Seán O'Mara
Encyclopedia
Seán O'Mara is an Irish
graphic design
er. He is also an artist, writer and photographer. He was born in Holland in 1967.
On the Irish side of his family, his grandfather and great uncle fought in the 1916 uprising. His great uncle was a Second Lieutenant in Bolands mills and fought alongside Éamon de Valera
, the future President of the Republic of Ireland
. For there part in the 1916 Rising they were interned in Frongoch prison camp in Wales. During the Emergency (1939–1945), his grandfather was Éamon de Valera's personal body guard and driver and was also a detective in the Garda Síochána
. His great uncle was Provost Marshal of the Curragh (PM) and was buried with full military honours with condolences from the president of Ireland.
On the Dutch side of his family, his grandmother studied Fashion in Holland in the 1920s and his grandfather worked for Wm. H. Müller & Co. and KLM. O'Mara's Dutch great uncle was Wim Ten Bosch, Dutch Modernist Architect and assistant to Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud, Dutch architect and urban master planner for Rotterdam. Oud was one of the original members of the De Stijl movement. Ten Bosch's daughter, Fenny Ten Bosh was a famous Dutch Tennis player who represented Holland at Wimbledon.
O'Mara's mother Elze, grew up under the Nazi Occupation of Holland between 1939-1945. His father, Patrick, was an adventurer who served in the RAF and was later an engineer and pilot. Patrick O'Mara worked across the globe, including Asia, the Middle East and Africa. In 1967, he took part in evacuating civilian personal out of Nigeria by air during the Biafra war. The Bristow Helicopter Riley Dove aircraft 5N-AGF which was used for the mercy flights and later appropriated by the Biafran Airforce and destroyed is shown in the book: "SHADOWS, Airlift and Airwar in Biafra and Nigeria, 1967-1970", by Michael I. Draper, Hikoki Publications, 1999, UK (ISBN 1-902109-63-5) Page:109. The flights of 5N-AGF are recorded in Patrick O'Mara's flight log book. He was also the engineer for this aircraft. He finished his career as a Chief Engineer with Bristow Helicopters
and Chief Engineer of the Dubai Air Wing
.
Sean is an alumnus of Central Saint Martins having received a Masters Degree with Distinction in Graphic design for his Final show and thesis "Memories of a skitzophrenic", in 1992. Still closely affiliated with Central Saint Martins, Sean worked with the DAC department advising on graphic solutions and his work was included IN THE BAG OFF THE WALL at the Design Museum London 2001, and also in several exhibitions in Milan
and Barcelona
, and in the SAFE: Design Takes a Risk, at MOMA in NEW YORK in 2006. Between 2002 and 2010, Sean worked closely with the MA Textile and Industrial Design Departments (MAID) at Central Saint Martins, producing an extensive range of communication and exhibition materials.
Between 2001-05, Seán was a Research Fellow at the University Of the Arts, Central Saint Martins. In 2001, Seán was responsible for the creation of the Dirty Washing Exhibition at the Design Museum London which he co-curated with Dr L.Gamman. The exhibition featured his passion for design research and his collection of washing powder box's alongside many of his research ideas. The exhibition had many contributors from Central Saint Martins and writers and journalists such as Susanne Moore and Judith Williamson.
Seán has been the creative director of the FASHION IN FILM FESTIVAL since 2006.
In 2008 Seán Designed the book,
'If Looks Could Kill' by Fashion In Film Founder Marketa Uhlirova (Editor)
Seán has a Foundation cert and Diploma with Distinction (BA Hons Ist) in graphic design from Dun Laoghaire College of Art Dublin 1985 -1989, and is a Post Graduate in print making from 1989-90. In 1989 Seán was a Lecturer at the International Winter School of Architecture in Dublin, Ireland where he organised and ran workshops with Michael Morris, architect and founder of Morris/Sato studio, New York. Seán also studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art, London, graduating in 1993 and received an MA with Distinction in graphic design. His tutors included Phil Baines, Jonathan Barnbrook
and John Warwicker of Tomato.
Seán worked for three years at Fitch PLC as an Associate director and Partner. He worked on many global brands including Adidas, Shell, BAT and Agfa. This work encompassed brand strategy, identity development, print, packaging, retail expression and environmental experiences. As one of his many roles Seán was responsible for a major DTI exhibition in India which was opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, on which she commented that it was one of the best she had experienced. He was also Creative Director of entertainment projects implemented in Europe for Heron International. This required working in Barcelona and Stockholm. Sean led the design teams for the concept and implementation of the Bloggs Retail Stores in Bluewater, United Kingdom. Junior Bloggs won 3rd best store in Bluewater. Sean was also responsible for working on many BAT projects such as Lucky Strike, BAR and designing the B+H type face used on international packaging as well as the new packaging design’s/brand look which was implemented into global manuals.
