Career by Design
LYIT continues to collaborate between industry and academic learning and this year is no exception. Over 50% of all LYIT CAO courses include work placement giving students valuable hands-on experience.
In addition to this, the college regularly invites industry leaders to speak to students and to share relevant tips and offer insights on future careers across the Schools of Business, Engineering, Tourism and Science.
Recently, Fiona O’Reilly, On the Dot Design, returned to LYIT to talk to Year 1 Design students about her passion for good design, what makes it effective and to tell her story.
Fiona has spent 25 years in the design industry in Dublin, New York and Sydney in various creative and business roles. She returned to Donegal to study a BA Honours in Visual Communication at LYIT and followed it with a Masters in Motion Graphics both with distinctions.
“Whist I had much experience in the industry I wanted to add to my qualifications and spend time on creative thinking and update my skills. I was able to do that while doing work that I love” says Fiona.
Fiona graduated from LYIT with a First Class MA in Motion Graphics and set up On the Dot to offer a complete visual communication consultancy for clients. It was a life long ambition of mine to set up my own business and the MA give me another qualification in a growing sector to complete my offering.
Speaking about her return to college as a mature student, Fiona says, “LYIT is a great college, that is very welcoming to mature students like me. The staff and facilities are excellent and there’s a great atmosphere on campus. The Masters has given me the skills and confidence to add this niche area to the services On the Dot provide and start a new exciting stage of my life”.
Obviously very passionate about her career Fiona explains, “Motion graphics combines animation, illustration, photography, video, typography, graphic design and audio together on a timeline in order to create visual communication which changes over time, connecting with the audience on several levels to get a message across. It helps to convey information in an appealing, entertaining, and exciting way through new media culture using evolving digital technology. It’s an innovative industry with huge growth potential for those with talent and drive”. On the Dot will be taking on a LYIT Year 3 Design student for 3 months work placement this year.
On the Dot, offers a complete communication package, combining traditional print and branding services with the latest in visual communications for the new media culture. Some of the services provided are branding, design for print web and digital media, presentations, publishing and advertising. “I love what I do, it changes every day and there is tremendous satisfaction in having your own business. Whilst I’m based in Letterkenny I have clients across the country and luckily still in New York”. Visit onthedot.ie to see some of Fiona’s work.
“We’re always delighted to welcome our graduates back to LYIT, says Nollaig Crombie Lecturer in Design, The students get to hear first hand from people working in many interesting areas and also get a true indication of the scope of careers which their study will lead to. Fiona’s talk was highly informative and inspirational and also gave the students an idea what it’s like to set up your own business.
Find out more about studying at LYIT including Graphic Design and Motion Graphics courses, visit lyit.ie.