Penny Byrne

Daltaí: Students, Come As You Are

College is meant to be the time you find your people, yet for many students in Dublin it feels fragmented and inaccessible. Rising living costs have quietly eroded the college experience. Students feel spread out and out of the loop, contributing to growing loneliness among young people in Ireland.

Daltaí is a speculative organisation founded by alumni to build a more open and inclusive student life to Dublin. Its app, WHO’S OUT, lets students who are identified by their Student Guilds, see live activity of who’s around. The shared identity of the Student Guilds promotes the fact: we’re all students, all in the same boat, and just want to enjoy the experience. The identity comes to life at Daltaí Festival at the end of the college year.

Daltaí Festival brings the Student Guilds to life. The festival marks the end of the college year for only and all students, giving students something to look forward to during the year. The blended icons symbolise students connecting.

The heart of the visual identity are the Student Guilds — designed to avoid the social barriers that can form when you feel like you already know someone before meeting them. This puts the focus on what every student has in common.

Features on the map of the WHO'S OUT app

The central point of the app is the map where you can see Student Guild icons. This shows where students are active. It enables students to feel welcome to socialise with each other and once the Active button is pressed, the students are welcome to join.

Telegrams are plans you can put out publicly or privately to your friends. It’s a place to make quick plans, quick invites, without needing to think or overthink too much.

In Activity, the students can view their social history: where they were and who they met while they were active. This builds a vibrant visualisation of your social life as a student while making memories, "for the plot" of your life.

Example of getting a notification from a friend who is Active. Friends in the app can only be added in person. When you’ve added a friend, you can then see their Guild and their details i.e. name, college and course.

Interactive screens throughout all colleges in Dublin will show live activity coming from the app.

Badges for students based on their Student Guild.

WHO'S OUT promotional reel on Daltaí's social media. The promo video for the app brings a free-spirited atmosphere to Daltaí's social media promotion and adds a human feel to all digital platforms.

Daltaí Festival promotional reel. When the student guilds are blended together, they create a symbol for students connecting.

Project Objectives

The goal of this project was to create something that ties all students together to enrich the student life of Dublin and eventually the rest of the country.

Thesis: Kubrick to Conscious: Design in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange as a catalyst for political, technological and societal consciousness.

My thesis investigates the potential of Stanley Kubrick’s films Dr. Strangelove (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and A Clockwork Orange (1972) to act as a catalyst for political, technological and social consciousness through the use of modern design. Kubrick used modern design references in each film while questioning ideologies that derived from the Modern movement. The subjects of these films are as relevant now as they were at the time. This drew me to the subject. These films are each set in the future and have a different message and style while serving the same purpose; to provoke moral reflection on the current events occurring around the time of their releases, whether that be politics, social behaviours or technological advancements like AI.

Penny Byrne

BA (Hons) Graphic Design

Hey, I’m Penny! l love to make work that matters. I’m particularly interested in visual identity, motion and editorial design as well as anything that challenges me and expands my skills. My work is driven by what inspires me whether it's music, film, or my surroundings. I’m drawn to meaningful projects that shift perceptions and aim to make work that leaves lasting impressions. Alongside college, I completed a part-time Audio and Music Technology course at Windmill Lane, joined an international workshop at the Royal Academy of Arts in Antwerp, and spent five months on Erasmus at Hochschule für Gestaltung in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany. I can’t wait to see where design takes me next!