id2015 PARTNERS

CONTENTSForeword Minister Ged Nash pg 2

Irish Design 2015 Karen Hennessy pg 3

At the threshold Alex Milton pg 4

Creative Collaborations Louise Allen pg 6

INTERACTION pg 11

Design Partners X Seed Labs pg 12

Causeway by Design Partners pg 13

IBM X Atelier Projects X ID2015 pg 14

Dolmen pg 18

Novaerus pg 19

Dolmen X Novaerus pg 20

Dolmen + Novaerus (Interview) pg 21

Mcor Technologies pg 22

Deirdre McCormack, Mcor (Interview) pg 23

Arckit pg 24

Damien Murtagh Arckit (Interview) pg 25

Studio Aad X John McLaughlin Architects pg 26

Cabinet of Modern Irish Life pg 27

Scott Burnett Studio Aad (Interview) pg 31

Katie Sanderson Recipes pg 32

OBJECTSMourne Textiles pg 36

Notion pg 37

Mourne Textiles X Notion pg 38

Mario Sierra Mourne Textiles (Interview) pg 40

Aodh pg 42

Perch pg 44

Perch X Labofa pg 45

Thomas Montgomery pg 46

Perch X Thomas Montgomery pg 47

Simon Dennehy, Perch (Interview) pg 48

Ceadogan Rugs pg 50

Andrew Ludick pg 51

Ceadogan Rugs X Andrew Ludick pg 52

Claire Anne O’Brien pg 54

Claire Anne O’Brien X Ceadogan Rugs pg 55

Love & Robots pg 56

Niamh Lunny pg 56

Love & Robots X Niamh Lunny pg 58

Love & Robots (Interview) pg 59

Emma Cahill pg 60

Genevieve Howard pg 61

Designgoat pg 62

Katie Sanderson pg 63

Designgoat X Katie Sanderson pg 64

Garrett Pitcher pg 66

Design Partners X Calor pg 68

Design Partners X Le Creuset pg 69

Derek Wilson pg 70

Rothschild and Bickers pg 72

Snug pg 73

Cathal Loughnane pg 74

Peter Sheehan pg 75

Cathal Loughnane X Peter Sheehan pg 76

The Souvenir Project pg 78

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ENVIRONMENTGrafton Architects pg 92

Graphic Relief pg 93

Grafton Architects X Graphic Relief pg 94

Milan pg 98

Smarter Surfaces pg 100

Eindhoven pg 102

COMMUNICATIONSarah Bowie pg 106

Sarah Bowie X Dolmen X Novaerus pg 108

VFX Association of Ireland pg 110

James Morris Windmill Lane (Interview) pg 114

In The Company Of Huskies pg 116

Studio PSK pg 118

The Stone Twins pg 120

Animation Ireland pg 122

Atelier Projects pg 132

The Salvage Press pg 134

The Salvage Press X Distiller’s Press X Solaris Tea pg 135

Think & Son pg 136

Seymours Irish Biscuits pg 137

Think & Son X Seymours Irish Biscuits p g 138

Zero-G pg 140

Zero-G X Partners pg 142

Design Matters pg 146

Showreels pg 152

Library pg 153

Credits pg 154

Hospitality Sponsors pg 155

Exhibited at Milan Design Week 2015

Exhibited at NYCxDESIGN 2015 Exhibited at Dutch Design Week 2015 Exhibited at Design Hub, Coach House, Dublin Castle 2015

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FOREWORd

Ireland’s creativity in areas such as literature, music and art is world-renowned. But in Ireland we also have many great businesses producing creative products and services using excellent internationally competitive and innovative design. The Irish Government’s ambition is to showcase these world-class businesses and support them in selling their goods and services internationally. It is important that we recognise the difference that good quality design can make to the long term competitiveness of individual enterprises and the economy as a whole, and promote this agenda to our greatest advantage.

Bringing Irish design to the world is based on bringing the very best of design across all disciplines to key international design weeks, architectural biennales and fashion weeks. The idea of designating a year to celebrating and promoting Irish design emerged from the Global Irish Economic Forum in 2013. The Government backed this proposal, supporting a comprehensive programme of national and international events and activities throughout 2015.

The aim of Irish Design 2015 (ID2015) is to bring visibility to Ireland’s dynamic design businesses, supporting them in trading in competitive foreign markets and ultimately creating jobs at home. The initiative is being convened by the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCoI), in collaboration with partner organisations, on behalf of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Enterprise Ireland.

As the flagship exhibition for ID2015, Liminal – Irish design at the threshold offers a unique platform for showcasing Irish innovation and creativity to discerning audiences around the world. The continued evolution of this exhibition throughout the year has resulted in new work being shown in each location on its touring programme. The response to this exhibition’s previous outings at Milan Design Week, WantedDesign in New York and Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven highlights the success of Irish Design 2015 in promoting the breadth of Ireland’s design talent on the international stage.

As the year long programme for ID2015 comes to a close, presenting this exhibitIon back home at the Design Hub in Dublin Castle will allow Irish audiences to enjoy and take pride in the exciting work emerging from Ireland’s vibrant design sector. Liminal – Irish design at the threshold plays an instrumental role in positioning design at the heart of our creative economy and in growing Ireland’s reputation abroad as a home for innovative design products and services.

Ged Nash, TDMinister for Business and Employment

The aim of Irish Design 2015 is to bring visibility to Ireland’s dynamic design businesses, supporting them in trading in competitive foreign markets and ultimately creating jobs at home.

“

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iRiSH dESiGN 2015

Showcasing Irish design to the world is central to all of the events and activities taking place this year as part of Irish Design 2015 (ID2015). Through an extensive year-long programme, we are presenting the work of contemporary Irish designers at major international design events and through trade missions, developing commercial opportunities and establishing strategic partnerships for the ongoing development of this vibrant sector.

As an Irish initiative with a global reach, ID2015 offers Irish designers a unique opportunity to highlight the significant role and impact that design has in every facet of life, shining a spotlight on the level of innovation, collaboration and new product development happening in Ireland right now.

The business model of showcasing Irish creativity abroad through our flagship exhibition Liminal – Irish design at the threshold is proving successful in generating real commercial opportunities. The featured designers have the ambition and capability to expand into international markets and the experience and industry knowledge gained from presenting Liminal at international design weeks this year will have lasting benefits for the sector as a whole. Following its tour of international design capitals, we are delighted to be showing Liminal in Dublin as the final exhibition in our year-long programme at the Design Hub in the Coach House, Dublin Castle.

Collaboration with public and private partners both in Ireland and abroad, for which we are extremely grateful, has been central to the planning and delivery of the ID2015 programme in order to ensure a legacy from this year. With continued support and investment in design and working with our partners, ID2015 has the potential to act as a catalyst for significant change in Ireland’s competitiveness in the global marketplace and in creating employment opportunities over the years to come.

Karen HennessyChief Executive, Irish Design 2015ID2015 offers Irish designers a

unique opportunity to highlight the significant role and impact that design has in every facet of life.”

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AT THE THRESHOld

Ireland is a small island at the edge of Europe with remarkable global reach. There are an estimated 80 million people worldwide that are of Irish origin, and this connected, collaborative network creates an influence beyond our size. Irish design has a history of harnessing creativity, and its practitioners have consistently explored emergent fields, unbound by disciplinary convention or commercial silos. This has enabled designers to draw upon their resilience to rebuild and remodel their practices through design thinking and help drive Ireland’s rapidly expanding creative economy.