Whilst at FITCH in 1999 Seán, along with Peter Barwick were commissioned by Screen writer Richard Curtis
and production designer Stuart Craig
to produce prop graphics for the film Notting Hill. The poster graphics were to advertise Julia Roberts
acting roles within the film, marine officer and spacewoman.
Seán joined Rodney Fitch at the end of 1999 as Creative Director of Graphics. Sean has worked alongside Rodney Fitch
CBE on groundbreaking projects in Europe and Asia, having completed "Great" in Hong Kong, Bertolli in Holland, graphics and signage programs for Shangri-La, Manila and a complete brand overhaul for Matahari
Indonesia’s largest retailer. In 2002 Seán designed the new signage system for Turin airport Italy. Whilst at Rodney Fitch, Seán successfully completed the new Brand implementation of BT Cellnet through photography and brand expression, which also involved the creation of brand manuals and retail guides. This set in place the system for a smooth change to O2 where the same exercise was repeated with new photography and manuals.
Seán was the creative director of ACW, and then Stuff International design till march 2009. Whilst the creative Director of ACW he designed the mission and crew patches for the Soyus TMA-5 iss 10 space mission.
As creative director of Stuff he Worked mainly in the Russian Mainland, Egypt and central Europe. Clients included. Pachin (Egypt largest paint manufacture), Dyrup (Denmark's largest paint manufacture, APN UK, Wyevale
UK and Whiteleys
UK.
He is currently Design Director of graphics at AIR DESIGN, London, UK.
Seán was the winner of the First Digital Equipment Corporation Bursary 1988. This Design Competition was run throughout the North and South of Ireland and the prize was a fully paid work experience at DEC's Headquarters in Boston USA. Seán was also awarded the NCEA medal for student of the year for his final show and also won a fully paid bursary from DLCAD to continue a post graduate course in screen printing.
Seán founded the OMARA ARCHIVE in 1989. The archive consists of three main area of interest. FEZ, FAST and FLAKE. Flake is a photography, print and packaging archive based around the graphic language of Detergent / washing powder boxes and was the bases of the Dirty Washing Exhibition in 2001. Fez is an ongoing collection of Felt hats tracing its origins from Sumerian times to the present day. Fast is a unique archive of Russian High altitude flying and space equipment. Many of the Russian flying and space items held in the archive are rare prototypes including the space suit (Strizh) belonging to Buran
test pilot Igor Volk
. This was first featured in Jack Magazine
in London July 2004. The archive regularly lends rare items for commercial use the most recent being for Gettyimage's photoshoots and The History Channel infomercials. The O'Mara space collection was recently featured in COLOURS Magazine:Lab.
Sean was also a co-contributor along with Dr L.Gamman to the Encyclopaedia of Clothing and Fashion, (Charles Scribner's Sons, September 2004).
Whilst working at the Body Shop
Global design Department Seán was asked by Anita Roddick
DBE and founder to create the campaign material for the Blow the Whistle on Domestic Violence Campaign 1995. This campaign was launched nationwide in America with Seán's design work featuring on all the poster and campaign collateral and getting national exposure on CNN.
Seán featured in the Mostly Men campaign posters in 1995, photographed by fashion photographer Matthew Shave.
Seán is currently attempting the Seven summits challenge. Summit NO:1 Kilimanjaro completed 7.8.2010 without the use of Diamox.
Second summit Elbrus pending Summer 2011.
Paperback, ISBN 9780955047503
The book further explores Seán's collection and research from the successful co-curated Exhibition "Dirty Washing"
at the design museum in 2001.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
graphic design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
er. He is also an artist, writer and photographer. He was born in Holland in 1967.
Family history
Seán O'Mara's father was Irish and his mother is Dutch. He has one brother, Eugene.On the Irish side of his family, his grandfather and great uncle fought in the 1916 uprising. His great uncle was a Second Lieutenant in Bolands mills and fought alongside Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
, the future President of the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
. For there part in the 1916 Rising they were interned in Frongoch prison camp in Wales. During the Emergency (1939–1945), his grandfather was Éamon de Valera's personal body guard and driver and was also a detective in the Garda Síochána
Garda Síochána
, more commonly referred to as the Gardaí , is the police force of Ireland. The service is headed by the Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are located in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.- Terminology :...
