27-year-old, Ciaran O'Shea, is a multi-tasking wunderkind.  “Coming from Southend has been a big factor in my motivation,” he explains, “If you want something done, you have to make it happen yourself”. O’Shea co-founded Junkclub in his hometown, and now runs the London-based Experimental Circle Club while also releasing records by Ipso Facto and Ulterior on his DiscError imprint. But O’Shea’s first love is design and, under the alias Discordo, creates artwork for These New Puritans and The Horrors. Could the secret of his organisational skills be that he thinks in geometric shapes? “A circular peg in a square hole,” is how he describes himself. “What the world needs,’ he says, ‘are people who upset the usual order, by experimenting and changing the rules, or not bothering to read them in the first place.”

Name a person or organisation that shares your DIY ethos, and explain why.
I've always been interested in Trevor Jackson, and when I first found his website I realised all these separate pieces – video work, print, the record label and bands – were all down to one person. It really changed how I approached work, the preconceptions I had about design, being a graphic designer and how that 'limited' my role or participation.  

Send us a picture/video that summarises your view of modern life, and explain why
I think it was a particularly late night in Southend a few months back that had me thinking modern life is simply black and white. Just a set of contrasting elements, events, experiences, actions and reactions that play off each other like a never ending cosmic tug of war. Good and bad. Win, lose.


Do you think the recession has helped or hindered your creativity? Why?
I think that it makes me far more aware of the reality of life... and whether that gives me something to embrace, or react against can only be a good thing. Punk, acid house... It will be interesting to see what new directions spark from the current feelings of unrest.  

Music for a revolution - what song sums up your attitude?
‘Bricks’ by The Diagram Brothers. I couldn't think of anything more apt, bricks, new foundations, a fortified wall, a catchy lyric the crowds can whistle, and handy in a riot.

What other period inspires you the most, and why?
Italian Futurism has always been an interest, initially it was typographically – Marinettis poetry, Zang Tumb Tumb, words in freedom. However, the more I read about the movement I realised it wasn't limited to just one discipline. Literature, painting, sound, architecture, even cooking were all embraced with this bold, aggressive, stark sensibility that I've found so appealing and so relevant to the modern world. Youth, speed, aggression. Its amazing that over a relatively short period rife with conflict and unrest that so much was created, real, bold, brash and deliberate.

Read more of the YCE feature here.