With a breadth of disciplines ranging from the tech start-ups of Dublin’s silicon docks, through to architectural innovation and woven textile manufacture, the Ireland of today tells a fascinating story of design on the edge and design between the boundaries.

To mark the year of Irish Design 2015 (ID2015) – a major government-backed initiative seeking to increase the awareness, understanding and use of design in Irish society, and to promote Irish design capability internationally – Liminal – Irish design at the threshold is an exhibition presenting a selection of Ireland’s most exciting design thinking and practice. Working across a variety of disciplines, the exhibiting designers, companies and studios have been selected for the innovative outlook of their work, its connectivity and ability to transcend disciplinary

boundaries to address the issues of today.Increasingly, designers across the globe

are striving to locate their work within a state of political, economic and social flux, to find a position where their thinking and practice stays emergent and fresh, without becoming stylised and fixed. In this sense, contemporary design offers a provisional exploratory and transitional space laden with unexplored possibilities, a dynamic state of creativity where work is held in a playful, transformative tension.

Ireland’s creative output has long been framed by literature, music, theatre, filmmaking and art, yet these represent only a fragment of the breadth of Irish creativity. This flagship exhibition adds a new chapter to Ireland’s creative story, a tale that has featured iconic figures such as Eileen Gray and progressive initiatives such as the Kilkenny Design Workshops (the first government-sponsored design agency in the world, launched in 1963), all built upon a rich legacy of indigenous craft skills.

This exhibition reveals the potential for the transgressive quality of Irish design in 2015 and beyond. The Irish are innate storytellers, keen to address and resolve the big issues of today through passionate conversation and debate. As design increasingly seeks to create holistic experiences and narratives, Ireland is well placed to play a significant role in twenty-first century design, helping

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Liminal spaces lie between the known and the unknown.”

to meet the design challenges of tomorrow. Revelling in its trans-geographical, trans-cultural and trans-disciplinary nature, Liminal provides a timely platform for creative change on the island of Ireland.

Liminal spaces lie between the known and the unknown – transitional spaces of heightened intensity that we experience when we cross the threshold of what is known. They are doorways, gateways and pathways between ideas, feelings or disciplines. Taking the theme of ‘the liminal’, this exhibition explores the craft of collaboration and presents the exploratory journeys undertaken by designers. Moving through a series of design venues, starting in Milan, and traveling to New York, Eindhoven and on to Dublin, the evolving exhibition narrative plays with the scope of the provisional, the possible and the unexplored in Irish design.

Tasked with exhibiting new products, experiences or processes, the exhibitors have created work that resonates across the world but is indicative of the modern Irish design community. Commissioned projects move between global market and local space, public use and private value, work and home, commerce and culture to foster creative collaborations across design disciplines.

Liminal explores the dissolution of disciplinary order and hierarchies, creating a fluid, malleable domain that enables

new design methods and customs to take speculative form. It stimulates, contextualises and celebrates interdisciplinarity as a particular phenomenon of emerging design practice in Ireland, curating an open space where design is presented and reflected upon, and where it can elaborate on the possibilities and processes embedded in creative collaborations.

Liminal has sought to evoke and capture the mutually constructed sense of place and the social, cultural and professional relationships that create Ireland’s distinct design landscape. Exhibition designers John McLaughlin Architects have created an abstract terrain, into and onto which the specially commissioned projects map Ireland’s design landmarks, districts (sections of coherence), paths, nodes (points of interest), and edges (boundaries), creating a curated, cartographic tool for navigating Irish design today.

Liminal presents a pivotal chapter in Irish design, exploring, identifying and presenting our creativity, and how our designers, companies and studios are moving across the boundaries and limits of what design was, into what design can become.

Alex MiltonProgramme Director, Irish Design 2015Liminal Co-curator

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Over the past year, the content and context of work developed for Liminal has evolved. The exhibition, which has traversed Europe and the United States, has presented the diversity, quality and innovative force of Irish design. It has forged multiple working relationships, juxtaposing a range of skills, materials, references and perspectives to enrich the design process. Liminal has aimed to provide the impetus and space for design-led collaborative relationships to emerge during Irish Design 2015 (ID2015). By its nature, collaboration demands a level of trust and openness: there can be unknowns, surprises and unintended outcomes. Designers were invited to work together with purpose and

collective determination to create a narrative between their own creative process and one that is influenced by parameters of partnership, time and material.

Liminal intentionally sets out to present work that asks questions of design week audiences, and invites them into a collaborative conversation. The first iterations of Liminal, exhibited in Milan and New York, focused on collaborations between furniture, textile and interior-related product. As the exhibition evolved for Dutch Design Week, the nature and scope of collaborations was extended to include future-focused speculative works intended to be experimental in character along with those that integrate technology and digital media.

CREATivE

COllAbORATiONS

an intersection of artefact and experience, a bespoke creation for ID2015 representing a design island connecting to the rest of the world. Each corner of ‘Causeway’ controls a beautiful animation that travels along a faceted topographical surface. Only by pressing combinations of corners does ‘Causeway’ really come to life, encouraging interaction, play and discovery between people across this landscape.

Navigating Ireland’s journey from the past to the future is reflected by the work of Zero-G, who took Ireland’s 1937 constitution as the starting point for their project. Over a period of months, Zero-G mapped the evolution of Ireland’s legislative, judicial, executive and local

governmental structures over the past 100 years to create a nuanced and layered infographic that conveys complex data in a single view. Zero-G’s ‘Map of the State’ is intended as a polemic, inviting audiences to engage in debate at a pivotal moment in the maturation of the Irish state.

Moving from topography to the built environment, Damien Murtagh’s ‘Arckit’ is a groundbreaking, scaled, freeform modelling system. It allows architects to physically explore designs and bring their projects to life with speed and precision. ‘Arckit’ is based on modern building techniques and a 1.2m grid to scale, consisting of a series of interconnecting components that enable vast building

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In Dublin, Liminal presents a synthesis of design process, product and environment. The evolution of collaborative work is re-framed by the re-constituted exhibition design (by John McLaughlin Architects), moving from modernist geometry in Milan to futurist rhomboid plinths in Eindhoven. The exhibition design for the second phase of Liminal was aptly inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion map, ‘the only flat map of the entire surface of the Earth which reveals our planet as one island in one ocean’ – a counterpoint to the perceived liminality of Ireland as an island adrift.

As Liminal moves between continents, the connection to landscape and topography dominates. Design Partners’ ‘Causeway’ is

CREATivE

COllAbORATiONS

“ Liminal has forged multiple working relationships, juxtaposing a range of skills, materials, references and perspectives to enrich the design process.”

possibilities. In Dublin, an interactive space will allow budding architects as young as 12 years of age to build impressive physical models with a professional design tool.

The reality of 3D printing becoming mainstream and accessible to all is part of the vision of Ireland’s Mcor Technologies. Mcor are an innovative manufacturer of the world’s most affordable, full-colour, eco-friendly 3D printers; the only 3D printers to use ordinary business-A4/letter paper as the build material. As part of Liminal’s ongoing development for exhibition at the National Craft Gallery in Kilkenny next year, we are issuing a call to designers and creatives working across the spectrum of design, research and interdisciplinary sectors to explore the potential of Mcor’s unique 3D printing technology.

