Instagram story viewer> @jack_flag> Tagged

Jack Smyth

@jack_flag

9.3K

followers

2738

following

Dublin 🇮🇪
Design & Illustration.
Designer of the Year 2024, The British Book Awards.
Free Palestine.

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

50 years of design at TUS athlone, and I’m still figuring out what being creative means to me.

I don’t think design is limited to what we make. It’s also how we see things, how we experience the world and how we make sense of the everyday.

Being around other creatives reminds me that growth often happens when we step outside our routines, question what we know and allow ourselves to see things differently.

You don’t have to be the best at drawing or have everything figured out to be creative.

Sometimes, you just need to be curious enough to ask questions, listen to other people’s experiences and challenge your own way of thinking.

Which is something I keep coming back to when I think about UX.

We all experience the world differently. So how can we create meaningful things for people if we never take the time to understand how they see it?

Maybe good design starts long before we make anything.

Maybe it starts with a conversation. #design #graphic #creative

3

1

This is tomorrow. There will be tickets on the door and doors at the slightly later time of 8.30. Stage times as follows. Subject to change but it will very close to these.

Dropping Bombs 11.20 - 12.00

Creepy Future 10.30 - 11.00

Hunger Pains 9.50 - 10.10

Topper 9.10 - 9.30

65

1

to celebrate the recent @anpostofficial Modern Irish Literary Fiction stamp collection, designed by illustrator @jack_flag , we're collaborating with An Post to give two lucky winners a special First Day Cover with 4 sets of these beautiful stamps.

Did you know all of these books have been nominated in previous years for the Dublin Literary Award?

How to enter:
Like this post
Follow us
Comment below telling us which of these titles you've read

Rules:
Open Internationally.
One entry per person.
Entries close at 11:59pm o Thursday 22 October.
Two winners will be selected at random on Friday 23 October.
Winners will be reply to their comment and must DM us within 48 hours to claim their prize.

108

54

We are delighted to announce that our annual book cover design lecture is back!

Presenting ‘Panic! That situation you didn’t plan for.’ With insights from a great range of speakers about how, sometimes, moments of panic(!) can lead to the best outcomes.

Speakers
@officeofcraig
@sharonkingchai
@lookbird
@juliacconnolly
@clareskeatsdesign
@foliosociety

Curated by @cutch___ @jack_flag @nico_taylor

Thursday 12th November 2026
St Bride Foundation and online via Zoom
Doors and bar: 6pm. Talks start at 7pm
Tickets £7-£14

To book, follow links in bio.

279

8

October 10th

🪦🐈‍⬛👻🎃 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN 🎃 👻🐈‍⬛🪦

Featured Book Review No. 2,170:
The House That Eats the Dead
Written by Max Doty @maxdoty1
Cover Designed by Jack Smyth @jack_flag
Published by Bantam
Recorded by Random House Audio
Listening Length: 10 hours and 22 minutes
Read by Lauryn Allman @lauryn.allman

Claire and her husband Tom move to a quiet suburb with their two children to escape the city. The house seems like the perfect home but Claire starts to notice a strangeness. Inexplicably items around the house start to disappear from flowers or food or even a dead pet. Not only do these things vanish but so do the memory of the consumed items. When Claire realizes the truth her first reaction is revulsion and fear. As dark and sinister forces threaten her and her family Claire embraces the House and its proclivities to her advantage.

It’s “Amityville Horror” meets “Monster House”

🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃 out of 5 PERFECT

#thehousethateatsthedead #maxdoty #31daysofhalloween🎃 #horrorbooks #hungryhungry

21

2

For anyone who's over 2026 at this point... meet our January titles, and their glorious covers!

