‘Dame Lane’

By Alé Mercado. a Spanish illustrator living and working in Kilkenny.

He sez:

I lived in Dublin for 3 1/2 years when I first moved to Ireland. What I loved the most about the city is how you could find hidden secrets (for me it was mostly record shops… They are all gone now) by moving away from the main streets. Sometimes by leading yourself into alleys that would do nicely for a Chamber of Horrors film scene, Hammer style . These alleys are for me so much the soul of Dublin that everything in the light becomes almost ghostly… It’s like finding amazing life in the deepest abyss and then trying to cope with routine back at the boring daylight surface.

And his method?

My work is fully digital. But is has evolved over the years to be more and more like printmaking, to the point that I hardly differentiate between both of them. The digital part is fully integrated in my print work and vice versa. But it was comics that got me into illustration. For a while it has been something that I’ve tried to hide. Not anymore…

 

This week’s Le Cool Dublin issue

It’s a sequel.

Watch it move here.

By Adrien Merigeau, who sez:

I set myself the task to draw the house that the angry woman from last week’s cover might be living in, and this spirit boy came looking after it.

 

This week’s Le Cool issue

But is she LE COOL?

Le Cool Dublin have assembled a Le Cool box of cool stuff for your mother for Mothering Sunday, which falls on Sunday, March 10, this year.

The suprise box will give some mothers a sorely needed damn hipster-replacement.

And we have one, yes apparently just the ONE, to send to your ‘auld one”s door!

To enter, complete this sentence.

I would like my mother to have the Le Cool box of cool mother stuff as she……………

Lines close at 4.30pm  4.45pm

Winner announced before 5pm in the comments section.

Mammy’s Box Of Le Cool (Designist)

The Blue Girl.

Watch her slurp her soup LIVE here.

By Adrien Merigeau who sez:

It’s an angry woman eating her soup. It was done all on paper, with a pencil and coloured inks, on 17 drawings playing on a loop. Some bits and bobs were added later on Photoshop. I don’t know where the idea comes from, I like random thoughts.

I grew up in France and moved in Ireland a few years ago because there’s really nice work to do in the field of animation and filmmaking. I mainly work for Cartoon Saloon, a really great little studio based in Kilkenny, as concept designer/art director. and some short films, and music video projects sometimes.

Damn multi-skilled Gallic gif-ster

This Week’s Le Cool issue

Aw

By damn Irish-Swedish back to nature creative hipster duo Matthew and Emelie.

They say:

 The cover could represent the feeling you have when you’re in love, your heart feels so light that it could float out of your chest. It could also symbolize the vulnerability of being in love. We work a lot from photographic material and illustration, combining photo collage and hand painted or built text. We work as one person who has the good fortune of having two brains and four eyes.

Valentine’s Le Cool Dublin

The fourth, and final cover competition winner

By Julianna Szabo, a 3rd year Visual Communication student at NCAD.

Sez Julianne:

I moved to Dublin from Hungary six years ago with an IT masters degree in my pocket but I already knew that graphic design is what I would really like to do.
The idea (above) is based on a colourful balloon that colours the world while flying over the Irish countryside. This is why the scenery in front of the balloon is built of different shades of grey while the side where the balloon has already passed has become colourful with the many greens of the fields and the many blues of the sky. As I love working with paper I’ve built the image of layers of cut and torn paper.

 

This Week’s Le Cool Dublin

Julianne Szabo

Week 3.

Dublin freelance designer Neve Connolly’s hand-crafted confection was a unaninous decision.

Hand-crafted, you say?

Oh yes.

Sez Neve:

All the line work was done using black thread, which is something I’ve been playing around with lately. Once that was finished I used sewing needle to pierce little holes in the letters. I then mounted it onto a piece of glass and lit it from underneath. I wanted the ‘Le Cool’ to glow like the lights of a city seen when flying at night in an airplane, or hot air balloon, whichever air transport you prefer. The lines and pockets of colour depicting the energy/divilment created by people out and about, crossing paths, enjoying this great city. Le Cool at the heart of it all.

Le Cool Dublin (this week’s issue)

Neve’s interview: http://dublin.lecool.com/dublin/en/interview/2337

The second cover winner.

Paths to the Pale by Alan Nagle of Yellowhammer.

It’s Busáras, baby.

Alan, who lives in Moate, Co Westmeath, explainz:

On my recent travels to Dublin on public transport, I would at some point end up at Busaras. It’s a building I have always admired from a young age and think it’s a hidden gem when you get past the grimy veneer. It’s a building which utilises many different materials and the control tower with it’s shell roof shown here are wonderful. It was completed in 1953. Michael Scott and must have caused quite a stir at the time!
I develop my ideas through thumbnail sketches before beginning work on the computer. I draw my digital images roughly working with my chosen palette, refine, forget about it for a while and repeat these steps until I’m happy enough.

Le Cool Dublin [current issue]

The judges’ decision was unanimous.

George Longwill’s cover (above) is the first winner (of four) of the Le Cool Dublin Cover competition thing.

But what’s with the calculator? And who is the real George?

He sez:

I’m a graphic designer. I run a small design company called Chuffey with my sister Liz. I generally spend the day at my keyboard designing, while Liz brings in work, and big-ups us to the world. Most of the time I’m doing bathroom catalogues and cow-related adverts really. If it’s got a cow on it, I probably designed it! (unless it’s crap in which case it was someone else).

This was my Dad’s calculator and I use it for working out my millimeters when designing (I’ve found from experience it’s important to get these right). Just thought it was kind of cool because it is all grubby and also fitted January seasonally – it is pretty grim and a time for budgeting and well calculating things.

 

Le Cool Dublin