The collaboration between innovative design platform Love & Robots and costume designer Niamh Lunny led to the creation of ‘Plumage’, described as an exploration of patterns in fabric such as knit and lace, as well as of 3-dimensional structures, surfaces, and natural phenomena. The ‘Plumage’ cape extends those explorations to construct a piece of clothing that is 3D printed in one piece, without any assembly required, and includes over 6,000 moving component parts.

Operating in the world of cutting edge technology, Novaerus have developed the first scientifically proven ‘airborne pathogen control technology’, which will ensure that the Coach House at Dublin Castle has the cleanest air possible. Novaerus, who are working with innovative Irish design consultancy Dolmen on the development of their product range, will be tracking and annihilating pathogens and viruses in real time. Interpreting this complex piece of groundbreaking technology is illustrator Sarah Bowie, who uses narrative, humour and skill to convey what Novaerus does and how it works.

Working in partnership and the maturation of key relationships has been central to the scope and extent of programmes delivered during 2015. The development of the ‘Design Island’ App in partnership with IBM has resulted in an invaluable tool that highlights the extent of design activity taking place on the island of Ireland. Designed and developed by IBM Studios Dublin working in conjunction with ID2015 and Dublin design studios Atelier David Smith and Conor & David, ‘Design Island’ leaves

a legacy to be built upon in future years.Narrative and storytelling is deeply

embedded in Irish design, culture and psyche. Over the past two decades the Irish animation sector has grown in strength with companies such as Brown Bag, Boulder Media, Kavaleer, Jam Media and Cartoon Saloon, to name a few, picking up a slew of Emmy and Oscar nominations and awards. Most recently, Cartoon Saloon’s Song of the Sea received a 2015 Oscar nomination. Meanwhile, the explosion of CGI and VFX has led to the expansion of Irish film production companies. We go behind the scenes showing detailed breakdowns of Irish designed CGI on some of the biggest blockbuster movies around the globe.

Moving from the digital world back to the tangible, The Souvenir Project, commissioned by ID2015 and DCCoI, showcases the extraordinary creative talent and quality of materials and making within Ireland. Souvenirs are a symbolic reminder of experience, location

and culture, and this collection of authentic Irish products, designed and made in Ireland, provides visitors with a means of taking home the very best of Irish design.

Ireland’s material heritage is also strongly referenced in the work of Claire Anne O’Brien, which draws on traditional techniques such as weaving, knotting and basketry to make playful investigations into structure and form using the unique properties of knit. Her collaboration with Ceadogán Rugs utilises the height and depth of pile to create a relief pattern that mimics a structured weave.

‘The History Chair’, by Peter Sheehan and Cathal Loughnane is inspired by the striking sense of self that older people acquire through life experience, reflecting a history that is imbued as something precise and enduring. ‘The History Chair’ is a fully resolved fusion of function, emotion, technology, human connection, mastery of materials and story.

Garrett O’Hagan has long been a champion of high quality furniture that is imbued with a

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sense of place and Irish cultural references. His recently launched ‘Aodh’ collection includes the ‘Lann table’ series, designed by Knut Klimmek, and the ‘Aran Armchair’, designed by Alex Gufler. The collection represents pure, refined reductive design with sleek linear profiles.

Throughout Liminal’s run in 2015 there have been some heartwarming instances of serendipity. In 1951, the ‘Mourne Milano Rug’, designed by Mourne Textiles founder Gerd Hay-Edie, was exhibited with furniture by Robin Day as part of a room display at the Triennale di Milano, where it won the silver medal. This same rug, along with handwoven ‘Mourne Check’ and ‘Mourne Mist’ furnishing fabrics designed by Hay-Edie in 1952, has been brought back into production and returned to Milan in 2015 through a collaboration with Notion design studio that creates a subtle, nuanced harmony between furniture and furnishing.

Irish hospitality is renowned the world over. Through a series of commissions during the span of Liminal we took the opportunity to fuse design with food, drink and with the heart of our hospitality. Studio Aad, in collaboration with John McLaughlin Architects, presents ‘The Cabinet of Modern Irish Life’, a project inspired by the traditional dresser, which has long been the backdrop to Irish life. Taking pride of place in the home, it facilitated a mixture of specific and general functions. ‘The Cabinet of Modern Irish Life’ provides a window into contemporary Irish life and the design that binds it together.

The collaborations between Designgoat and chef Katie Sanderson are playful interventions that literally offer a taste of Irish design. ‘Kelp’, a seaweed-cured trout dish, was presented in specially designed vessels in Milan. This was followed by an asparagus-led taste sensation in New York and a Caragheen-infused milk pudding in Eindhoven. The centrality of food in Irish hospitality has led to collaborations between Think & Son (designer Annie Atkins and writer Eoghan Nolan) and Seymours Irish Biscuits. The biscuit offers something sweet while the packaging narrates whimsical stories from Irish

culture and tells some tall tales from our not-too-distant past. In Ireland an accompanying cup of tea is a prerequisite, so Jamie Murphy of The Salvage Press was commissioned to collaborate with Solaris Tea to develop uniquely designed packaging. The hospitality offering was completed in Eindhoven by Amsterdam-based The Stone Twins, who produced ‘Double Dutch/Irish Blarney’, a tongue-in-cheek graphic booklet illustrating the nuanced cultural and attitudinal differences between the Irish and the Dutch.

To reflect the diversity and breadth of work being undertaken by Irish designers today, we have included all of the studios and companies represented in different versions of Liminal in this iteration of the Liminal catalogue. It includes speculative work by Patrick Stevenson Keating of Studio PSK, who investigates everyday subjects such as food, housing and leisure, all of which may be radically transformed through design-led technological advancement. Work by emerging furniture design studio Snug, the collaboration between Designgoat and Garrett Pitcher, between Design Partners and Calor, Le Creseut and Cricut and the groundbreaking innovations of Smarter Surfaces.

Liminal – Irish design at the threshold and the work that is exhibited reflects an ongoing transformative process. It is a collective exploration of objects and systems made and remade, revised and reiterated, reinterpreted and re-imagined. Liminal is a laboratory to reveal this evolutionary process, presenting, archiving and transforming new design processes and products at a series of public events at design exhibitions around the globe.

As Liminal returns to Dublin to close out the year of Irish Design 2015 we sincerely thank all who have contributed to make this journey happen.

Louise AllenHead of International Programmes, Irish Design 2015Liminal Co-curator

“ In Dublin, Liminal presents a synthesis of design process, product and environment. ”

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Interaction

Featured Work:Seed Labs Inc. – SilvairIn 2013 Seed Labs Inc. approached Design Partners with pioneering new Bluetooth and connected solutions through the development of their own software, protocols and chip technologies. From the first meeting, Design Partners recognised that the Seed team were ambitious and driven with a proven, deep understanding of the technology. There was a clear opportunity to enter and explore a new territory of products and services together. With their complementary capabilities they believed that they could be at the forefront of shaping the future of connected devices. Over the past two years Design Partners have worked with Seed Labs Inc. to explore the Smart Home market and to uncover and deliver the potential of their technology and brand. They have helped in the development of their brand, experience, product design language and in the design of all of their reference products. Working closely with Seed Labs Inc. They ensured that the first of these products was delivered to market in April 2015, in the form of their first control device, Silvair Control. Together they are committed to developing their collaboration and are continuing to explore strategic and future concepts that will integrate hardware and software.

