Thomas Ive (He/Him)
As a designer my work is primarily focused within art direction. I use photography, layout and identity systems throughout my work. My interests across fashion and music have lead me to create projects for the cultural sector, with a personal enjoyment for publication and collaboration becoming an integral part of my practice for this final year.
Somewhere in Between
With Sadbh Grehan.
Somewhere in Between is a photo essay celebrating our fundamental connections to the natural world. Produced over the winter lockdown months, we used props to mimic the elements to create a surreal tone and atmosphere. We photographed four instances of summer nostalgia in winter; barefeet in sand, a patch of blue sky, sitting on a grassy stretch, and a beam of sunlight. Having researched the scientific concept of biomimicry, which uses design inspired by nature, we took this theme as a visual cue for our photo explorations. We sought to make this concept more accessible through a visual narrative. This photo essay provides an alternative view of the habitats we mimic. Somewhere in Between draws on our desire to create lived experiences that have passed. All Photography by Sadbh Grehan and I.
Penguin Student Book Award
The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells. Short-listed entry for the Penguin Student Book Design Awards.
My approach focuses on the synecdoche of sweat: a visual depiction of a bodily reaction to the climate crisis experienced by every human on earth. The cover presents a close-up of the human response, whilst the back reveals a wider perspective of the harm we’re placing on the natural world. Self timer photograph.
Mother Natural
Mother Natural is a packaging and campaign project, focusing on the fermentation process of natural orange wine. Taking the pure ingredient of the grape, from the earth, and allowing time to transform and purify the product to create a natural orange wine.
Jongens Film Review
A ‘Queer Coming of Age’ review for the Dutch film Jongens. Exploring a fun and youthful editorial approach to layout. I imagined the audience being young adolescents with a dynamic approach to type and colour being inspired by the genre. The coming of age genres frequently feature an adolescent running, cycling or moving through the film as they are growing, or developing through a plot. This inspired the chalk lines running through the article and across the page, extending the feeling of passing through the pages with a youthful energy.
Oracle Records
Oracle Records is a place for the sounds of the 1960’s psychedelic movement to exist in the digital age. The counter-culture aspired towards detachment and achieving a higher realm, was being explored in the visual and sonic landscape of the decade. Oracle Records is a contemporary repackaging of artists that were traditionally sidelined, or forgotten by, popular culture. A house style of psychedelia is represented in the spirit of many pioneering abstract artists of this decade. Music and visual arts have always had a symbiotic relationship with the record sleeve thus representing that connection in its purest form. Oracles’ style direction is based in the foundation of DIY practices, taking the voice of the counter culture into the digital sphere.
Heavy Currents
With Josh Croll and Nicole Norman.
Art direction for the fashion editorial for Nicole Normans’ fashion garments. With a visual approach to the ‘sleepy’ sea-inspired, nautical tone, informing the models direction and location choice. My focus around directing the shoot involved a pre-production plan for the photographer, direction on shoot, as well as sequencing the final editorial. Photography by Josh Croll.
