Carnevale Ball 2007

Dermot was tasked with creating the imagery for the 2007 Italian Society Carnevale Masquerade Ball. The Ball, which was to be a gala event to raise money for the Galway Hospice, had to have a visually appealing poster, which would feature the opulence and finery of the Italian Carnevale season. The brief called for a large format poster, fliers and tickets with matching imagery.

idotCafe/idotDesign unified web design

The brief was to create three sites associated with the one business - iDotCafe Ltd. One site would represent their internet cafe business, another site would represent their design business. A third site, which was never commissioned, was to represent their hosting business.

Dermot decided to draw on elemental imagery, using Fire, Earth and Water to represent the three different facets of the one company.

Water represented the internet cafe business, while Fire was used to represent the design aspect of the company.

The company ceased trading before the third site could be commissioned.

Itzacon III

Itzacon is the NUI Galway annual Roleplaying, Wargaming and Science Fiction/Fantasy Conference.

In 2006, the organisers approached Dermot with the following brief;

Each Itzacon is themed, and that year's theme was to be based on the The Prisoner television series. However, the organisers didn't want there to be an overt aping of the graphic motifs from the series, but rather to play on the secondary imagery from the show. To this end, it was decided that the theme of obsolescence was to be the overriding graphical theme.

As such, Dermot came upon the simple yet elegant logo for Itzacon III - that of the hot air balloon. To compound the link to the TV series, the same font was used, and also a colour motif of orange and white, which is seen in the bunting in the fictional village. On top of this some textual allusions were made, such as the use of the phrase "Be Seeing You".

Jimmy Crowley - reissue of first three albums

In 2006 Dermot was approached by Jimmy Crowley to design the album sleeves for the re-issues of his first three albums. The albums were issued in the 1970s, and only saw a vinyl release. As such, the dimensions were very different from modern CD album proportions, and of significantly different size. Where the original albums featured quite detailed information on the back cover, modern CD tray cards can only feature a small set of information by contrast. Not only had the booklet covers to be reformatted for the new product, but also an entirely new tray card had to be formulated which captured the look and feel of the original issues, while complying with modern requirements. Further, Dermot was tasked with editing the interior of the booklet which was extremely detailed, and featured archival images from the time of the original albums.

• "Camphouse Ballads" Booklet Cover
  
• "Camphouse Ballads" Tray Card
  
• "Some Things Never Change" Booklet Cover
  
• "Some Things Never Change" Tray Card
  

Melanopa Bonsai

Dermot was asked to provide the key imagery for this Bonsai site. Drawing on the Zen aspects of bonsai cultivation, Dermot decided to use a minimal approach for the representation of a bonsai, opting to express an architypal tree with just a leaf and two curves, showing foliage and trunk respectively.

The design was incorporated into the site by the site owners, and features as a recurring motif on each page.

NUIG Italian Society website

The NUI Galway Italian Society commissioned Dermot to design a website which would both express the cultural aspects of the society without being clicheed, and also act as a focal point or hub for society activities. As such, Dermot implemented a site using the Drupal Content Management system, allowing users to interact and "buddy up" to organise chats in either Italian or English, while also keeping appraised of society events through the blogs of committee members.

The design of the site had to be expressive, somewhat flamboyant, but also not derivative of stock "Italianate" imagery.

Dermot chose a photo of a bright red Vespa to act as the main motif. The red of the Vespa also provided the key colour highlight for the site.

Sanctuary - album design

Dermot was approached in 2006 by Ms. MacIsaac to design an album sleeve for this project, which was a fundraising album for her local church. The brief was very open-ended - the product had to be relatively cheap to produce, and had to have imagery that was appropriate to the title "Sanctuary".

Dermot resorted to natural media to create a tranquil, moonlit image for the cover, and related images for the tray card and on-CD screen print.

The Canniffe Family website

Dermot was asked to design a website for his family's band, The Canniffe Family. The site was to feature a news blog, pictures, and an upcoming gig list.

Dermot decided on a very limited palette, and a very dramatic sans-serif font to typify the immediacy of the band's musical style.

The Importance of Being Earnest

Dermot was approached in 2007 to design the production media for Chattyboo Productions' presentation of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. The brief was to create a poster, booklet and fliers to advertise the production, and for the imagery to be in keeping with the time the play was written, i.e. the late Victorian era. The imagery was also to incorporate the motif of the green carnation, an icon much associated with Wilde, which would be featured in the production.