VINCENT CASEY - GRAPHIC DESIGNER, ARTIST

Jun 11

Jun 11 VINCENT CASEY - GRAPHIC DESIGNER, ARTIST

I grew up in the countryside in Co Clare in the west of Ireland. North Clare in the ‘80s had a prevalent sense of culture and identity from its unique limestone covered landscape to traditional Irish music and storytelling. We were surrounded by older people and the connection to my grandparents’ generation was very strong. My family ran a BnB during the tourist season and our local town was buzzing every September for the annual matchmaking festival. Every farmer in the country came to Lisdoonvarna looking for a wife.
My parents definitely instilled in me a strong work ethic. As kids we would spend our summers at the bog, getting turf for the winter, doing the hay and silage and helping out with the BnB. As a teenager I used to
get up a few hours before school to milk the cow and do the herding. I suppose it taught me how to become entrepreneurial. I even bought a calf with my holy communion money!

My five year old self wanted to be a truck driver, or a council worker filling potholes or maybe a rally driver. Sadly it didn't turn out that way; my wife and I now drive identical Honda CRVs.

I was always considered a bit of a daydreamer as a kid. My brothers were both good at hurling and my father was the coach. I wasn't good at sport so I spent a lot of time listening to music, drawing and painting. I even got into stamp collecting which I think ignited my love for graphic design. Music has always inspired me to be creative. While I never learnt to play an instrument, I spent a good deal of my childhood drawing AC/DC and Def Leppard logos!

After school I went to Galway to study Irish heritage which was a really nice way to pass a few years while I decided what to do next. I spent a summer painting houses in Boston, which really opened up the idea that the world was a small place. I eventually decided to study graphic design when I was 22, then found work as an editorial designer at a newly founded local newspaper. My first job out of college was to design the logo of the paper. I got into screen printing in my mid twenties and held a few exhibitions with a friend in unused spaces back home.

I moved to Melbourne in 2009. I'd just turned 30 and the recession was kicking in back home so it seemed like a good time to live somewhere different. I loved living in Melbourne, it’s got a great music scene and such a vibrant culture. Shortly after I moved to Melbourne, I met my wife Kylie. We spent a lot of our time travelling around Victoria and Castlemaine was always a place that drew us back. We got married in Yapeen, had a daughter, Stella and shortly after decided to find a place up here. We ended up buying in Newstead even though we'd never been here before. In many ways the land up here reminds me of where I grew up, full of harsh, uncompromising beauty. I absolutely love it.
It hasn't changed much since we arrived. Newstead has a great community and we feel very much at home here. There are some great local characters and never a dull moment. The town comes alive at the end of January for Newstead Live. I still work a few days a week down in Fitzroy and I love the balance of city and country. It also gives me an excuse to buy records or spend the odd night at the Tote.

Over the past few years I've designed a lot of branding and packaging for the food and drink industry and am currently working on a re-brand for a Sydney brewery. Through my work in Melbourne, I've designed
websites for Melbourne Music Week and Fashion Week. I love working on something I've got a connection to. When the current owners of the Bridge Hotel took over, I emailed them to ask them if I could design the
pub logo and thankfully they said yes. I recently worked on branding for an erotic podcast out of Castlemaine - stay tuned for that one! I'd love to design a set of postage stamps at some stage, although I haven't used one for a while.

I started working towards my show at Corner Store over a year ago. Up to that point, most of my work was quite figurative but over time I pared back the subject matter to a sort of organic geometry. The pieces for
this show all revolve around a series of circles in movement. I was inspired by an ambient album called The Disintegration Loops by William Basinski, which is a series of repetitive tape loops that disintegrated
over time. In many ways the screen printing process is quite similar in that each print is slightly different allowing a perfect digital image to take on more organic and unexpected forms the more times it gets
printed. Screen printing is best done in a controlled environment, but here in central Victoria we get such extreme temperatures that I had to embrace the fact that much of what I create is beyond my control and things often behave in unexpected ways. I've also recently started painting on laser cut wood which I've found to be a medium that really suits my style.

Many of the artists I admire tend to crossover between art and design.
Over a year ago I went to a show at ACCA by an Irish artist called Eva Rothschild whose art is minimal and spare yet so bold and striking. My new work has been very much inspired by an Italian artist/designer named Franco Grignani, whose mostly black-and-white work is full of movement and energy. Music has always had a profound influence on my work from post-punk to the Melbourne DIY scene.

Favourite things to do in the area: I often go with my family for a picnic at Cairn Curran in Joyces Creek.
It's an amazing ever-changing landscape with an array of bird life. During iso, I've spent a lot of time walking around the Loddon in Newstead, it's got the most amazing river gums. The Theatre Royal and The Bridge continuously put on great music. And the Guildford Winery does great long lunches.

Tips for people moving out here: Don't overthink it and be yourself.