Design Partners is a leading strategic product design consultancy with a team of award-winning designers, engineers and makers working from studios in Dublin, San Francisco and Eindhoven. The team leads with clarity of intent and a relentless focus on execution and delivery, fuelling clients’ ambitions through the creation of exceptional new products. Design Partners consults across sectors with global brands and high potential start-ups including Seed Labs, Honeywell, Corning, Calor, Ultimate Ears, LG, Logitech and Panasonic.

designpartners.com

dESiGN PARTNERS

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SEEd lAbSDiarmuid McMahon and Brian Stephens

CAuSEWAy by

dESiGN PARTNERS

Featured Work:Causeway is an intersection of artefact and experience led by Cormac O’Conaire. It is a bespoke creation for ID2015 representing a design island connecting to the rest of the world.Each corner of Causeway controls beautiful sounds and animation that travel along the faceted surface. Only by pressing combinations of corners does Causeway really come to life, encouraging interaction, play and discovery between people across this landscape.

Animations: Studio Piotr Juncewski.Coding: David Payne.Technical concept: Darren Conroy.Electronics: Designed in collaboration with Ian Mellor, IMME Design Ltd.Materials: Projection mapping animations onto a polyurethane foam body. 900mm x 900mm x 850mm, 40kg.

Cormac O’Conaire

Interaction

IBM Studios DublinA new space at IBM Technology Campus, Damastown, IBM Studios Dublin is built for creative collaboration between designers, developers and product managers, who will co-create software for Big Data, cloud, mobile, social and cognitive computing solutions. It is part of the worldwide IBM Studio network of cross-discipline spaces to develop IBM’s products, services and digital engagement platforms for clients, with user experience at the core.

Designers here apply the principles of IBM Design Thinking, which takes a rapid prototyping approach to user-centric product development, as well as the IBM Design Language, a framework to inspire bold and engaging experiences.

ibm.com

Fred RaguillatFred, the Head of IBM Studios Dublin, is an innovator and inventor with over 60 patents filed and numerous publications. His strengths are User Research and User Experience with years of practice as a design thinker & problem solver. His background is in software engineering, he is PMP® certified, holds a Master in Product Management, a BA in Business Studies, along with other diplomas in Management, Software Engineering & Computer Science fields.

Lara Hanlon (UX/UI Designer of Design Island)Focusing on user experience and user interface design, Lara is currently working as a Software Product Designer at IBM Design. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Design in Visual Communications from IADT, Dun Laoghiare, in 2013, and her work to date has been exhibited in Ireland; Italy: Milan Design Week 2015; China: Shenzhen Design Awards for Young Talents 2014.

Simon Finney (Front-end Designer of Design Island)Simon Finney is currently working as a front-end designer at IBM Design. He graduated from IADT in 2013 with a BSc. (Honours) in Computing Multimedia Systems/Web Engineering, and is currently working towards a MSc. In User Experience Design.

Atelier ProjectsSee full company bio on page 132atelier.ie ID2015 Design Island Project TeamAileesh Carew, Rachel Donnelly, Sybil Cope, Alex Calder

Many thanks to over 50 contributing curators.

ibM

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id2015

David Smith

Lara Hanlon

Simon Finney

Fred Raguillat

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Featured Work:Design Island is an app and directory that helps users navigate and discover a myriad of design delights across Ireland.

Collaborative ProcessIncreasing awareness, engagement, understanding and developing new audiences are all central to the broad remit of Irish Design 2015 and were also central to this project: to create an engaging experience for both tourists and established audiences: and to increase awareness of Ireland’s rich collection of design and lifestyle offerings to locals and tourists alike.

In celebration, and in the spirit of ID2015, this project was a collaborative effort between IBM Studios Dublin (ID2015 Technology Partner) and Atelier David Smith (designers of the ID2015 visual identity). Alongside the ID2015 website, the app was one of the first, and essential, digital experiences commissioned by ID2015 to engage and inform a broad audience of Ireland’s diverse range of design treasures; from boutique restaurants to historical sites, contemporary chic hotels, events, exhibitions and more.

A multi-disciplinary effort, the project presented the team with a chance to explore the challenges, and potential of collaboration, and deliver a solution that not only showcases the visual identity on iOS and Android but also integrates various skills and expertise of the collaborators from design thinking and strategy, branding, editorial direction, UI/UX design, interaction design and product development. The app itself ultimately provides users with a source for discovering and experiencing the rich design landscape of “Ireland, the Design Island”.

To further embrace the collaborative aspect of Design Island, the editorial and content strategy for the app was curated by a diverse group of Irish creatives including designers, architects, journalists, craft makers. Each were invited to curate and submit their most loved locations throughout Ireland. These personal recommendations and insights create an authentic and uniquely intimate experience when exploring design in Ireland.

MaterialsMobile application available on Apple iOS and Google Android.

CreditsDesigner UX/UI:Lara Hanlon

Design Director:David Smith (Atelier Projects)

Lead Front-end Developer:Simon Finney

Front-end Developers:William McMorrow, Leigh Martindale, Sergio Fraile Carmena, Carlos Manias

IBM Project Manager:Fred Raguillat

API Implentation:Damien Gahan, David Wall (Conor&David) ID2015 Design Island Project Team:Aileesh Carew, Rachel Donnelly, Sybil Cope, Alex Calder

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Dolmen is a Dublin based creative design and innovation consultancy that discovers, develops and delivers new products by combining innovation strategies with creative design thinking. For the past 24 years they have been developing award-winning, intellectual property-rich new products and experiences for a diverse range of industries, ranging from medical devices and consumer products to information and communication technology and fast-moving consumer goods. Key clients include Diageo, ASH, ACT, Hollister, Stryker, Covidien, and Medtronic.

The core of Dolmen’s work is centred around a proven strategic design thinking process, which comprises a variety of tools and methodologies that are adapted to customers’ requirements and result in uncovering unmet and unarticulated needs in the end user. This is followed by intensive work by a highly creative design team, designing products from the inside out, and delivering products to clients that win in the marketplace.

www.dolmen.ie

dOlMEN

Chris Murphy Kevin Maguire Mark Murray James Carroll

Novaerus is the first plasma system for airborne infection control. It uses a low-energy patented plasma that is stable, reproducible, containable and highly destructive to the microorganisms that enter its field. Its plasma requires no maintenance and works 24 hours a day to eradicate airborne viruses, bacteria, mould, allergens and odours, essentially cleaning the air and creating a healthier environment. By reducing the presence of these pathogens in the air, healthcare facilities can significantly lower the risk of infectious outbreaks.

novaerus.com

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Featured Work:Handheld product for detecting environments that are susceptible to viruses. This is measured using temperature, humidity and volatile organic compounds in the air.

Materials: Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene L (ABS-L).115mm x 75mm x 20mm, approx. 300g.

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21Liminal Irish design at the threshold

InteractionFeatured in: DublinMilan DM New YorkNY EindhovenEInterviews

“ You can make the technology, but a collaboration with the right people makes the product.”

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dOlMEN FEliPE

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NOvAERuS

Great products work well because we think about the users as we design for them. Psychology and ergonomics play a large part. During your education, you learn how colour and form enhance what you’re making. Then you go into a practical environment and you tie that in with the experience you gain from the products you design.

There is beauty in simplicity and that is a trait in human behaviour. Whether a product is being used by a doctor, nurse or site manager, they’re all still people, who have a pre-wired sense of what looks good and what works. When you see a simple, uncluttered form, there’s a reassurance about it, it ages well and will be easy to use. This makes sense for a developer such as Novaerus and was one of the aesthetic drivers for Dolmen. But it’s not all about aesthetics, we have to back it up with ergonomics and engineering, this is key to this sector. These three must exist in perfect equilibrium. That’s our sweet spot for a product.

