An archival project in collaboration with the National Irish Visual Arts Library, we were given a unique and interesting archival record on a visual artist or practice and tasked with creating a publication on the subject. In this case we struck gold, and were given a selection of letters and drawings from the little known artist Fionan McCollum. Troubled by mental health issues and desperate to make it in the art world his letters span up until his sudden death in the 1980’s. In the weeks that followed we were completely absolved in finding out as much as we could about his life, scouring records for addresses, contacting among others the National Archive, and the University of the Arts London.
In the end we were unable to find out how he died, but discovered that he had actually attended NCAD, our college, some 40 years prior. Our design focused on a ‘photocopy’ investigative style, using the quality of the archival items to inform the tone of the work. This was a great opportunity to gain experience with type hierarchy, and was a true passion project.
