Jamie Delaney

Dublin, Ireland

Graphic designer/art director Jamie Delaney recently returned to his native Ireland after working in London and later studying at London College of Communication. Though relatively new to the profession, his print and Web work shows a clarity and attention to typographic crafting that, according to prolific sketcher Delaney, often has its origin in notebooks.

“This started as my final project for my M.A. course, and I’m currently presenting it to the Irish Heritage Board, who are interested in implementing it into their visitor’s services. I spent six months researching ancient monuments such as stone circles, cairns, and burial tombs, and collecting and collating the local myths and folklore concerning these sites. I also spent some time looking into the possible purposes and reasons these magical structures were built. The aim of this research was to develop an information pack that would work in conjunction with the existing Ordinance Survey maps, to outline and better document the Stone Age and Iron Age monuments scattered over the British Isles. This package is for professionals in the creative industries, people with an interest in lifestyle, heritage, and learning in a creative way. This might be offered as part of the activities during a weekend away in the country, an interesting activity to take part in while enjoying the outdoors, or on a picnic. I wanted to give people a reason to explore their ancient heritage, enabling them to appreciate and develop a curiosity for these sights, which seem to have slipped out of our national consciousness and into the staid world of academic journals.

In researching the depiction of these sites in literature I was pleased to find that this subject was not confined to the text-heavy world of academia or archaeological manuscripts but also appeared in literature of a more imaginative nature. There seems to me to be two schools of thought on the matter: One is the elbow-patch-wearing academia school; the other is the mushroom-taking, dancing-around-stone-circles-under-a-full-moon school. Excuse this tongue-in-cheek generalization, but I feel it illustrates the opinion of the average 20- to 40-year-old. It is this demographic I want to attract to give them an appreciation for these nearly forgotten monuments. I want to offer a middle ground, giving people the facts alongside the myth and legend, and showing the sites to be interesting, educational—perhaps even magical—places to visit.

My sketchbook was integral to this project. I sketched the monuments, and it was such a long project I also used the sketchbook to file ideas as they came to me so I was able to look back over them when it came to constructing the final solution.”

—Jamie Delaney