finish the course.

Have you always been interested in graphic design. Yeah I have, I’ve always been interested in design and art. Back then I was very interested in street art, graffiti kind of thing just not on walls. I was very interested in the style of street art, putting it on paper or material as well as walls legally of course. Mainly paper though because I think you have to be super talented to have the confidence to do an artwork on a wall straight out of a can, but I liked the style. I love to do portraits but they take a long time and you just don’t get the time when you’re putting so much into your course work.

I have a number of other projects I’m working on and I’ll be giving them a twist of my own sense of humor which is not to everyone’s liking. When you’re in college it’s not always easy to give something that edgy humor, people don't always get it, but over the summer I’m going to be spending the time kind of finding myself and work on the projects that I want to do.

Did the course give you that love of typography.? Yeah, I think so. I’m always doodling, always writing my name and bits. When I came back, there was more focus on the digital arts and I’m enjoying that too, I’ll be hoping to learn a bit more about that side of things over the summer. It’s not always possible to concentrate on one thing in college because you’re given briefs and deadlines so you don’t really get the chance to find yourself. Within the briefs you do sometimes find your strong points and talents and you get to express yourself a bit. It starts to sink in too, last year I hated the web design element of the course & really struggled a bit but this year I flew through it. It’s hard to know where you’re strong, you can’t call it.

So have you thought about what’s next for you ?

Has that interest fed into the work you’re doing now.? Now I’m mad into typography, I love it. I’d really love to do something with typography. Coming up in the summer I have a project I’m developing which is hand lettered wedding gifts. I recently got myself a whole new set of calligraphy pens and I’m totally enjoying getting into lettering. I’m designing a whole set of wedding invitations for a client at the moment. It’s a lot of work, and a lot of pressure, but it’s different to your typical wedding product. It’s very rewarding though when you love doing it.

I hadn't a clue what I wanted to do so I didn’t apply for any of the colleges. What I plan to do is to get experience in the printing industry for a few years because there’s so much to learn there. I love printing and would love to learn everything I can about it. I think I would actually like to keep exploring the web design side of things also. It’s only been this year that I’ve started to enjoy it. I think it’s important too when you find a lecturer who you can connect with and understand the problems they’re presenting better, it makes it easier and more enjoyable. The style of web design we’re doing this year is more to my style I think.

So you’re advice to future students on this course.? Bring your lunch with you, (a private joke). Seriously though, enjoy it, but take it all in. As tough as this course is, it’s kind of like leaving secondary school all over again, when you leave here it’s a degree or masters or it’s get a job so enjoy it while you have it, but get the work done.

Would you do it again? In a heartbeat, if I could do it with the same people again, in a flash. I really wish there was a degree course here, I’d definitely stay and do the degree course here.

I’d do it all again in a heartbeat, if I could do it with the same people again, in a flash.

Karen Rooney can be contacted at [email protected] & www.karenrooney21gmailcom. wordpress.com

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nother course on the Kilbarrack campus is the surprisingly in depth and hands on course on Horticulture which takes a really broad look at the industry. Everything from composting and plant choices, to soil science and genetics, they even find time to provide the canteen with fresh as-it-gets veg.

ho r t icult ur e Barry: Having to write the explanations of the genetic side of things, so you might have 2 different colours of a plant and explaining why it would come out a certain type of colour and changing down through the generations. BrianD: There is a formula for working it out now but it’s hard work otherwise. BrianH: It’s big pea, little pea. It’s fascinating, but deep.

Legacy caught the guys before they headed off to Croke Park for a chat with the grounds keepers to see how the grass grows. You would be forgiven for a quick chuckle but you’d be surprised how much technology and science is involved in keeping the surface to the highest international standards.

Tell us who you are guys and what you’re doing.

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ell, my name is Barry Dornan, I started the course to be able to go into ground maintenance, for estates and things like that.

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’m Tommy Kennedy, I would love to get into maintenance. I’m a mature student so at my stage I don’t think I’d be able to do the landscaping side of things, you need to be fairly fit for that kind of thing.

