Take Five with...
Ivor Noyek, 2007 ICAD Upstart
Photo credit: Rich Gilligan
What is the most unusual project you’ve ever worked on?
Possibly the identity for the festival “Ireland 100” at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. celebrating Ireland’s culture through performance. It coincided with the Centennial of The 1916 Rising. It was unusual in the sense of the enormity of the project and the pressure to produce something that reflected not only my home county’s heritage but was good enough to be in the USA’s national monument to John F. Kennedy. It was a solo freelance gig I got through the Vice President of international programming reading an article about me in an Aer Lingus in-flight magazine as she was flying back to D.C. from Dublin on a trip to plan the festival (surreal in itself). She emailed me from the flight before takeoff to see if I was interested in taking on the project. On opening night Enda Kenny and then Vice President Joe Biden made speeches to a packed auditorium with my logo as the backdrop, I never thought something like that would happen so early in my career. It was an incredible honour to work on that project for so many reasons.
The Kennedy Center, “Ireland 100” identity system (D.C., 2016)
Who is your creative hero?
I have two for different reasons; Stefan Sagmeister, his early work inspired me to view graphic design as more than just beautiful things, it can change human behaviour and effect people and society in a number of ways. Hunter S. Thompson, “Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas” and “The Curse of Lono” were massive inspirations for me; fun, smart, weird, brilliant!
What would you do with a spare €100?
Get my Von screenprint framed, it’s a beauty I picked up in Venice, L.A. two years ago and I haven’t got around to getting it framed yet. That’s too practical though so let’s see… origami chicken!
Frieze Art Fair & Kargo, dinner menu and invitation (NYC, 2015)
What piece of work do you wish you had created?
So to make a short story long… this changes on a daily basis as I’m always seeing amazing work whether in real life or online. In NYC I’m bombarded by inspiration, that’s one of the reasons I’m here, from the subway to the multiple museums, there’s fantastic work all around (and some dreadful stuff too). Right now I would say the D&AD Awards branding animations by The Beautiful Meme or the the video for Kendrick Lamar’s tune Be Humble. I also very much enjoyed Channel 4‘s beautiful, irreverent and versatile rebrand back in 2015.
What did you take from your Upstarts experience in 2007 and has it continued to influence you?
The Upstarts program launched my career immediately after college. I built a real world portfolio in 6 weeks and used 4 of the 6 projects in my book. I met my future Creative Director, David Joyce, through it and worked in my first job for 5 years in Dublin with him. I made friendships and connections that I will have for the rest of my career through the Upstarts program. I still regularly check ICAD’s site for inspiration and to see the new crop of Upstarts. I firmly believe that Ireland has one of the most exciting creative scenes in the world and we could bate-the-bejayziz out of anyone when it comes to our creative chops. ICAD Upstarts is a massive cog in the creative machine of Ireland.
Brooklyn Arts Council “Alive With Art” annual gala, branding and collateral (NYC, 2017)
Hailing from Co.Cork (Ireland) and based in New York City, Ivor Noyek is a senior multidisciplinary creative with 10 years experience specialising in concept driven Art Direction & Graphic Design for all aspects of branding, advertising and visual communication. Currently working freelance, he is also Founder of For The Love Of (FTLO) an international creative community and event series.
In 2014, and again in 2017, Ivor had the elite honour of receiving the O-1 Artist Visa (USA) issued to ‘People of Extraordinary Ability in their Field’ based on references, experience and portfolio. In 2013 he was nominated for the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI) One To Watch Award in recognition of excellent professional standards, creativity and innovation. Ivor is a member of the 100 Archive, a community centred initiative to document and record the best of both the past and future of visual communication design in Ireland. He has also been a judge for Secret Walls, the World’s premier live art battle and has been a guest speaker at Pecha Kucha and Candy Collective’s SweetTalk series. Ivor holds both a Postgraduate Diploma in Advertising from Dublin Institute of Technology (2013) and an Honors Degree in Graphic Design from Limerick School of Art & Design (2006). In 2015 Ivor became a worldwide phenomenon when he was a meme 🙂
