The Team

 

Declan Foley, Creative Director, designwest

Heading up the designwest team, Declan has more than a decade of design experience and a wealth of award-winning work behind him.

After gaining a distinction in Design Communications, Declan developed his skills in a number of Ireland’s top design agencies. At Watermarque Communications, he worked both above and below the line on huge brands such as Sony, Budweiser and Carlsberg. Here he came up with the distinctive Carlsberg tulip glass.

At Strategem, Declan delivered award-winning campaigns for a broad spectrum of FMCG clients, including Smirnoff, Harp & Tayto. He also helped define a new global identity for drinks giant, Baileys, and created strong design solutions for Irish favourites Low Low, Denny, Ballyfree and Avonmore.

Freelance stints at Rothco and Cawley Nea saw Declan produce high profile advertising work for Aer Lingus, Coors Light and Citroen, before he joined Banks Love to create yet more award-winning design – this time for Smithwicks, Kelloggs, Ribena, Jacobs, and Tropicana.

In 2005, Declan founded designwest. Initially running the company from Dublin, Declan decided to relocate both family and business to his home in the West. Since the move in 2008, designwest has become one of the top creative companies in the West of Ireland.


 

Bridget Moran, Senior Designer

A LYIT graduate, with a National Diploma in Graphic Design and a Bachelor Degree in Digital Media, Bridget has over seven years industry experience working in design studios, marketing companies, printers, and publishing houses across Ireland.

Throughout her years as a senior designer & as a freelancer, Bridget has had the oppurtunity to have worked on projects for many major market players including, Meteor Mobile (Communications), O2 (Communications), Johnson & Johnson (Healthcare), Bank of Scotland Ireland (Finance), Masterfoods (FMCG), Black Tie (Fashion), Sherry Fitzgerald (Property), Menolly Group (Property), Matheson Ormsby Prentice (Law), UCD (Education), Brooks Building Providers (Construction) and East Point Business Park (Commercial).

Bridget is passionate about design & is committed to delivering effective and creative solutions to every brief. Her key skills lie in logo creation, brand implementation, page layout and conceptual advertising.


 

Kyra Fingleton, Copywriter.

Originally from the UK, Kyra has a BA (Hons) in Communication and a wealth of international copywriting experience. Starting her career in London’s fast-paced PR sector, she worked for two dynamic young agencies, writing for household names such as Sony and BT (formerly British Telecom). She then moved to global advertising giant J. Walter Thompson, where she formed one half of JWT Specialised Communications’ first in-house Creative Team, developing campaigns for mega-brands including Budweiser, Shell and KPMG.

In 2002 she took a consultative copywriting role at Foxtons, (London’s Estate Agent), before going ‘down under’ to Vantage GVT, (Asia-Pacific’s leading virtual-conferencing company). Here, she overhauled the company’s website and written marketing material.

Since settling in Ireland five years ago, Kyra has worked on creative copywriting projects for a broad range of clients including: Eircom, O2, Meteor, Oxfam Ireland, EBS, SuperValu and various FMCG brands, as well as local government bodies and small businesses throughout the country.


 


 

Edith Heffernan, Website Designer and Developer

Edith has a BSC in Multimedia from DCU, as well as seven years online experience in Web Design and Development.

Staring her career at Webtrade in Dublin, she spent two years working on high profile brands such as Comreg, Horse Racing Ireland, Flora Women's Mini Marathon, Lansdowne Road Development Authority and Georgina Campbell's Ireland Guide.

From there, Edith moved to Net Affinity, where she honed her skills as a designer in a marketing environment. Projects included Fitzwilliam Hotel, Dylan Hotel, Payzone PLC, Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links, and Seafield Hotel and Spa. Following this, Edith enjoyed a year freelancing for Ogilvy, Zoo Digital, Artizan Creative and Studio 3D8.

Edith’s key skills include: user interface design (both web and mobile), Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Fireworks, Maxon Cinema 4D, Flash and Actionscript 2,3 and back end development (PHP, HTML, XML, AJAX and CSS).


 

Orla Gibney, Media and Marketing Consultant

Orla has a Masters Degree in Public Relations from DIT along with five years experience in the PR and Marketing field.
 
Orla started her career with one of Dublin’s oldest PR agencies, Park Communications where she worked on a number of high profile accounts including Motorola, Masterfoods, Nicorette and Epson. In 2005 Park Communications merged with Heneghan PR, as part of the merger Orla moved with the company to continue work with her existing clients. During her time with Heneghan PR she also took new accounts namely Irishjobs.ie and Rally Ireland. Orla returned to the West of Ireland in 2006 to take up the position of Marketing and Promotions Executive with Ireland West Airport Knock. While working at the Airport she established excellent relationships and contacts with key media, businesses and interest groups in the region
 
Orla has vast experience in consumer and corporate PR with excellent relations with regional media in the West and North West as well as national media. She has successfully planned and implemented a number of above and below the line marketing campaigns in the West of Ireland. Orla can offer full Marketing, Public Relations and Event Management services and will bring imagination and flair to any Marketing and PR campaign, no matter how big or small.