About Lucy O'Reilly
I help ambitious entrepreneurs build brands that are bigger than they are
Brand strategist and designer based in Dublin. I work with women who are past the starting-out stage — building companies, methodologies and movements that need to work when they're not in the room.
What I actually do
Most branding conversations start in the wrong place. A new logo, a refreshed website, a better colour palette. These things matter, but they're the expression of a strategy, not a substitute for one.
My work starts with clarity: who you are at this stage of your business, what you're really building, how you need to be positioned in the market, and what your brand needs to do without you. Then — and only then — we design something that earns its place.
The people I work with are typically at an inflection point. They've built something real. They have hard-won expertise, a clear point of view, and ambitions that have outgrown the brand they started with. They don't need a cheerleader. They need a thinking partner who can hold the strategic vision and execute it beautifully.
How I Got Here
It was 5am in a soggy field in West Cork. I was lying in a cheap tent with my three kids, rain dripping on my face, wondering how I'd ended up there. Fresh from a relationship breakdown, struggling to find work after years away from the workplace, I felt like a failure.
That moment could have broken me. Instead, it became the turning point.
I'd been designing websites as a hobby. With my career at a crossroads, I decided to turn that into a lifeline. So I went back to school — not once, but twice — earning degrees in digital technology, design and marketing, all while raising three sons on my own.
What that experience gave me wasn't just technical skill. It gave me a deep understanding of what it takes to build something from nothing, to back yourself when it's not obvious you should, and to make decisions about your brand and business when the stakes feel very real.
A decade on, I've worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs. The ones I'm most drawn to — and where I do my best work — are the women building something with genuine scale and ambition. Women who are done playing small.
“Lucy didn’t just get into the trenches with me, she dug them. She listened to my vision and developed a brand that was entirely me, visually and emotionally.”
My approach
Strategy first, always. Every project begins with brand clarity — who you are, what makes you different, and how to position you to attract the clients and opportunities you actually want.
The full ecosystem. From strategy and visual identity to website, email funnels and course platforms — everything is built to work together, not in isolation.
Empathy and expertise in equal measure. I've lived the midlife pivot. I understand the psychology of building something ambitious at this stage, the imposter syndrome that sits alongside serious capability, and the importance of a brand that finally matches your ambition.
Amuse Bouches
♥️ I captained France's only women's cricket team in the early 1990s — we had to travel abroad to find opponents.
♥️ I speak English, French, Spanish, conversational Arabic, and very little Irish.
♥️ I once guided a tour bus of 70 Belgians around Paris, standing in for a guide who didn't show up. I wasn't a tour guide. I gave it a go anyway.
♥️ I'm an avid choral singer. The highlight of 2025/26 was Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri at the National Concert Hall.
♥️ I'm proof that online dating works. And that 55 can look however you want it to.
