The B!G 5 has continued throughout the year in all its bonkers, lively, fun yet informative way! We’ve spoken to Nicki Hoyne, founder of Nicki Hoyne Collection; Eugene Canavan, Design Director at Design Partners; Elena Rimeikaite, Head of Design at Kooba; Ronan Holohan, Owner at Milimetre Design; John Lynch, Founder at Context Studio and Hilary Goudie, User Experience Designer, Researcher and all-round, self-confessed Messer at Deloitte Digital!

Once again the overall news for anybody interested in pursuing a career in anything creative is really good. The main criteria needed for success are oodles of passion, thinking a bit differently, not jumping on the first idea and paying attention to textures, colours and nature. It all sounds very do-able, very manageable and better still is the insight that all the best ideas come at the most interesting of times. There was some debate on this one as Eugene was very clear that he is not at his sharpest early in the morning whereas Elena is 100% a morning person and has all her best work done before 9am! I think the most inspiring answer goes to Nicki who has her best creative moments when on an aeroplane. Sounds like the perfect excuse for some trips!

When asked about their greatest creative success, Nicki credited her shoes which within two months of launching were on sale in Brown Thomas in Dublin. Doesn’t get much better than that for a shoe designer. Elena as a B!G Mentor gave the perfect answer that she enjoys watching the success of others and championing their work. John hired lots of junior designers when leading his first design team and was rewarded with an abundance of fresh, new ideas.
The greatest fail question can stump some but not this bunch. Hilary remarked that overthinking can be an issue for her.

I think we have all been guilty of this in some shape or form!

Ronan commented that sometimes meeting a deadline can be difficult which he considers to be a creative fail and Eugene approached the question differently by answering that it’s rare to ever hit perfection, despite always striving for it. There are always going to be constraints to take into the equation including people you’re working with and for and sometimes these can go with you or sometimes they can go against you. That’s just life but it’s a good lesson to learn.

The Mentors didn’t fail with their answers to what advice they would give to students. Again, Hilary put it very nicely:

John explained how he spends a lot of time with companies trying to get them to move on from their first idea. His advises against settling on your first idea, there will be more and they might just get better and better. Ronan believes in the power of passion – he even has a sign behind his computer to remind him every day how important it is to be passionate about what you do. Elena was 100% right in saying that there are no bad ideas, there are no bad suggestions, diversity is key for creativity.

On that note, it has been suggested that everyone should save the date for The B!G Idea Showcase which will be on 20th May between 11am and 1pm!

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