Abbie McHale

My work is a blend between digital and practical ways of working. This year, and throughout my time at university I have explored my many passions and learnt new skills from photography, to illustration, to print making, to motion graphics.

Throughout the heart of my practice I implement explosions of colour much like my music taste there is no chill, it’s loud and impactful, I use my work, as a space to capture the loudness of my inner voice by operating with an expressive colour palette, my self directed project: “The Queer Gaze – celebrating queer icons”,  is a key example of this, in which I take my own illustrations of queer icons and make screen printed copies of them as well as incorporating them into an informative zine.

I often tell stories with my design, with projects like “The Queer Gaze” through my illustrations this is also true of my projects  “Ambitious Cities” -in which I use my illustrations to make an animated video teaching children the importance of creating a sustainable, and inclusive environment- and  through the making of the social media campaign @genderanddesign, on Instagram in which I publish my dissertation on how there is a disparity between men and women in the design industry and the complications this has for the genders, which can be found within the work.

I also break away from colour and illustration in my publishing strand project, “Framing Spaces” instead I explore my other passion of photography capturing the architecture of Townhouse, instead of explosive, high contrasting colours I opted for neutral tones and focused more on texture when creating this publication to be more reflective of the space.