Viva Brighton Issue #76 June 2019

THIS MONTH’S COVER ARTIST
.......................................................
You’ve probably seen illustrator and
designer Donough O’Malley’s work
before: he created the red octopus of
Brighton Fringe’s 2018 brochure cover.
Having grown up in a “small, quiet, rural
place” in Ireland, Donough moved to the
UK to study an illustration foundational
degree in Bristol.
After graduating from University of
Brighton’s Narrative and Sequential
Design Masters course, Donough initially
focused on illustrating fiction, such as the
World of Norm series of children’s books.
He mainly works in editorial, advertising,
and branding commissions that now
include non-fiction books.
“Fiction is a little bit whimsical: you’ve
got a lot of space to create things but in
the non-fiction area you have to have
things factually right. One book I’ve
finished recently is a lift-the-flap book
on Chemistry: they need to know what a
chemical molecule looks like and I don’t
want to be screwing that up.”
Donough has also studied Graphic Design
in London, which has steered him to “a
simpler graphical style. Looking for that
simplicity in paring down what you need
to get a message across. Normally when I
start off with a brief it’s draw, draw, draw,
lots of drawing, if time allows for it. Once
I have an idea or an essence, I boil it down
into the simplest form that I possibly can
that gets the message across clearly, and
hopefully in a fun and humorous way”.
Once the flurry of drawing has subsided
and he has settled on a final idea,
Donough will “work it up larger, in pencil.
Then move things around: I like to have
things align and be connected in some
way, so there’s a form and a grid to it.
Once I’m happy with those drawings, I can
....12....