Originally from Dublin, Dermot Flynn is a London-based designer and illustrator. He has worked for various clients, such as Pentagram, Adidas, Vodafone, New York magazine, Condé Nast, Dentsu Japan, Winkreative, GQ, the Guardian, BMW, Francfranc, SWISS, Nickelodeon, and the Irish Times.
Your work seems primarily illustration based. How did you first become interested in lettering?
dermot flynn: When I studied visual communication at the National College of Art and Design in the mid 1990s, there was a great emphasis on typography and familiarizing oneself with letterforms and type etiquette. We also had an array of visiting lecturers who would run short, one- or two-week projects, one of which was a calligraphy workshop led by renowned Irish calligrapher Frances Breen. An initial exercise was to make a calligraphic mark, with the aim being to relax and not think too much when drawing shapes and letterforms—a welcome change from the tight, precise work we had been doing with typefaces, such as Helvetica, Baskerville, and Futura. After this, I started looking more and more at hand-drawn type when designing—in particular the work of designers like Paul Rand, Saul Bass, and Alan Fletcher—and it just developed from there. As I became more and more comfortable with computers and scanning and manipulating images, hand-drawn lettering began to play a greater part in my work.
How do you think about the interaction between letter and image? Or as an illustrator, how do you think about type?
I guess I have a pretty intuitive approach. I try not to labor a point too much when creating accompanying type with an image. I worked for Carton LeVert for a period after finishing college, where I really learned the ins and outs of typography, and I remember Libby Carton saying that there was a time and a place for everything. It varies from job to job. Ideally one won’t overpower the other.
Where did all the humorous sayings come from? Is it supposed to be (bathroom) graffiti?
Ha! Well—various people and places! My mother is from the south and my father is from the northwest of Ireland—and they both had a whole series of sayings that were trotted out on various occasions. I also grew up in the north side of Dublin, which has a very funny, irreverent, and unique sense of humor. The novels of Roddy Doyle—The Commitments and The Snapper—were also an influence. Also, overheardindublin.com—it’s a website where people log funny things they hear Dubliners say in the city’s streets, pubs, and shops. Some of them, as you may imagine, are not exactly PG-rated! Another factor I guess was the graffiti in the National College of Art and Design toilets while I was studying there. Visual Communication students would put as much effort and imagination into their cubicle wall postings as they would with their studio projects and assignments!
product: Jameson Whiskey St. Patrick’s Day 2014 “The Spirit of Dublin”
client: Jameson
agency: Design Bridge
art director: Asa Cook
designer/hand letterer/illustrator: Dermot Flynn
medium: Pencil, graphite, pen, ink, Sharpie, acrylic, MacBook, and scanner
country: Republic of Ireland
The packaging for Jameson’s 2o14 limited-edition St. Patrick’s Day bottle uses loose, energetic lettering to capture the “Spirit of Dublin” with the help of familiar phrases overheard on the streets of the city.
The MO for these initial sketches was to shoot first and ask questions later. Then edit down for the final project.
“I have found that doodles and sketches done while on the phone or watching TV can be amazing,” Flynn says. “Somehow, the part of the brain that gets in the way is freed up—well, at least for me, anyway!”
