Cian Walsh
A life of designing, making and exploring
About Me
Role
Multidisciplinary
Designer
Every project was a new opportunity to pick up skills. From the precision of web design to the freedom of illustration, from the timeline of video to the logic of product design.
Being able to incorporate different approaches without hesitation usually leads to more interesting outcomes.
Location
Kinsale,
Ireland
I spend my days at the start of the Wild Atlantic Way. The rugged Irish coast dictates the pace of life. Inspiration comes from being outside in the world.
You can take influences from the online world but local influences are sometimes your distinction.
Design Philosophy
Boredom is
Essential
Boredom is a doorway, not a room. In a world of constant input, the brain needs stillness and silence to self generate ideas. It's a gift rarely taken.
Those quiet moments are when the ideas start to bubble up.
Attitude
AI
Adopter
I consider AI to be Amplified Imagination. When tools are used with consideration and creativity, they don't replace the artist, they expand the canvas.
Even with it's many downsides, new technologies are always worth exploring and incorporating where appropriate.
Make it exist..then make it good
An interview regarding my personal design process with James Algar of Portfoliobox.com
Learning
Project based learning is how I make sense of new approaches.
Making ideas exist to gain insight and understanding.
Molten Universe
An experiment in what is possible using Generative AI Video & stock video. Using a classic late 90's stoner instrumental, I created a shot list and used Midjourney and Kling AI to generate a narrative of dinosaurs on earth as the asteroid sealed their fate. Completed in one weekend as a project test.
Coasts of Ireland
Another experiment in using AI for website scaffolding. Using just two pencil sketches of a homepage and a subpage, I prompted my way to a homepage and sub photo html site for a series of photographs I have taken while kayaking. An evening experiment.
Tech Doctor
A recurring theme in seeing entrepreneurs and micro businesses hit a workflow wall. Tech Doctor was spun up to assist the tech challenged with on site visits. Decidedly low tech approach to ease tech fatigue
Telescope of Truth
A personal challenge to create an art installation with an inspiring message but also one that presented a few technical challenges along the way. Place a message that can only be viewed from one telescope in one location
Forests of Ireland
A realisation that Ireland is a temperate rainforest zone led me to experiment with ways to visualise familiar locations with native woodland. This is in conjunction with a marketing effort to drive these images in front of people at certain location for environmental awareness and debate.
Battle of Kinsale
Living in the medieval town with probably Ireland's most pivotal battle motivated me to start to tell the story to a wider audience. Learning Unreal Engine as the way to visualise both the battle, the soldiers as well as the town of Kinsale as it was in 1601.
Consciousness Studio
Design is only one part of reality and I think you should be curious about the big questions too. After a lot of reading, my hypothesis that consciousness is most likely non local to the body. Shared. With that in mind, I try to imagine what the day to day practicalities could be for a world understanding consciousness as a group event.
Footbumper
Concieved as a COVID era project to create a non invasive way to touch street furniture, this is a wider effort to reimagine tactility and accessibility in shared locations.
Screenless Car
Despising the current onslaught of screens in cars, I have sketched a number of concepts for a screenless car interior once again also emphasising tactility and information communicated in non distracting ways.
Mac Works
Having fun with form factors and imaging more frivolous workflows.
Dog Race
A vibe coded experiment in game mechanics and attraction of an audience.
The Potter's Wheel
I am deeply unsatisfied with the current raft of chatbot interfaces for using AI and associated tools. So this is a project imagining what new UI paradigms could be useful for the next wave of AI.
Skills
The areas where all that design knowledge has accumulated.
-
Product Design
Fintech, startup and corporate UX solutions
-
Visual Design
Web, desktop and mobile layouts
-
Icon Design
Mac software design and branding
-
Illustration
Character creation and illustrative styling
-
Video
From Documentaries to promo pieces
-
Graphic Design
Real world design
Contact Cian
Happy to talk through project questions, ideas for collaborations or just general queries
- cian@afterglow.ie
- +353 86 884 2852
- LinkedIn Profile