Collaboration happens naturally. We incorporate clients as team members, so Felipe became an essential part of the process – it’s not about calling to the door and ordering something! We’ve been working together for just over a year. With Felipe, we’re looking to make a product that has to sit and quietly do its business in health care facilities, it has to look reassuring, be smooth so it can be easily cleaned, and it has to look very modern – because it is a very smart piece of kit.

We have worked on many projects with Dolmen. We make airborne infection control systems, that kill any pathogens in the air destroying viruses, yeasts, mould. We wanted to make sensors to show what’s actually in the air, so we developed the technologies, but then we wanted to get a good enclosure around them.

We do a thorough testing of our products. I have a college connection through DCU with some of the scientists who work at NASA. When we wanted to know what our systems are actually doing to destroy the bacteria in the air, they came on board. The first microorganism they picked up was E-Coli, so they passed them through our system. The rod-shaped E-Coli cells come through completely deformed, broken, so this shows the plasma charge is very intense – even to such an aggressive pathogen. We’re now looking at MRSA with them, forensically right down to atomic level.

It was Laser Prototypes Europe Ltd. in Belfast that recommended Dolmen to me, so I ended up talking to Chris Murphy and Kevin Maguire about the ideas and concepts. We want products that work, but that look beautiful too. Dolmen do this amazing research. There was one product with a fairly simple LED display, and they said that if we put a plastic piece in the right tone of semi transparent black, we can make it look really good, so Mark Murray went off and bought lots of pairs of sunglasses to experiment to get the right tone, and it was perfect. This is the amount of creative dedication they put into it.

You can make the technology, but a collaboration with the right people makes the product.

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Mcor Technologies Ltd is an innovative manufacturer of the world’s most affordable, full-colour and eco-friendly 3D printers, based in Co. Louth. They are the only 3D printers to use ordinary business A4 and letter paper as the build material, a choice that renders durable, stable and tactile models. Established in 2004 with a talented team of specialists in the area of 3D printing hardware and software, Mcor’s vision is to make 3D printing more accessible to everyone. The company operates internationally from offices in Ireland, the UK, America and Asia-Pacific.

Mcor’s product range includes the Mcor Matrix 300+ (monochrome printer) and the Mcor IRIS (full-colour printer). Mcor serves many business sectors including education, engineering, architecture, entertainment and medical/dental. The company has over 60 retailers selling globally in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. Some of Mcor’s key clients include Adobe, Autodesk, the Royal College of Art, the US Navy, Siemens and Panasonic.

ID2015 and Mcor are initiating a creative exploration that will bring skills and ingenuity together with the unique potential of Mcor’s technology.

mcortechnologies.com

Featured Work:The 3D prints on display are the result of collaborations with the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT), Carlow IT, Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), Pinkkong Studios, Prof Keith Brown of the University of Manchester, and Vanina.

Materials: Paper.

MCOR

TECHNOlOGiES

Conor McCormack Deirdre McCormack Fintan McCormack

23

Interview

As long as I’ve known Conor and Fintan, they’ve been inventing things. I’m married to Conor, and as soon as they get into a room together they’re dreaming up things on the back of envelopes. If it wasn’t this, it would have been something else. I’m the one with a marketing background, but this technology thrills me. There’s a certain awe to being able to produce a three dimensional object from one of our machines.

When we started it was funny, people would ask if they needed 3D glasses to see 3D printing. People couldn’t get past the idea of the virtual. 3D printing has actually been around for more than 30 years, but it’s only in the last 5 to 6 years that we’ve seen the emergence of more affordable printers. I think of it as democratising creativity. What’s different about us is that we’ve made the only paper-based 3D printer in the world.

You can print almost anything from regular sheets of A4 paper. This means it’s more environmentally friendly, and you can achieve full bit-map colours which are amazing. The results are very robust. They’re solid and tough, but you can also add finishes to make them flexible. The number of applications is

increasing all the time. From a plastic surgeon to a designer, it’s a piece of technology that allows creativity and innovation to happen. I think people underestimate paper, it’s a very versatile material. In fact, when you’ve seen some of the things that come out of our machines, you wouldn’t look at paper in the same way again!

We’re always travelling to trade shows. We were at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas in January this year, hammering nails into a piece of wood with a paper hammer we’d printed ourselves. It takes people a few minutes to get the message, but then they’re amazed. From our base in Louth, we’re completely export orientated, selling through a network of resellers. Conor is a thought leader in the industry, so he’s invited to speak at lots of conferences. You can see the world of 3D printing growing all the time, but we stand out because we make the only paper-based printer.

We started out in 2005 with just the three of us, but now we’ve opened offices in the UK and USA. And yes, Conor and Fintan are still inventing. When they get together, you can see the sparks.

dEiRdRE

MCCORMACk

MCOR TECHNOlOGiES

“ What’s different about us is that we’ve made the only paper-based 3D printer in the world.”

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Damien Murtagh studied at the Hull School of Architecture in the UK. Following graduation he worked in Italy under Carlo Scarpa’s protégé, Toni Follina for a period of two years. He returned to Ireland to set up Damien Murtagh, Architecture + Design. In 2012, Damien moved to the UK where he began to advance an idea for a new scaled architectural model building system that would challenge traditional ‘cut and glue’ model making. Damien launched ‘Arckit’ in May 2014. To date it has received major recognition, winning several prestigious international awards including The Red Dot Award.

arckit.com

Featured Work:Arckit is a scaled freeform modelling system that allows architects and budding architects alike to physically explore designs and bring their projects to life with speed and precision, bridging the gap between 3D and physical design. Arckit is an evolutional product with limitless add-on components.

Materials: Plastic components.

ARCkiT

Interaction

Damien Murtagh

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I’d been working as an architect in Ireland when the recession hit. Then, suddenly I was working at home. I was designing what I thought could be a better modular building system, and at the same time I was making scale models of all the components that we would make the buildings from. I realised that there was nothing like that out there for architects to work with. There’s Lego and Meccano, but nothing to compete with foam board. I kept thinking I’d find it, but it wasn’t there.

Maybe the digital era is why it didn’t happen before, models were being made less frequently, but at the end of the day, a computer is still a flat screen. In my experience with clients, a tangible model far outweighs the impact any drawing or image could ever have. There is no comparison to holding and manouvering a physical model in order to explore a building’s form and detail.

Now, with Arckit, you can also make changes, move windows, doors etc and this encourages client participation as never before… As I was working on it, I thought, gosh, if I can get this right, it’s not just going to make life easier for architects, but everyone can work with it.

At just eighteen months old, we’re crossing all sectors: professionals, students, hobbyists, and the education sector and in particular schools with STEM initiatives, are embracing Arckit as a new hands on tool for teaching. Arckit is considered more as a precision design tool rather than a toy, a form of graduation from toy building blocks. It has been rolled out throughout the US with Barnes and Noble.

Next up, we are developing the Arckit infiniti 3D store on Shapeways which we hope to launch within the year. Here you will be able to purchase bespoke components that don’t come with the standard kit, for example curved walls and archways. We’ll be adding to the store on a continual basis and getting advice from our users as to what they’d like to see. The possibilities are virtually limitless.