. His great uncle was Provost Marshal of the Curragh (PM) and was buried with full military honours with condolences from the president of Ireland.
On the Dutch side of his family, his grandmother studied Fashion in Holland in the 1920s and his grandfather worked for Wm. H. Müller & Co. and KLM. O'Mara's Dutch great uncle was Wim Ten Bosch, Dutch Modernist Architect and assistant to Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud, Dutch architect and urban master planner for Rotterdam. Oud was one of the original members of the De Stijl movement. Ten Bosch's daughter, Fenny Ten Bosh was a famous Dutch Tennis player who represented Holland at Wimbledon.
O'Mara's mother Elze, grew up under the Nazi Occupation of Holland between 1939-1945. His father, Patrick, was an adventurer who served in the RAF and was later an engineer and pilot. Patrick O'Mara worked across the globe, including Asia, the Middle East and Africa. In 1967, he took part in evacuating civilian personal out of Nigeria by air during the Biafra war. The Bristow Helicopter Riley Dove aircraft 5N-AGF which was used for the mercy flights and later appropriated by the Biafran Airforce and destroyed is shown in the book: "SHADOWS, Airlift and Airwar in Biafra and Nigeria, 1967-1970", by Michael I. Draper, Hikoki Publications, 1999, UK (ISBN 1-902109-63-5) Page:109. The flights of 5N-AGF are recorded in Patrick O'Mara's flight log book. He was also the engineer for this aircraft. He finished his career as a Chief Engineer with Bristow Helicopters
Bristow Helicopters
Bristow Helicopters is a British helicopter airline originally based at Aberdeen Airport, Scotland, part of the Bristow Group based in Houston, Texas, USA....
and Chief Engineer of the Dubai Air Wing
Dubai Air Wing
Dubai Air Wing is the airline of the government of Dubai, United Arab Emirates.-Fleet:The Dubai Air Wing fleet consists of the following aircraft :-External links:*...
.
Education
Seán went to school at Willow Park and Blackrock College in Dublin, Ireland.Sean is an alumnus of Central Saint Martins having received a Masters Degree with Distinction in Graphic design for his Final show and thesis "Memories of a skitzophrenic", in 1992. Still closely affiliated with Central Saint Martins, Sean worked with the DAC department advising on graphic solutions and his work was included IN THE BAG OFF THE WALL at the Design Museum London 2001, and also in several exhibitions in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
and Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, and in the SAFE: Design Takes a Risk, at MOMA in NEW YORK in 2006. Between 2002 and 2010, Sean worked closely with the MA Textile and Industrial Design Departments (MAID) at Central Saint Martins, producing an extensive range of communication and exhibition materials.
Between 2001-05, Seán was a Research Fellow at the University Of the Arts, Central Saint Martins. In 2001, Seán was responsible for the creation of the Dirty Washing Exhibition at the Design Museum London which he co-curated with Dr L.Gamman. The exhibition featured his passion for design research and his collection of washing powder box's alongside many of his research ideas. The exhibition had many contributors from Central Saint Martins and writers and journalists such as Susanne Moore and Judith Williamson.
Seán has been the creative director of the FASHION IN FILM FESTIVAL since 2006.
In 2008 Seán Designed the book,
'If Looks Could Kill' by Fashion In Film Founder Marketa Uhlirova (Editor)
Seán has a Foundation cert and Diploma with Distinction (BA Hons Ist) in graphic design from Dun Laoghaire College of Art Dublin 1985 -1989, and is a Post Graduate in print making from 1989-90. In 1989 Seán was a Lecturer at the International Winter School of Architecture in Dublin, Ireland where he organised and ran workshops with Michael Morris, architect and founder of Morris/Sato studio, New York. Seán also studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art, London, graduating in 1993 and received an MA with Distinction in graphic design. His tutors included Phil Baines, Jonathan Barnbrook
Jonathan Barnbrook
Jonathan Barnbrook , is a British graphic designer and typographer. He trained at Central St Martin's and at the Royal College of Art .- Work :...
and John Warwicker of Tomato.
