DAN DONOVAN
A very good question, I have been described by one of my clients as 'a renaissance man', which is rather grand I think. However, to define my creative offering under one label is quite impossible. Indeed, art and aesthetics are my life, and my world is primarily visual and visionary. I am married with two daughters, and I own a few guitars - and have a passion for creativity. I have had my own work exhibited, had books published, and have recorded and released many music albums. I am Dan, an artist.
Dan has been involved in our Cross Partner project for a number of years which involves our cultural partners delivering art and music workshops to adults with disabilities and those who are homeless or vulnerably housed. Dan has carried out both filming and photography for this project and has proved to be flexible and responsive to our needs as well as building terrific rapport with everyone involved in the project and treating the project participants with great sensitivity and respect.
Dan is a ridiculously versatile, multi-talented creator of beautiful things. The old ‘jack of all trades’ analogy most definitely doesn’t apply here because Dan is a craftsman at whatever he lays his hand to. I’ve worked with him in a number of capacities over the years and have always been blown away by his passion and ability. If you get the chance to work with him, grab it!
Dan is our go to man for all graphics and photography. He expertly and sympathetically designed our brand with us, making sure our graphic output is consistent, eye catching, cool yet professional. I can't express enough how important and stress-free it is to be able to trust someone completely with your brand and graphic output.
— Dave Birss
Editor at Large, The Drum
— ISI CLARKE
Director, Grange Farm Studio
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Dan is a multi talented and magnetic artist who engages people through his work. His versatility – photography, film making, musicianship, drawing, illustrating, painting, provide the people he works with with numerous “hooks” to hang on to.
Dan is the nicest, most patient person I have ever worked with! He works without complaint, and always delivers on time and on budget. He puts his heart and his head into his work and the results speak for themselves. It's almost ten years since we began working together. Here's to the next ten!
— John Wroe
Former Executive Director, Momentum Arts
— SIMON CLARK
Director, Forest
— Karen Reynolds
Head Of Community Relations, JTI
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Way back in 2003 I was running a graphic design company called The Design Dell. I had a notion to show the world our passion and took a creative side step from our commercial work to produce an aesthetic journal. Battenburg was that publication. It was distributed nationally and also found its way onto the shelves of the Tate Modern store.
I closed the company in 2007 and found some liberation - it was an opportunity to build and develop my work. A re-birthed Battenburg became my creative home.
My portfolio is now very varied. As a graphic designer, photographer, film maker, musician and workshop, artist I find my work as colourful and engaging as my clients. I have a pool of talented individuals who I pull in to play on different projects but I always remain hands on steering and directing.
I'm always interested to hear from you. Do say hello and do throw a glance at my work - maybe we can do something great together.
I shoot film and photos on a number of Canon Cameras. I am an Apple Mac user and use Photoshop, Lightroom, Muse, InDesign, Premier and Illustrator extensively. Word and Excel are part of my administration tools. I engage comfortably with many different client groups.
I left school in 1976 with nothing more than a CSE grade 1 in Art. Since then, my life and career journey has been open and broad. The skills I have learned have been self-taught through opportunities and making friends. I recently discovered that I am dyslexic. This has been eye-opening and made me realise the importance of the leftfield thinking which has defined my style, approach and character.
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Thinking outside of the box is a strange concept. I've spent most of my career wondering what the box is.
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