During the recession when many architects lost their jobs, the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI), encouraged its members to apply their skills to other areas. I think the fruits of this are very evident now by the real tangible buzz surrounding the whole ‘start up’ community in Dublin and all over the country. It’s very positive to feel this atmosphere once again in the country.

dAMiEN

MuRTAGH

ARCkiT

Interview

“ There is no comparison to holding and manouvering a physical model in order to explore a building’s form and detail.”

Interaction

26

Studio Aad is a Dublin design consultancy that works with clients of all sizes and from a wide range of sectors, using design to help them shape their projects. Building on a project’s core strengths, Studio Aad works across disciplines to deliver ideas, solve problems and build tools that help clients to explain, engage and make an impact. The studio is founded on an entrepreneurial spirit and for the first 5 years of business the team also had a successful clothing brand that sold in stores across Europe and Asia, from Urban Outfitters to Colette in Paris and Journal Standard in Tokyo. This experience provided a unique and holistic insight for the design practice. Passionate advocates of creativity as a catalyst, the Studio Aad team invests time and money in the development of studio and community projects such as the charity site Grow and the social project Where We Are. Studio Aad is also a founding member of the 100 Archive, a site dedicated to mapping the quality and diversity of Irish communication design with the aim of providing a strong context for its development.

studioaad.com

STudiO AAd

X

JOHN

MClAuGHliN

ARCHiTECTS

Theme – Work

01 - Mcor 3D colour printed mapMcor Technologies is an innovative Irish manufacturer of the world’s most affordable, full-colour and eco-friendly 3D printers. They are the only 3D printers to use ordinary business A4 and letter paper as the build material, a choice that renders durable, stable and tactile models. Established in 2004 with a talented team of specialists in the area of 3D printing hardware and software, Mcor’s vision is to make 3D printing more accessible to everyone. The company operates internationally from offices in Ireland, the UK, America and APAC. www.mcortechnologies.com

02 - TruCorp resuscitation dummy TruCorp has been targeting the medical device, medical simulation and medical education markets for the last 10 years offering a highly realistic training solution. The TruCorp range of products developed in Belfast provide an invaluable tool for training in the techniques of Laryngoscopy, nasal and endo tracheal intubation, fibre optic examinations, double lumen insertions, full use of supraglottic devices, both needle and surgical cricothryoidotomy and ENT surgical skills.www.trucorp.com

03 - MooCall, designed by Dolmen Dolmen’s unique approach is to support their clients to discover ideas and then design and develop them into customer experiences that will leapfrog their competitors. This approach not only generates intellectual property, it also delivers internationally award winning service and product designs that customers see significant value in. Dolmen applies a Lean Development process to get their clients faster to market in a very competitive global marketplace. Dolmen works with a range of clients, from ambitious start-ups and SMEs who want to scale, right through to multinationals who want to discover and develop next generation services and products. In business for 24 years, Dolmen has an expert team and international proven track record.www.dolmen.ie

Theme - Play

04 - Tweed owl by CleoCleo originally began in 1936 as a very small retail outlet in Dublin, selling only handknit sweaters from the Aran Islands. Nowadays, Cleo is a thriving and very colourful business, located in Dublin City. They specialise in Irish clothing made from natural fibres. They sell handknit sweaters in a variety of styles and colours for men, women and children as well as coats, capes, linen blouses and shirts, hats, bags, socks, tweed mice and a whole lot more. www.cleo-ltd.com

05 - Willow Rattle by Makers & BrothersMakers & Brothers is a project developed by two brothers, Jonathan and Mark Legge. It is an online retail venture founded on a belief in the simple things; the handmade, objects of integrity, contemporary vernaculars, a curation of everyday design and craft. They define craft as a process; a production by hand or machine. Makers & Brothers are an international destination with an Irish foundation and at all times endeavour to sell objects of use; the simple, beautiful and sometimes nicely odd. www.makersandbrothers.com

06 - Fox by Saturday WorkshopSaturday Workshop is based in Dublin. They design and manufacture timber products using traditional skills and new technologies aided by a CNC router. Edward O’Cleary is a structural engineer with a background in boat-building and furniture making. Iseult, his daughter is a designer. www.saturdayworkshop.ie

John McLaughlin Architects is a design focused studio based in Dun Laoghaire. Their practice works at many different scales and across a wide range of project types. They are particularly interested in connections between architecture and the wider landscape and built environment. They design masterplans, landscapes, buildings, houses, public art and exhibitions. Prior to establishing the practice in 2010, John was director of architecture with the Dublin Docklands Authority where he was responsible for the design of many of the public spaces in the docklands including the Grand Canal Harbour District.

Taking their inspiration from Irish modern architects and designers, their designs have been noted for their beauty, understated elegance and playfulness. They have received many awards and have participated in a number of exhibitions. John curated the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012 titled Shifting Ground, and (with Gary A. Boyd) he curated and designed the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2014 titled Infra Éireann.

johnmclaughlin.ie

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Cabinet of Modern Irish Life

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Theme - Life

07 - Science stamps, design by DetailDublin based studio Detail specialise in design for print, screen and environment. They believe in analysis, simplicity and original output. Their process is based on an understanding of communication and its role for business, organisations and individuals. Their projects are large and small, simple and complex.www.detail.ie

08 - Animation Ireland stampsAnimation Ireland is a group of leading Irish animation companies working together to promote Ireland’s world class sector internationally. With millions of children every week watching animated programmes produced here, Ireland is a recognised leader with talented and technically sophisticated 2D and 3D studios creating and producing content for TV, Film, Games, Mobile and Apps. www.animationireland.com

09 - Literature stamp postcard, design by The Stone Twins

The Stone Twins are Irish born Declan and Garech Stone, a creative partnership established in the last year of the 20th Century. Since then, The Stone Twins have built a reputation for devising concept-driven, engaging and witty design solutions. The work of The Stone Twins has been broadly recognised, winning awards at ADCN, D&AD, Dutch Design Awards, European Design Awards, One Show, amongst others. The work of The Stone Twins forms part of the permanent collections of the Cooper-Hewitt, New York, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and their parents’ living room. www.stonetwins.com

10 - Illustrators Ireland flyer, design by UnthinkUnthink is a Dublin-based studio with a passion for creative design. Since 2006, they’ve been creating innovative, fresh and unique print and digital products, as well as complete branding systems for a wide range of national and international clients. As an agency, they are inquisitive, open minded, and approach every new project with a sense of fun. www.unthink.ie

11 - Keep Sketch notebook, design by Dave Comiskey

Dave Comiskey is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Dublin. www.davecomiskey.com

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12 - Calendar by Project Twins for Irish Design Shop

The Project Twins are James and Michael Fitzgerald, an Irish based graphic art duo. They work together in a range of disciplines including art, design and illustration on both personal and commercial projects. Their illustration work has been commissioned by various magazines and agencies in Ireland, UK, Europe, America, Asia and Australia. www.theprojecttwins.com

13 - Science Gallery Annual Report, design by Detail

Detail have developed a number of reports for the Science Gallery based in Dublin, an innovative model of gallery now developing new venues accross the globe.www.detail.ie

14 - 3FE take away cup, design by Conor & David

Conor & David is a Dublin based studio which creates useful, beautiful graphic design, founded by Conor Nolan and David Wall. They believe in the importance of making things. They think that the process and outcomes should be both tangible and enlightening. They see design as a way to create and define the connections that shape our world. Their work connects audiences to ideas, customers to products and people to each other. www.conoranddavid.com

