Day 1 (I refuse to count what is now nostalgically known as “Tow-Truck Day”) brought pilgrimages to two sacred sites of equal but disparate sanctity. 

Trinity College is the home of the Book of Kells, a painstakingly illuminated Latin manuscript of the Gospels created sometime around the year 800. There’s no doubt the monks who labored intensely over their exacting graphical work are Deke’s spiritual artistic forebearers. 

There’s no photography allowed in the room where two pages of the manuscript lay open, so I can only include an iPhone shot from a book in the gift shop. Those familiar with Deke’s vector-based Celtic Knot project in Chapter 17 of Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Advanced will notice the familial resemblance. 

Note, Deke revisits the Celtic Knot project in Chapter 18: “Live Paint and Interlocking Paths” of his Illustrator CS6 One-on-One: Intermediate course, which is due out this very week.

No, the illuminators of Kells did not work in halftone dots, but I made the best of not being able to shoot the real thing by playing with my new Olloclip. This handy device has a macro, wide-angle, and fish-eye lens all in one, and has made me completely comfortable with using my phone as my primary camera. 

The second site on our holy tour was to the Guinness Storehouse in St. James Place: seven floors of homage to the historical brew. Far from a boring industrial production tour, the design of the Guinness experience is a multi-media immersion into the history, brewing, and advertising of Guinness. And it makes a lasting impression that you’re rewarded with a pint at the end of the tour in a room with a 36 degree view of Dublin. 

Perhaps the most graphically inspired moment at Guinness came at lunch, where the bay leaf from from my Irish stew visually reflected my feelings on the beer, the company, and the day. 

Sláinte!