Alana McDowell

Alana McDowell is an Irish illustrator and graphic designer from Belfast, working between Belfast and London. With a keen interest in pop-culture and current affairs, and with an emphasis on female first projects, Alana utilises her freehand drawing skills to add a rebellious edge to projects and prints. Taking inspiration from a mixture of contemporary etching, 70s art and design, and tattoo culture, you can expect heavy line work, bold type, and stark contrasting colours from her work.

She studied Industrial Design at Northumbria University, but decided early on in her studies that Graphic Design was what she wanted to do. Completing an Erasmus semester at the Australian Academy of Design really cemented this for Alana. Having worked in everything from UI, to digital, and graphics, she figured out that her real passion was for illustration after she landed her first mural piece for a client outside of her 9-5. From here Alana’s career snowballed, and she was commissioned to create a live mural for the opening of Lululemon in Spitalfields. She quit her day job and went freelance for a couple of years. A little later Alana got into her last full time role; “…it really broadened my horizons in terms of bigger name clients. But even there despite the brief I would try and sneak illustrations into any creative projects I could”.

Alana moved back home last year, pre-covid, and started working freelance. “Despite my apprehensions and all the chaos that came with lockdown I got lucky with some really great projects in the past year” describes the illustrator. This included a mural for Jameson, a live drawing and window graphic for Vans, and an illustrative rebrand for a newly launched rum. She concludes; “So while there’s definitely been the lows that have came with 2020, it definitely reignited my love for art. I’ve started creating and selling prints, both for myself and for client work, picked up a spray can for the first time in years and had my first art stall”.

www.alanamcdowell.com
@alanamcdowell

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