1. My Stalkers is the new short story collection from Catherine Lacey, her first since the mega-acclaimed Certain American States. Cover by @_tometherington

2. When is a group biography not a group biography? When it's Ben Masters' dazzling and inventive The Lit Pack, which takes a deeply personal and uniquely sideways look at an iconic literary set. Cover by @gray.318

3. Fans of Donald Antrim have been waiting over 20 years for his new novel, and the profound and hallucinagenic My Eliot will prove worth the wait. Cover by @lookbird

4. Where Europe Begins is the new addition to your Yoko Tawada library, a collection of fantastic and dreamlike short stories. Cover by @jowalkerbookdesign

5. And finally the cover you'll never forget, for an unforgettable novel - My Lover, The Rabbi by Wayne Koestenbaum returns in paperback. Cover by @jack_flag

382

8

Our exciting speaker lineup is here! 🎉

Join us for the TUS 50th Anniversary Design Conference on 22 October 2026 at the Athlone campus. We’re delighted to welcome:

🎤 Prof. Jeremy Myerson
🎤 Annie Atkins
🎤 Oscar Torrans
🎤 Matt Lamont
🎤 Jack Smyth
🎤 Noelle Cooper
🎤 Colin Farmer
🎤 Elaine O’Neill

Come celebrate 50 years of design education in Athlone, reconnect with the design community and hear from our speakers about the future of design.

🎟️ Tickets are free, but places are limited. Book yours now through the link in our bio!

@annieatkins
@oscartorrans
@unthink_ie
@jack_flag
@_mattlamont
@tus_athlone

106

7

Jack Smyth

Jack Smyth is a freelance Designer, Art Director and Illustrator from Dublin who mostly designs book covers and illustrates editorial pieces. His clients include Penguin Random House, Faber & Faber, Simon & Schuster, The New Yorker, and A Post.

His work has been featured in It’s Nice That, Creative Review, Print Magazine, The New York Times and the 100 Archive.

He has won 9 Academy of British Cover Design Awards, and was named the Designer of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2024.

@jack_flag/

299

13

We were delighted to attend the official launch of four new An Post stamps in the GPO Museum this week. The stamps, which celebrate contemporary Irish literary fiction, were designed by book jacket illustrator Jack Smyth, and portray four different books by Irish writers - Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín, That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern, Room by Emma Donoghue and Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. Sarah Kenny joined Colm Tóibín, the stamps' designer Jack Smyth, Film Producer of Small Things Like These Catherine Magee and host Rick O'Shea in a panel discussion on Irish writing. Look out for these stamps in your nearest post office!

293

1

last night An Post launched their new Modern Irish Literary Fiction stamps 💌

Rick O’Shea moderated an incredible panel with author Colm Tóibin whose book Brooklyn is one of 4 commemorated, Jack Smythe who designed the stamps, bookseller Sarah Kenny from Kenny’s Bookshop in Galway, and Catherine Magee who produced Small Things Like These

if you know me you know I LOVE sending (and receiving!) post and choosing stamps is all part of the fun so this was very exciting for me

as Sarah and Catherine said last night, Irish authors are like our rockstars and it was very cool to see them celebrated this way 🥂

3

1

Last night we launched four literary themed stamps at Dublin’s GPO Museum, celebrating four important works of Modern Irish Literary Fiction with the help of with Rick O’Shea, Colm Tóibín, Jack Smyth, Sarah Kenny and Catherine Magee. 📚

The celebrated authors have each made a lasting contribution to literary fiction, holding a special place among the hearts of Irish readers while reaching a global readership.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us and helped make the evening such a special success. 💚

The Modern Irish Literary Fiction stamps are available to purchase from selected post offices nationwide and online at www.anpost.com/shop

#AnPost #Stamps #IrishLiteraryFiction

165

3

Four iconic novels. Four beautiful new stamps.

Inspired by some of the most celebrated works of modern Irish fiction, our new stamp collection celebrates the storytelling that continues to define Ireland around the world.

Designed by award-winning illustrator Jack Smyth, the collection features artwork inspired by Brooklyn, Room, Small Things Like These and That They May Face the Rising Sun, celebrating four contemporary Irish classics.

Buy now at anpost.com/IrishFiction or in selected post offices.

#AnPost #IrishFictionStamps

170

8