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y name is Brian Hearty, I’m doing the QQI Level 5 Horticulture. The reason I chose to come on this course was because I have an interest in a community garden in Santry. We have 4 and a half acres that we are restoring back to how it was in the 1800’s. We’ve had a few lads come up & through that experience I have now made it onto the committee. I find it very interesting, there are so many different aspects to horticulture and gardening and you can just dive straight in. We are always trying to encourage new members to come up & join and just by being exposed to the experience of others you can learn so much.

I’ve learned so much on the course here, when I was up in the garden it’s only the general terms of things, you learn when to dig and when to divide, but now I’ve learned the science of things like how to compost, what to compost, the types of soil, the course is really informative and I’ve really enjoyed it.

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’m Stephen Kinsella, I started horticulture because I wanted to get away from what I was doing which was warehousing & computer repairs for nearly 16 years, and this was something totally different. I would love to get into the landscaping side of things with the possibility of getting out and starting my own company. I think, with a little added business knowledge, this course has prepared us to do that very well.

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’m Gregory Joyce. I’m doing this course because I’ve always enjoyed doing work outside, I’d love to go into the maintenance side of things.

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’m Brian Devet. I’ve always had an interest in horticulture and I started this course to learn a bit more about the field. I’d like to get work in horticulture after I finish up, the course is very good in that they focus on communications as well so giving you the opportunity to talk on

camera and in front of other people which is really hard for some people. I does help to improve your confidence.

What did you guys do before starting the course. Barry: I worked in the insurance industry for over 10 years and, like Stephen here, I wanted to make a change and get out working outdoors, and this was the ideal thing to do.

Before your work in warehousing and computers Stephen, did you have an interest in this field.? I did yeah, I have an elderly aunt and I would always be doing her garden for her. She had her garden redone about 2 years ago and the guy did an amazing job for her and made it much more accessible for her and easier to manage.

What’s the toughest part of the course.? All: The science, definitely. Barry: The genetics is really interesting but hard work. BrianH: Trying to understand the language and terminology that the tutors use, and having to deal with the briefs.

When you go to these places there’s always the historical aspect to the buildings to take in. When you have access to the plans then you can heritage plant and have the same plants growing that you would have had growing 200 years ago.

So how do you apply all that to design.? Do you get involved with the design side of the field.? Barry: Of course yeah, it’s part of the course that we do. Stephen: We have plots on the campus that we would have to break down, then design a layout that would be suitable, it could be your own back garden at home. BrianH: We wouldn’t be applying our genetics learning to that now, we would already know if a plant was going to turn out a yellow, purple or a blue, but if we were doing genetics we would have to conduct experiments to work out the colours. That’s already done for most people nowadays.

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Horticulture Would you recommend the course to anyone who had an interest in the field. All: We would, definitely. Thomas: Definitely yeah, because you’re learning something new every day and you have regular field trips to visit sites, we’re off later today to visit Croke Park to do a tour and speak with the groundsmen about looking after the grass which takes a beating every weekend. When you go to these places there’s always the historical aspect to the buildings to take in too. I was working in St. Josephs Hospital in Edenmore last week and all the history there is great. I heard about all the buildings that were built around the gardens there, and that the people who build it also build the famous cottages in Raheny too. Places too like Ardgillan Castle are fantastic, it’s all tremendous stuff to learn, especially the history and the bit of Latin, you’d almost count getting anything after all that a bonus.

Would you take into account the historical context of the buildings when you design a garden.? All: Yeah, we would, you’d have to. BrianH: You have to be sympathetic to the surroundings. Barry: You can do heritage planting as well for something like an old house. So for something like what Brian is doing in Santry community garden where you have the plans then you can heritage plant and have the same plants growing that you would have had growing 200 years ago in the 18oo’s.

Thomas: We went to the Botanic gardens, I had gone there with my father years ago but when tutors bring you then it’s a totally different experience, you can really appreciate the work that goes on, what’s being planted and that. They have the extensive seed bank there which is wonderful.

So on your trip to Croke Park, you’ll be talking about the synthetic mix in the grass I take it.? Brian: Yeah, they were the first to use that technology. Barry: The science behind it as well, how to have the pitch looking picture perfect every time, all year round. Thomas: When you think of how technology has moved on, QPR football club had the first synthetic pitch which was totally plastic. They had to rip it up and replant with something better. It’s obvious that Horticulture is more than just gardening, the science and technology that is involved in so many areas now is just amazing.

