All Kinds: Graphic designer brings together work of over 100 artists
By Aideen O'Flaherty
A graphic designer has brought together the work of over 100 artists, which was created during lockdown, for her forthcoming art book, ‘ALL KINDS’.
Ais Brady, from Belgard Heights in Tallaght, was inspired to develop the art book after her work as a freelance graphic designer hit a lull during lockdown, and she was struck by the work that other creatives were producing during that time.
Ais Brady
The idea for ‘ALL KINDS’ was born out of this, and a desire to work collaboratively and to bring the artwork to a wider audience – including through an online exhibition of the pieces which is currently available to view at www.allkinds.gallery.
The book is also being released to raise funds for MASI – The Movement of Asylum Seekers Ireland, with all proceeds from it being donated to the charity.
Ais, a former pupil of Sancta Maria College in Ballyroan and a graduate of TUD-Tallaght, explained how the idea for ‘ALL KINDS’ was developed, why holding an online exhibition is a key part of the project, and how she hopes to grow this endeavour.
Why did you decide to pursue a career in graphic design?
A combination of things. Before I studied visual communications, I studied advertising, and I was particularly drawn to the design element within that.
What, for you, is the most enjoyable aspect of being a graphic designer?
Two things. Firstly, the collaboration aspect. I mainly work within the world of arts and culture so generally the projects tend to be collaborative in form.
The nice thing about it is that you never know what’s going to come from the work and what the next piece is going to be. It’s nice to learn about others and their work within other creative disciplines, whether it be theatre, film, literature or music.
The second most enjoyable aspect of designing is bringing all the different elements like typography, imagery, size, colour etc and making them all work together.
It’s a nice feeling when you know it’s starting to happen.
I don’t know how else to explain that other than a gut feeling that it feels right and that can come after hours of exploring and experimenting.
Your upcoming art-book ‘ALL KINDS’ consists of work that was created by over 100 artists during lockdown. What inspired you to develop this project?
It has taken a while to build momentum as a freelance graphic designer, and right when things were starting to take off, lockdown happened and most of my client work fell off.
It didn’t feel like the right time to continue pursuing new business.
I reconnected with a friend of mine, photographer Crónan Creagh, who is also from Tallaght.
We discussed where we were at and how other creatives may be managing this challenging period, and how they may be dying to find unique creative outlets.
That gave us the idea to put out an open call for artists to submit work that was created during life in quarantine.
Did you notice anything unique or particularly striking about the work that these artists created during lockdown?
The work is quite diverse.
What is cool is some of the artists were taking time to explore and experiment in alternative disciplines of their own. So some of the fine artists submitted written pieces, for example.
Also, I left the call entirely open so there are a number of non-professional artists who submitted also.
What was really interesting and what really struck me was the accompanying emails.
Many described the mental aspect of where they were at, and that’s when I really started to see the importance of this project and connecting people.
The artists’ work will also be part of an online exhibition. Why is it important for you to ensure that the work also goes on exhibition online, in the absence of physical exhibitions taking place?
I want ‘ALL KINDS’ to be easily accessible to everyone, as well as having a place to exist indefinitely.
We launched the online exhibition last week over at www.allkinds.gallery and we are rolling this out on a 10×10 basis.
So each week we will be adding ten artists and this will play out over the course of ten weeks.
We’ve designed it so it can be sectioned by artistic discipline, and so each artist is represented with their own page showcasing their work, along with their bio and a means to connect with them directly.
What impact do you hope ‘ALL KINDS’ will have?
The collective functionality of ‘ALL KINDS’ is what makes it so special.
So, I’d like to continue to grow this for the benefit of all involved.
This has been quite a laborious, intensive undertaking, and anyone who is working on the project has taken it on as a labour of love.
On that note, if there is any business or company who’d like to partner on this project please feel free to contact me.
Otherwise, it would be greatly appreciated if you could support ‘ALL KINDS’ via our Patreon page www.patreon.com/allkinds, even if it’s just a small donation per month, so we can continue to grow this project and help everyone involved in some small way.
‘ALL KINDS’ is now available for presale, ahead of its release in November, at www.allkindsgallery.store.
For further details visit www.allkinds.gallery, or follow All Kinds Gallery on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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