Donough O'Malley — Retro Graphic Illustrator, Brighton

Irish illustrator Donough O’Malley’s bold, graphical style stands apart from the rest thanks to its quirky humour, enticing old print and paper texturing and his exceptional ability to create something fresh and unique for every client.

Hailing from Monaghan, Donough is based in Brighton where he works as an illustrator and storyboard artist for a range of publishers, broadcasters and production houses. He loves the challenge of creating new visuals for clients, and two of his favourite fellow illustrators are Steve Simpson and Peter Donnelly. He has a BA in Illustration from the University of the West of England and an MA in Narrative and Sequential Design from Brighton University.

Approach

Once he understands the brief, Donough grabs his pencils and sketchpad and explores some ideas, making notes and working out a composition. Then he hones the style of the execution and colour choices. His pencil rough is brought into Photoshop and fine-tuned using handmade textures he’s collected over the years.

Key Software

Photoshop

Style

Donough’s carefully honed style brings together colours, shapes and textures to generate a sense of fun and a very tactile feel. His graphical style lends itself well to screenprinting, which he’s into at the moment, but he’s equally happy creating more traditional-style illustrations to be used in children’s books, for instance.

Client list

Donough’s clients include the Big Issue, Jameson's Whiskey, Random House, Oxford University Press, Quarto, Hachette, The V&A, 1843 magazine, Britvic Soft Drinks, Women's Health magazine, New Internationalist, Runners World, Slimmers World, Haymarket Publishing, The Handmade Soap Company, The Boston Globe, University of Massachusetts and others.