Featured: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Images: Hugh Shelley [email protected]

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n keeping with Coláiste Dhúlaigh’s commitment to the exposure of students to industry and artists, we took a trip to the Royal Hibernian Academy to see Futures, an exhibition of contemporary artworks, with a view to writing a report. The internet is a wonderful resource, but what do you do when it doesn’t provide any information or answers to your questions.? This was the position a lot of us found ourselves in after our visit to the RHA. It seems that a lot of the contemporary artists have a lot to teach about style etc, but have a lot to learn about managing their public profiles. After long hours of fruitless searching and researching information on the artists chosen for my task on the visit to the RHA in November 2015 I decided to take some of my own advice and go directly to the source. I sent an email to my two chosen artists and received a wonderfully helpful reply from the artist Vera Klute who offered, rather than play email ping pong, to chat over the phone and discuss any questions I may have regarding her piece “Stampede”. It turned out to be a very easygoing conversation and the artist was only too delighted and a little flattered to be asked about her work. Rather than take up too much of her time I decided to keep the call to 3 questions.

Was there any one thing or number of things that inspired the work “Stampede”.? “I am not hugely conceptual but sometimes over a period of time the same themes keep popping up. Over the last couple of years I have been doing a lot of drawings of groups and people merging together, along with busts of people merging together so I guess it came out of that.” The artist is also a lover of stone sculptures and how the stone can have a soft pliable look to it, but is actually hard. With Stampede, the paper is soft but actually has the look of the stone sculptures that remind her of some of her favorite sculptors such as Michelangelo and Bernini. Vera Klute is the 2015 winner of the Hennessey Portrait Prize and has exhibited in many galleries including the National Gallery of Ireland. Her Hennessey award winning portrait of a family friend was inspired by a sculpture of her friends family. Klute wanted to single out the mother due to her intense gaze and very beautiful features so decided to use paint to create the work.

Speaking about the work Klute says: “I really wanted to have another look at her face and explore it as a painting. While this is obviously a portrait, what interests me most about depicting people is the texture of the skin with wrinkles, veins and tonal variations. Imperfections and signs of aging show the fragility of the body and its mortality, which for me makes the portrait of an individual universally relevant.”

What tools or process did you use in the creation of this work.? “I did the 3D model in Blender which is a simple 3d modeling software that you can download for free. I did the finished project digitally on the computer and then worked backwards from that. The computer does it automated to some degree in that it can unwrap the shape, but there is a painful amount of work in defining the scenes and all of that to try iron out any mistakes, otherwise you end up having a lot of distortion. It sounds simple but you can actually have weeks and weeks of painful work. You’re then left with lots of paper layouts that have to be cut and scored and glued together. It’s like a huge puzzle. Then, I think I was left with 3-4 thousand individual triangles that would be pieced together, sometimes in groups of perhaps up to 20 pieces.”

Do you have a favorite medium you like to work with. Despite having just won the Hennessey Portrait Prize the artist is very modest about her painting skills. “I don’t think I’m much of a painter to be honest, I only ever do portraits really and I haven’t even done that many. I’m trying to do some other painting. At the moment I’m trying to do some landscape paintings. I never quite figured it out, it’s quite a different ball game. I’m quite comfortable with faces but other stuff I’m still struggling with. I like doing a bit of everything, I like to have a balance. At the moment I’m doing a lot of painting and I was also trying out some ceramics. I wouldn’t want to spend weeks and weeks doing the same thing.”

When asked if there were any internal supports in the work she replied: “No, it’s just supported by it’s self. I thought it would be freestanding and supported by it’s own feet but it does sort of crush it’s self down. It does hold it’s own shape but without the little rods outside to support it the feet couldn’t take the weight.”

Imperfections and signs of aging show the fragility of the body and its mortality, which for me makes the portrait of an individual universally relevant.

Hugh Shelley

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Vera Klute. An interview with the artist.