Theme - Fix

15 – SugruFormFormForm Ltd is the registered UK based company behind Sugru which was jointly founded by Irish inventor Jane ní Dhulchaointigh and entrepreneur Roger Ashby, in October 2004. In response to an overwhelmingly positive response from North America, the company established a US subsidiary in 2011 - Sugru, Inc. It now fulfills all of its North American orders from its distribution centre in Michigan. In autumn 2012 FormFormForm began distributing to resellers in Germany and Scandinavia, and the company is now embarking on exciting expansion plans in other territories.www.sugru.com

16 - OBEO food waste boxEstablished in Dublin by Kate Cronin, an experienced packaging and product designer and Liz Fingleton a chartered accountant, the Obeo food waste box is the easiest, cleanest, niftiest way to deal with food waste. Obeo customers are part of something bigger. Every pack of Obeo they use diverts 10kg of waste from landfill, so they’re helping to save the world, one little brown box at a time. www.weareobeo.com

Theme – Eat

17 - Jameson St. Patricks Day 2015 edition, label by Steve Simpson

For 30 years Dublin based illustrator Steve Simpson has been applying his multi-disciplinary skills to creative projects for a diverse range of clients right across the globe. Steve’s innovative, award winning approach to graphic design, typography and illustration is built on fresh thinking, traditional skills and a dose of fun. His bottle for Jameson’s Irish whiskey captures the soul, warmth and wit of the city where Jameson was first distilled in 1780, with images of Dublin landmarks, such as O’Connell Bridge and Trinity College.www. stevesimpson.prosite.com

18 - Trivet by SuperfolkSuperfolk is an independent design studio based in Westport which focuses on the craft of production, both handmade and industrial. They create objects and furniture which refer to Ireland’s heritage of making, playfully referencing a way of life rooted in the land, its animals and weather whilst also striving to emulate the sensitivity and sustainability of the vernacular approach. The studio works with locally sourced Irish materials and strives for innovation in its approach to natural resources such as wool, wood and leather.www.superfolk.com

19 - Elements Low Glass by J.HILL’s StandardJ.HILL’s Standard is a maker of contemporary cut crystal objects, crafted by hand, using centuries-old knowledge passed down through generations of skilled craftsmen. J.HILL’s Standard makes full use of the extraordinary levels of skills in the Waterford region; handcut crystal is a craft synomous with Ireland and, in particular, with the area around Waterford. All pieces of J.HILL’s Standard glass are hand-cut in Waterford by two master craftsmen, who between them have over a century of experience in the art of hand cutting crystal.www.jhillsstandard.com

20 - Cuttings grappa glass by J.HILL’s Standard

See above

21 - Cake Café napkins, design by PonyPony Ltd. is a graphic design studio founded at the beginning of the 21st century. It is the creative collaboration of Niall Sweeney (Dublin) and Nigel Truswell (Sheffield). Based in Whitechapel, London, they work in Britain, Ireland and internationally. Output at the studio ranges from popular culture to the avant-garde, from high-brow to low-brow, creating for print, screen, three dimensions, sound and performance. Their work has been published, exhibited, performed, collected and screened around the world. Their designs for the renowned Cake Café in Dublin celebrate baking and Irish artisanal food, with a heritage firmly rooted in a contemporary world and the pleasures of modern Ireland, through an aesthetic driven by the imprecise geometries of baking to an electro-beat.www.ponybox.co.uk

Theme – Inhabit

22 - Quarry House by Clancy Moore architects. Images by Alice Clancy

Established by Andrew Clancy and Colm Moore in 2007, Clancy Moore Architects is a practice dedicated to creating beautiful spaces and objects through an open and collaborative process with clients and craftspeople. The Irish practice is involved in a wide range of work from small and large domestic to public and commercial projects, and has a strong track record of delivering high quality, sustainable architecture in all settings. The quality of the resultant work has been borne out by numerous awards and publications. www.clancymoore.com

23 - Jeffry’s House by Emily Mannion and Thomas O’Brien, Ards Forest Park, Co. Donegal

Thomas O’Brien is an architect living and working in Ireland. He studied architecture at University College Dubin, and graduated with honours in 2005. He obtained a Professional Diploma (Architecture) through the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) and University College Dublin in May 2011. He is a registered architect and a member of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland. Since graduation Thomas has been fortunate to gain experience with diverse practices, such as de Paor Architects, A2 Architects, and Dorman Architects, and worked on a range of projects from educational buildings, interior fit outs, domestic extensions and new builds. He has recently begun practicing independently as totobArk. Emily Mannion is an artist born in Donegal in 1985. She graduated with a BA(hons) degree in Fine Art from the University of Huddersfield in 2007. She completed a Digital Residency in Firestation Artist Studios in 2010 and subsequently undertook a residency in Templebar Gallery and Studios with the interdisciplinary group Terraform. Recent shows include ‘We had an idea about the future’, 2012, NCH, Earlsfort Terrace Dublin, and ‘Constellations’, 2011, curated by Emma Lucy O’Brien, Visual Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow; She currently lives in Dublin.Images by Carla Killeen, Catalyst DNA. © IAFwww.totobark.com

24 - House 1 by TAKA architects. Images by Alice Clancy

TAKA is an architectural practice based in Dublin, Ireland. Their practice is focused on creating buildings, places and moments which have a distinct character. They have a careful and economic approach to materials and construction, and a first-principles approach to sustainability. They collaborate closely with clients, professional consultants and expert makers to ensure the ambitions of projects are met and exceeded. A continuing level of excellence in the built work of the practice is recognised by multiple national and international awards and worldwide publication. TAKA have experience in a wide range of project types ranging from domestic extensions to commercial and public buildings. TAKA is led by partners Alice Casey ARB(UK) and Cian Deegan MRIAI.www.taka.ie

Interaction

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Theme - Read

25 - Eoin McHugh - Augury book from Douglas Hyde Gallery, design by Peter Maybury

Peter Maybury works as an artist, graphic designer, and musician. With formal training in visual communications in Dublin and London, his creative practice has expanded to encompass design for print and screen, wayfinding systems, artworks for exhibition, sound, video and curation. Peter’s holistic approach sees him work at the interstices of several disciplines. With a track record from nearly 20 years working to the highest degree of excellence in visual communication and design for print and screen, his broad experience has developed into extensive knowledge taking in all aspects of design, editorial, pre-press and printing. Peter has wide-ranging experience in working with creative practitioners and institutions, editors and curators, including over 80 individual artists publications, and more than 40 group show publications, for clients in Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, UK, US, Italy and Canada. www.petermaybury.com

26 - A Bit Lost by Chris HaughtonChris Haughton is an Irish designer and children’s book author. He has been a freelance illustrator for 12 years. His interest in fair trade drew him into working with a number of non-profit projects and in 2007 he was listed in Time Magazine’s DESIGN 100 for the design work he undertook for People Tree. Since then he has created a number of children’s books, with his first book A Bit Lost being translated into 20 languages and winning numerous international awards including the Dutch Picture Book of the Year. Oh No George! came out in 2012 and won the Junior Magazine Picturebook of the year award, and his most recent book SHH! We have a plan won the AOI award for children’s books in 2014.www.chrishaughton.com