Career
He has 18 years experience working with leading global businesses and international design consultants in Europe, USA, Russia and Asia. Prior to joining Stuff International in 2005, Seán worked for the Works in Dublin Ireland and also founded his own successful experimental design studio Xoncorp, whose work has been printed in many English and Japanese design bibles. Since coming to London he has worked for the PDU of the Department Guardian Newspaper, Imagination LTD, The Bodyshop Global design dept, Fitch PLC, Rodney Fitch LTD and ACW. Sean was the creative director of Stuff International Design from 2005 to 2009.Seán worked for three years at Fitch PLC as an Associate director and Partner. He worked on many global brands including Adidas, Shell, BAT and Agfa. This work encompassed brand strategy, identity development, print, packaging, retail expression and environmental experiences. As one of his many roles Seán was responsible for a major DTI exhibition in India which was opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, on which she commented that it was one of the best she had experienced. He was also Creative Director of entertainment projects implemented in Europe for Heron International. This required working in Barcelona and Stockholm. Sean led the design teams for the concept and implementation of the Bloggs Retail Stores in Bluewater, United Kingdom. Junior Bloggs won 3rd best store in Bluewater. Sean was also responsible for working on many BAT projects such as Lucky Strike, BAR and designing the B+H type face used on international packaging as well as the new packaging design’s/brand look which was implemented into global manuals.
Whilst at FITCH in 1999 Seán, along with Peter Barwick were commissioned by Screen writer Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...
and production designer Stuart Craig
Stuart Craig
Norman Stuart Craig OBE is a noted British production designer.He has also designed the sets, together with his frequent collaborator set decorator Stephanie McMillan, on all of the Harry Potter film series films to date. At Potter author J. K...
to produce prop graphics for the film Notting Hill. The poster graphics were to advertise Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...
acting roles within the film, marine officer and spacewoman.
Seán joined Rodney Fitch at the end of 1999 as Creative Director of Graphics. Sean has worked alongside Rodney Fitch
Rodney Fitch
Rodney Fitch CBE , founded the design company Fitch in 1972, rejoined as chairman and CEO in 2004. Appointed Commander of the British Empire in 1990 for his 'influence on the British Design Industry'...
CBE on groundbreaking projects in Europe and Asia, having completed "Great" in Hong Kong, Bertolli in Holland, graphics and signage programs for Shangri-La, Manila and a complete brand overhaul for Matahari
Matahari
Matahari is a major department store chain in Indonesia. Matahari is operated by PT. Matahari Department Store, Tbk. , a subsidiary of PT. Matahari Putra Prima, Tbk. , a publicly traded company. It has the biggest coverage in Indonesia and has a store in almost every mall and plaza in Indonesia.In...
Indonesia’s largest retailer. In 2002 Seán designed the new signage system for Turin airport Italy. Whilst at Rodney Fitch, Seán successfully completed the new Brand implementation of BT Cellnet through photography and brand expression, which also involved the creation of brand manuals and retail guides. This set in place the system for a smooth change to O2 where the same exercise was repeated with new photography and manuals.
Seán was the creative director of ACW, and then Stuff International design till march 2009. Whilst the creative Director of ACW he designed the mission and crew patches for the Soyus TMA-5 iss 10 space mission.
As creative director of Stuff he Worked mainly in the Russian Mainland, Egypt and central Europe. Clients included. Pachin (Egypt largest paint manufacture), Dyrup (Denmark's largest paint manufacture, APN UK, Wyevale
Wyevale
The Garden Centre Group is a chain of 130 garden centres in the United Kingdom. Prior to 2009, it was known as Wyevale Garden Centres.It was voted 'Best Garden Centre 2009' in an online poll by Gardeners' World Magazine.- Name change :...
UK and Whiteleys
Whiteleys
Whiteleys is a shopping centre in London, England. It was London's first department store, located in the Bayswater area. The store's main entrance was located on Queensway.-History:...
UK.
He is currently Design Director of graphics at AIR DESIGN, London, UK.
Achievements
Whilst at Dun laoghaire Seán worked as production designer and Art Director on many film projects including INK and Chaero the final being 'The Big Swinger' by Declan Rex. This film won The Best film at the Fuji Film awards in London UK, 1989 and also the Society of designers silver medal for design in Ireland.Seán was the winner of the First Digital Equipment Corporation Bursary 1988. This Design Competition was run throughout the North and South of Ireland and the prize was a fully paid work experience at DEC's Headquarters in Boston USA. Seán was also awarded the NCEA medal for student of the year for his final show and also won a fully paid bursary from DLCAD to continue a post graduate course in screen printing.
