Getting back out in Belfast’s creative design scene.
I spent yesterday working in Belfast city centre. I’ve been saying for ages that I want to spend more time in Belfast. I need to get in more. I want to work out of the city more often and there are loads of reasons why. But one of the main reasons is to connect more with other people in the creative and entrepreneur scene that is often thriving in Northern Ireland.
Yesterday was also an ideal opportunity to trial out hot-desking Blick in Belfast as they were also hosting a creative talk by this really fantastic designer/artist called Alana McDowell.
Exclusive update: It’s actually now Wed 21st Feb 21:54 and I’ve been listening to Chris Williamson podcasts for an hour or so and I’ve remembered I’ve not written this blog post yet so I really aught to get it out today! So let’s get back to it!
The event itself was a sell out. There was about 25/30 people in the room and I got the opportunity to network with a few of them. One of the good things about these events at Blick is that the diversity of creativity in the room is always unreal. Blick itself is a melting pot of design, art, creativity and more. There is something about the vibes in that space that always makes me feel super inspired. I think if you’re into semiotics at all you’ll get what I mean. I’ve added an image below from the Seedhead Arts instagram who lead the way in Northern Ireland with street art and a video from Belfast Design Week. Two essential accounts you should follow if you’re interested in the Belfast / Northern Irish creative design scene.
Alana’s talk was super inspiring. Prior to the talk I was pretty new to her work but the moment I looked her up on Instagram I realised I had seen several projects before. Primarily from being a big fan of Jameson whiskey and the work at Kelly's Cellars in the heart of Belfast.
Alana is an Artist, an Illustrator and a Designer. But what really stands out to me is her work with Colour, Letters and Murals. Being from Northern Ireland and painting murals is a sentence that generates a tonne of energy and Alana is really able to take that energy and inject real positive vibes into her work.
There is a piece that she painted for Larne council that makes me feel happy just looking at it. If I was Larne council I’d be commissioning Alana McDowell to paint the whole area. I’d encourage all areas of Northern Ireland to look into the opportunities to paint walls in a positive way. It’s part of our culture and we make our own culture we should remember the crafts passed down but curate the future that we want the next generation to live within. I certainly want to live in towns and cities full of colour and positive vibes around me anyway!
Alana walked us through her CV… Update: it’s now 22:39, that was less than one hour of writing but I’ve published this post to see how it looks on the web. I’m going to rewrite this paragraph and much of this blog tmrrw…
brb
