The Joy Of Creation

Irish production house Creative Sounds is responsible for some of the entertainment industry’s most successful design and marketing projects. Founder Lee Walsh discusses the state of the art…

Dave Hanratty, 28 Mar 2012

Lee was the creative genius behind the success of the Crazy Frog ringtone, which was so big that Tony Blair had it on his phone. It was project that established the foundation for Creative Sounds’ subsequent success. “Blair talked about it on radio once with Chris Evans,” Lee recalls. “So that was a marketing dream for me, at 22 years of age, to work on that.”

Now 28, Lee is at the top of the game internationally, designing the promotional campaigns and imagery for world tours by the likes of Il Divo, Lionel Richie, Kelly Clarkson and Cirque du Soleil.

“With Il Divo at the moment, we’re creating a massive amount of content – TV commercials, radio commercials, their official tour poster, online branding and things like that. That’s all being designed from our base in Ireland, which is amazing.”

Applying the imagery developed for the marketing in live production represents a particular challenge.

“We’re specialising now in designing content for bands who are going on tour,” he says. “95% of the bands and artists that we work with are very image-conscious. It is in the nature of what they do, at the poppier end of the business. On the other hand, the likes of The Who wouldn’t really care. We worked with Roger Daltrey last year, and we could put graphics anywhere on the screen behind him during his show, behind his head or whatever. With someone like Lady Gaga, when her face is on screen, the graphics cannot be anywhere near her. You have to get a handle those kinds of details.”

Household names with big budgets are one thing, but what of up-and-coming Irish acts? Do Creative Sounds work with them?

“Absolutely,” he says. “The Irish music industry is very strange at the moment – but it’s a great time for the music itself. I had a call from a new Irish boyband last week asking if we could listen to their album and choose what tracks would make good singles and music videos. We’re always there to help out with stuff like that. At the end of the day, you never know what the next big thing is going to be, and we want to be part of it.

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