Seán founded the OMARA ARCHIVE in 1989. The archive consists of three main area of interest. FEZ, FAST and FLAKE. Flake is a photography, print and packaging archive based around the graphic language of Detergent / washing powder boxes and was the bases of the Dirty Washing Exhibition in 2001. Fez is an ongoing collection of Felt hats tracing its origins from Sumerian times to the present day. Fast is a unique archive of Russian High altitude flying and space equipment. Many of the Russian flying and space items held in the archive are rare prototypes including the space suit (Strizh) belonging to Buran
Buran
Buran may refer to:* Buran , a Soviet space shuttle** Buran program, which developed the spacecraft* Buran eavesdropping device, invented by Léon Theremin, used by soviet intelligence* Buran cruise missile, a Soviet cruise missile...
test pilot Igor Volk
Igor Volk
Igor Petrovich Volk was a cosmonaut and test pilot in the Soviet Union. He is married and has two children.Igor Volk was selected as a cosmonaut on July 30, 1980, flew as Research Cosmonaut on Soyuz T-12, the 7th expedition to Salyut 7...
. This was first featured in Jack Magazine
Jack Magazine
Jack was an English language lad mag based in the United Kingdom.- History :Jack magazine was initially published by I Feel Good in 2002 in A5 format. With the tag "an orgy of war, animals, fashion, genius and cool", it featured glamorous photo shoots of women, reviews of clothing, gadgets etc and...
in London July 2004. The archive regularly lends rare items for commercial use the most recent being for Gettyimage's photoshoots and The History Channel infomercials. The O'Mara space collection was recently featured in COLOURS Magazine:Lab.
Sean was also a co-contributor along with Dr L.Gamman to the Encyclopaedia of Clothing and Fashion, (Charles Scribner's Sons, September 2004).
Whilst working at the Body Shop
Body shop
Body shopping is the practice of consultancy firms recruiting information technology workers in order to contract their services out on short-term bases...
Global design Department Seán was asked by Anita Roddick
Anita Roddick
Dame Anita Roddick, DBE was a British businesswoman, human rights activist and environmental campaigner, best known as the founder of The Body Shop, a cosmetics company producing and retailing beauty products that shaped ethical consumerism...
DBE and founder to create the campaign material for the Blow the Whistle on Domestic Violence Campaign 1995. This campaign was launched nationwide in America with Seán's design work featuring on all the poster and campaign collateral and getting national exposure on CNN.
Seán featured in the Mostly Men campaign posters in 1995, photographed by fashion photographer Matthew Shave.
Seán is currently attempting the Seven summits challenge. Summit NO:1 Kilimanjaro completed 7.8.2010 without the use of Diamox.
Second summit Elbrus pending Summer 2011.
Articles, film, work in print
- 1988 Digital News, Boston, USA.
- 1998 The Irish Emigrant, August 28 No: 28.
- 1988 Boston Globe, July, USA.
- 1989 Student Design Magazine -degree show work, August, London UK.
- 1995 Creative Review, Internet June spread, London UK.
- 1996 Graphics International, London UK.
- 1996 Design Week, a/w/, March, London UK.
- 1996 Creative Technology, October, London UK.
- 1997 Design Week, Oct. London UK.
- 1997 Financial Times. Delhi India.
- 1997 Business eye, Design Work featured on Film- (TV). London UK.
- 1996 BBC design awards (Bodyshop poster) London UK.
- 1996 Design Documentary-Body Shop, Japan.
- 1997 Design Documentary, European perspective on Indian Design. Fitch Delhi.
- 1995 A Queer Romance, Routledge. London UK.
- 1996 The Imagination Book. London UK.
- 1996 The Body Shop Book, reprint. London UK.
- 1996 Typography Now 2. Booth Clibborn. London UK.
- 1996 Advertising illustration, Pie, Japan.
- 1996 Typographics 2, hbi. London UK.
- 1996 2 Colour print, Pie, Japan.
- 1997 Sight for Sound, hbi. London UK.
- 1997 New Typographics 2, Pie. Japan.
- 2001 Dirty Washing UK, Independent, Metro Page, Design Week, New Statesman.
- 2003 This end up, London UK.
- 2003 Oversize Graphics. London UK.
Current engagements
Currently completing the book: Flake, The History of Detergent/washing Powder Box's, by Sean O'Mara (researcher and Author)Paperback, ISBN 9780955047503
The book further explores Seán's collection and research from the successful co-curated Exhibition "Dirty Washing"
at the design museum in 2001.