The Abbey Theatre’s production of Molière’s Tartuffe tells the story of a hypocrite; a fraud who infiltrates a family’s home under the guise of being a devout Christian. Under Caitríona McLaughlin’s direction, Frank McGuinness’s retelling of this 1664 dramatic comedy brings the ever-relevant themes of hypocrisy and deception into a contemporary context. We worked closely with The Abbey to design a campaign where deception was expressed in a simple and effective way.

Snippets of the design process

Throughout the design process we brought several different elements of the production into consideration:

1 – Tartuffe is a satire, full of comedy that also carries with it a serious undertone, tackling themes that are very relevant today. It was important that we balanced the comedic with the serious and conveyed the correct tone.

2 – The Abbey’s version of Tartuffe blurs the lines between old and new, integrating social media posts and techno music with baroque architecture and rhyming couplets. We needed to reflect this blend of timelines in the campaign.

3 – Designing a campaign for a theatrical production is something that brings huge opportunity for artistic expression. However the Abbey is the National Theatre of Ireland, and must reflect the needs of a modern national theatre, having a responsibility to appeal to a wide audience and reflect Ireland’s contemporary experiences. We needed to create something that was expressive while also being accessible.

We took photographs of Ryan Donaldson’s depiction of Tartuffe (photos by Finn Richards) and transformed them into graphic representations of deception and mischief

Some elements from the Tartuffe campaign

These considerations formed a vibrant, contemporary image that was flexible and adaptable, working across a myriad of platforms. From social media to massive billboards, Tartuffe’s mischievous face became recognisable across the country.

‘The Abbey’s Tartuffe was both a progressive expression of the art form and an entertaining night out for all. The brief was full of these intriguing contrasts, and our campaign image had to find the right balance.’

– Brian Heffernan, Director of aad

Tartuffe is on national tour from April 12th to May 13th.
Get tickets at abbeytheatre.ie

2023 marked 16 years of collaboration between ourselves and Dublin Dance Festival. For the second year working alongside artistic director Jazmin Chiodi, we set out to create a campaign that would take over the city and capture the dynamic, immersive, and emotional essence of the festival itself.

A brand that emulates a sense of rhythm and constant movement throughout.

This years edition featured a line up of extremely rich and diverse shows, and to reflect this, we utilised colour as a core ingredient in the identity. Working closely alongside the Dublin Dance Festival team we developed a distinct gradient to capture the tonal variety of productions involved. Employing a bold, discordant treatment of type and imagery, we created a suite of core assets that seamlessly shifted and interacted with one another — representing the constant sense of rhythm and movement throughout the festival.

We explored a variety colour palettes to develop the right tonal range that would reflect the range shows involved in the festival.

‘In this edition, our aim was to explore a wide range of tones and emotions in the programming by incorporating the concepts of light and dark. We designed it in a way that we could move around this space of colours, bringing subtle shifts in brightness to each application, while adding variation across the different applications.’

– Cat Robertson, Design Lead at aad

Around the Town

To expand the festivals immersive experience to new audiences, Jazmin and the Dublin Dance Festival team wanted the campaign to take over the city, and not to be confined to a singular location or platform. To achieve this, it was vital to maintain an overall sense of connection and visual cohesiveness between the applications. The versatile system of design assets developed meant we could invest time in creating compositions informed specifically by the diverse range of applications themselves. We moved and combined the assets in a variety of ways to best suit the different formats while still retaining the impact and cohesiveness of the brand identity, across the campaign. From large-scale city flags and expansive poster suites to dynamic motion videos, this approach also ensured that the information surrounding the festival would be accessible to all, both online and offline.

Our diverse range of applications around the streets of Dublin

Invaluable Experiences

Being given control over the roll out and ongoing management of these festival assets was a fantastic opportunity. Learning to manage the production of such a wide range of deliverables, maintain communication channels and successfully deliver on deadlines, with the support of the aad and Dublin Dance Festival teams, the experience has been invaluable. I look forward to working on many more editions of the festival to come and collaborating with the wonderful Dublin Dance Festival team in the future.

To learn more about the Dublin Dance Festival visit dublindancefestival.ie

It’s that time of year again — students in design programmes across the country are preparing to showcase the culmination of their undergraduate degree. Graduate exhibitions, or ‘grad shows’, are a wonderful celebration of the design work produced by the graduating class, their dynamic as a group of people and their shared transition into the design industry (and the wider, sometimes scary, working world).

Back in 2020, we wrote a brief that asked students at the TUS Limerick School of Art and Design to ‘rethink the degree show’. The brief asked them to think about why a graduate show is important, what the challenges and opportunities are, who they benefit and why, and where innovation could take them. Then, they could use these key findings to imagine how a graphic design communication graduate show could deliver more benefit and value to students, visitors and the wider design community.

Following the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, many graduate showcases took place online, being forced out of the traditional exhibition space. For many, their work was being showcased in a digital space for the first time. The pandemic demonstrated the need for broader, innovative strategic thinking when it comes to graduate showcases. We asked students to consider the full spectrum of what a grad show could be under the headings of experience, content, audience, engagement and resources.

This year, we collaborated again with the graduating students of Graphic Design Communication at the TUS Limerick School of Art and Design to tackle this brief. The talented group gave us plenty of food for thought around the future of graduate exhibitions. Their concepts — unique, considered, mature and meaningful, were underpinned by some key insights and values:

Many concepts focused on communicating the importance of design to the wider public, explored the designer’s role in society or ‘the real world’, and the depth of knowledge and skill demonstrated by designers that is often overlooked.The group valued each other and placed great importance on showcasing their work as individuals, but also as a group of people that have undertaken four years of study as friends, colleagues and team-mates. They were proud of their positive dynamic, and wanted to convey that they make great work, but more importantly they are great people to work with.

Many concepts conveyed the power and importance of research, design thinking and process, and elevate these alongside finished graphic design outputs. There was great emphasis on not just the work the students had done, but how and why they did it.

The group looked beyond the exhibition space and demonstrated how the grad show could have a strong presence online, in the real world and engage a wider range of people, with interesting ways of getting their work seen, heard, and understood. The group explored how their audiences could participate in the grad show through interactive displays, feedback and playful brand assets in physical and digital spaces.

This year, their graduate exhibition design approach will include audience participation, provoking statements on the importance of design and a playful spin on the visual language of the tools and processes designers use on a daily basis. Congratulations to the class of 2023, we wish them every success in their careers.

We think there’s a lot of value for design courses to take the time and opportunity to rethink their degree shows to help create more meaningful interactions with their fellow students, families and industry.

How do you think graduate exhibitions could evolve? Download our brief here, add to it and run the project!