A report by

Graphic Design

Regardless of her modest and self deprecating manor, I think there is a great depth to her work and to this piece in particular. The more I understand about the process the more appreciation I have for the finished work. I am really intrigued by the many ways this piece can be viewed. Depending on the fall of light it has a constantly changing shape and depth. A simple turn of the head can change the definition of shadow allowing it to almost move or breath. Each geometric shape at a different angle will have the shadows reacting in totally different ways. Vera Klute is not standing still and continues to exhibit at venues such as the Molesworth Gallery in Dublin.

Below is my humble rendition of the artists work, “Stampede”. Some of the finer details of the feet didn’t work out as planned but I think I got the shape and shading close to what I saw. It’s easy to take a simple view of excursions such as this one or like those to the National Print museum or IMMA, and think how great it is to get a day our of the studio or a field trip. However, the benefit of seeing in person some of the work that has informed the choices of many of the country’s designers first hand can never be understated.

To someone like myself who wouldn’t have had the artistic exposure or interest during my school days, this exposure has without doubt completely coloured my view on not just the “how” of design, but also the “why” of it, and I feel I would not be the designer I hope to become without these invaluable opportunities. Hugh Shelley Designer 2017

Original Artwork - Vera Klute. Drawing - Hugh Shelley

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Yesterday, all the music troubles seemed so far away...

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usic. Music surrounds us. At home, on the bus, on the

streets, everywhere. For some it is really important and for the others less so but it is a thing that you cannot escape from these days. If you look twenty or even ten years back you will see a difference not only in making music but also in a way of producing and consuming it. So just try to step outside the mainstream box for a second, and take a look at how much has changed in a music world through the years. Sometimes, for worse unfortunately.

by Wiktoria Kowalska Talent and real passion. A few decades back, in 60s, 70s or even 80s lots of bands, that are well-known now, started to be internationally famous and now we are still listening their songs and some of us still can’t believe how great they are, comparing them to the songs that we are bombarded with, listening to our favorite radio station. Artists like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith or Nirvana were really successful bands because they had talent and they knew how to use it, which can’t be said about many young artists today. As a result, they sold million copies of their albums.

Lyrics. I have that feeling and probably I am not the only one but what make a hit song today is just a good beat and some of good rhythm. No one really cares about the lyrics, repeating one word, probably ‘LOVE’, a million times through 3 minutes is enough. In the last century lyrics were meaningful and left people with some kind of message, which made people think deeply about it. Many mainstream artist now don’t even write lyrics, don’t make music and also don’t take part in the whole process, which is the most stupid thing, they could ever do. Talent, It’s a big word and not every artist has it. Years ago, bands, singers, artist in general went into the music world because they had it, had something. They knew what is going on in there and that was the main reason why they were getting into that. Now, things have changed a lot again. Artist are created by their managers and by people who they work with. Most of them have no taste and knowledge and can’t play any music instrument. They just are, with a pretty face, nice clothes and an Instagram account. That is how world of music has started to change, maybe nor for good but not for bad either. Peoples’ taste are changing so the music they are making is changing as well. Technology developed and new devices came into music industry so why should we not use them just to make our song better and more modern? What do you think about it. ?

Peoples’ taste’s are changing so the music they are making is changing as well.

Wiktoria Kowalska is currently studying journalism in the Coolock campus. She can be reached at [email protected]

Ariyana Ahmad - [email protected] www.ariahmad.esy.es Graphic Design / Illustration

Luke Ryan

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Photographer and Film Maker

Before this photography course I did the film course also in Coláiste Dhúlaigh, I find them both very good. I wanted to do the degree year on the film course but because demand is so high I decided to stay within the college doing photography as it’s fairly closely related. I’m really interested in cinematography and the two courses are very good in some regards to help with that.

The college here is very practical based which is really good if you want to do film or photography, you can research all you like through books but you’re really better off going out & doing it. Still, you do get exposed to the history behind the craft and you have to analyse different genres & you get a good sense of how they have evolved.

What would you love to be doing.? My dream job would be to direct or become a cinematographer.

What tools have you picked up here.? The most important skill I have learned here has to be persistent, don’t stop. Keep making films & something will happen. You can’t just sit back & wait for it to happen. I’ve also learned to focus, you have to focus on your project & persist with it until you have it to a solid standard, yes you have to have multiple solutions & ideas but you have to learn to focus in on your idea.

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My name is Luke Ryan & I’m studying Photography in Coláiste Dhúlaigh.

How do you find the facilities at Coláiste Dhúlaigh.?

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s someone who’s academic career hasn’t always moved along traditional lines I always found it hard to find direction or clarity when thinking about a career path. I always wanted to try new things and experience new places and this didn’t fit too well with what society seemed to be saying when it came to education.

Tell us a little about yourself Luke

I love doing photography but my passion is film making, that’s what I want to do. My application is already in for the film degree. I have 2 short films already completed while on the film course and made a music video over the summer. I’m currently working on a half hour TV film, we’re just writing it now but that will start coming together soon.

About the Legacy Project

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I was a doer though, I tinkered with things, took them apart to see how they worked. My mind wandered from idea to idea, I traveled a lot and found a love of passing on the things I found out along the way. Whether it was in sport, photography or business, I found a love of teaching & helping that was just satisfying. The problem for me I think was in having a goal, or rather in not seeing one. I couldn’t see a practical use for traditional lessons, but if you could show me the end goal then bingo, I know where I’m heading and you have my full attention. Inspire me and I become passionate about it. I have always loved photography so when I found a use for it in business that’s what I did, and while I enjoyed that for a long time it always seemed somehow a little narrow in it’s direction. I developed an interest in editing the images of others and in helping them improve their skills which led to an interest in perhaps becoming a photo editor for a publication. A lofty idea that always stuck with me. In 2015 when I decided to study Graphic Design, a subject I was becoming increasingly interested in, I found myself choosing Coláiste Dhúlaigh to study in due to a number of reasons including the structure of it’s course and the breadth of subjects covered. It genuinely presented the most comprehensive approach I’d found, it was also a college I grew up across the road from.

You do get exposed to the history behind the craft and you have to analyse different genres, you get a good sense of how they have evolved.

One of the biggest things this course did for me was to give me a chance to work through all the options and uses for graphic design, to flip through a swatch book if you will of uses or end goals for a designer. The exposure to the arts, industry, the briefs and projects, all gave me the chance to decide exactly what I wanted to do with the skills I brought with me and the new ones I was learning. It gave me a chance to find a goal. So everything started to click. In conversation with fellow designer Callum Harrison, I expressed my interest in producing a magazine, something perhaps for the college. I was delighted to find Callum was equally enthusiastic and we set about solidifying our thoughts. Utilising our new found powers of design thinking we worked through what we wanted to achieve. If it was a college magazine then it couldn’t be just something thrown together, it had to have a purpose, fill a need. We decided it needed to be a voice for the college and a platform to let the world know about the work being done in the college. It was also a great opportunity for design students to cut their teeth on a real project and learn what real collaboration can do. So we condensed our thoughts into a mission statement which can be summed up in 3 goals. • To promote the work of the students as they prepare to enter industry. • To promote the work of the college in preparing those students for industry. • To attract more industry attention on the college and students and improve their connection with industry and alumni. It’s all very well however, having these lofty plans and mission statements, but as temporary students in the college, how do you create something that will have a lasting impact. We’ll be gone at the end of the year after all. Well, you pass it on of course. You light a torch and get someone else to run the next leg with it, and where better to do this than in a college packed with creatives. Thus the idea of Legacy was born. So here’s the plan, and our challenge to you. By the start of each term this publication will be passed on to that years final year graphic design students. It should be made available for between 1 - 3 students to take the torch and run the next leg. It won’t be easy and they will be forced to collaborate and communicate, but they have three campus’ worth of creatives to choose from. Art & Design, Media, Photographers, Journalists... the list is almost endless, you just have to ask. At the end of the project the design team should package all the experience & lessons learned and pass them on for the next years design team. There must be an attempt to stick to the 3 main goals stated above but you can design for print, digital or multi media. There must be collaboration, and an attempt to bring students, college, alumni and industry together. This is an opportunity for you to have an impact, to gain experience and to pass it on. To leave a legacy.

Luke Ryan can be contacted on [email protected]

You shouldn’t have to ask “Whats in it for me”, this is a project that just should be done. But if you do have to ask, just picture all the possibilities of Legacy...in YOUR portfolio. What will your Legacy be.? Hugh Shelley Legacy Designer/Editor 2017

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WHATS YOUR LEGACY