27 - The Dublin Review 58, design by Atelier David Smith

Established in 2000, Atelier David Smith is an independent design studio that works in the public and cultural sector, creating award-winning work for national and international clients. David has lectured publicly on his own practice and on wider issues concerning graphic design and has contributed to Eye – the International Review of Graphic Design. International recognition includes awards and commendations from the Type Directors Club New York, Association Typographique Internationale (AtypI) and the International Society of Typographic Designers. His work for the Asko Schönberg Ensembles (designed and developed at UNA [Amsterdam]) received the Nederlands Huisstijl Prize and a Premier award for typography from the ISTD. National awards include numerous commendations from the Institute of Designers in Ireland (IDI); and a number of bronze, silver and gold awards from ICAD.www.atelier.ie

Interaction

28 - SET zine, design by Paul GuinanPaul Guinan is a senior designer at Form, a Dublin based branding and communications practice founded in 2005. Their projects are realised through a 4 stage process of discovery, definition, development and delivery. Driven by research and strategically framed their outcomes are implemented through print, digital, motion and environmental touch-points, with dialogue and the exchange of knowledge core to their collaborative partnership approach.www.form.ie

Theme – Wear

29 - Woven Lambswool childs hat by ElksElks design exquisite children’s clothes, made exclusively by hand in Ireland. Using materials like Donegal tweed, beautiful Irish linen, alpaca wool and finest merino, Elks create remarkably well-made clothes with a depth of cultural history connected to Ireland’s past and present. Their designs are an expression of the urban and rural, the wild and constructed. Founder Lucy Clarke is a musician and mother of two. After playing in seminal all-girl rock group Chicks (she played Glastonbury the day she finished her Leaving Cert, and the girls were known for their colourful handmade image), Lucy went on to study Philosophy and now has two children. Elks work with local knitters, weavers and seamstresses to produce their designs, and have developed a sustainable, handmade children’s clothing brand for children throughout the world.www.elks.ie

30 - Bow tie by Brendan JosephDistilling precious moments and beautiful places, Brendan Joseph makes each scarf, shawl & bow-tie by hand in Ireland, the home of his inspiration, working in silk, cashmere and linen. The colours in each scarf are the result of an innovative design methodology by which Brendan draws his inspiration directly from scenes and sources in the environment around him – the vibrant city of Dublin and the beautiful natural landscapes of Ireland. Brendan’s passion for colour, pattern, quality and craftsmanship is clear in his work as he explores, distils and translates what he sees in the world around him into his handmade scarves. Although the colours in his designs are drawn purely from nature, they bring out the unusual and the unnoticed - the intensely vibrant lichen on warm grey rocks by the soft-blue sea at Sandymount Strand, or the speckled pink and blue of the Georgian and Victorian architecture in the area around his studio.www.brendanjoseph.com

31 - Satchel by The Atlantic Equipment Project

The harsh beauty of the Irish Atlantic coast breeds a special kind of folk. A community of individuals exploring the high roads and byroads, the muddy fields and bogs, in search of elusive perfection. The Atlantic Equipment (AE) project, founded by Ashleigh Smith, is about designing and building long-lasting, quality equipment that will serve this community of adventurers and explorers. AE packs are designed with durability and function as primary requirements, in order to support experience and adventure amongst your wilderness. The project is about the coastal communities of the West of Ireland, where a new, quality manufacture base can bring prosperity and further potential. AE build quality packs, by hand, in their workshop in the West of Ireland. In prioritizing local resources and keeping supply chains as small as possible, their ambition is to maintain and grow a sustainable business ethos - investing in people with skills, keeping production small, and ensuring attention to detail and craftsmanship. www.atlanticequipmentproject.com

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It’s like a window on Ireland – I wanted to bring breadth to how people understand Irish design. I’m thinking of it as a glimpse of modern Ireland through the lens of design. I imagined it like a kitchen dresser, the eclectic backdrop to family life; and that let me bring in quite disparate things that nevertheless have a relationship through how we use them, how they give us a sense of who we are.

The cabinet is very broad, in a similar way to Connections, the capsule exhibition we’ve made for ID2015 to tour embassies around the world. People who view it may not know much about Ireland, or they may have a ‘diddley-eye’, more folk based perception of what Irish design is, so we wanted to create an honest collection that shows modern Ireland as it is. It’s a little portal that gives a wider sense.

It’s been curated like an insider’s guide, so we’ve included ephemera: flyers and books; and well-designed everyday items, rather than just up-on-a-pedestal objects of desire. It’s quite broad, covering many aspects of modern life – design for work, play, life, to wear, to inhabit. That’s what I like about design: the real everyday stuff. I’m a big advocate of design as a way to make things better, a lot of it is invisible and those can be the very best things.

I studied Visual Communications in Aberdeen in Scotland, then I worked in photography in Glasgow and London before

coming to Dublin in 1998 to work in design agencies. I started Angry, a clothing company in 2000. We were selling in London, Paris and Tokyo, and even though the brand was successful, we knew nothing about the business of fashion, so we weren’t making money. We set up Studio Aad in 2004 to work on branding, design and multidisciplinary projects. I’m also involved in the 100Archive (100Archive.com), mapping the landscape of communication design in contemporary Ireland. The project creates a context to show how varied design can be.

Some of the things in the cabinet are amazing. Like the award winning Moocall, by Dolmen. Apparently one of the hardest things in cow farming is getting the vet to the cow at the right time to deliver the calf. It’s a dangerous time for the animal and even experts could miss the moment. So Dolmen created this device that tracks the movement of the cow’s tail, and sends a text message when calving is about to begin. Moocall and Mcor’s 3D printing technologies are these brilliantly unexpected stories of ingenuity in an Irish context.

On the other hand, there’s a copy of the Dublin Review. It’s a literature periodical designed by Atelier David Smith, and it’s just gorgeous. They’ve been doing that since 2000, and it’s elegantly laid out and beautifully appropriate. Ireland has such a strong

SCOTT buRNETT

STudiO AAd

Interview

reputation for literature, but not everyone would put the effort into designing a periodical that well, it’s a joy to see it.

We also have one of the Douglas Hyde Gallery’s publications, an annual report from the brilliant Science Gallery and a range of other Irish designed books. There’s been a renaissance in Irish children’s books over the past few years, and Chris Haughton’s ‘A Bit Lost’ is beautiful.

I wanted to get away from the clichés of traditional design, but we’ve also included modern makers with a basis in craft, like The Atlantic Equipment Project, who make hardwearing gear for hikers and surfers from their studios in Sligo, Elks who make lovely clothes for kids, and Superfolk. There’s napkins designed by Pony for the Cake Café, and a crystal glass from Waterford’s J.HILL’S Standard. There’s a richness to these pieces, that pick up on a design heritage that had fallen into abeyance for a time. A new vernacular has been growing over the last six years that is world class but also proud of its heritage and tradition. These are the things that form the backdrop to the Cabinet of Modern Irish Life.

Working in the industry today, I know so many colleagues making brilliant things. That’s what excites me. ID2015 has already sparked a lot of conversations within the industry. The next stage is for us to create the foundation to bring those conversations to the wider public. That’s the best legacy for when this year is over.

“ A new vernacular has been growing over the last six years that is world class but also proud of its heritage and tradition.”

Interaction

kATiE SANdERSON X yOu

The trick with caragheen is to add lots of texture.

Bring 600ml of water to the boil, add caragheenlower to gentle simmer and cook for 20 minutes. In another pot, heat your milk and sugar then leave to cool.

Once the caragheen has changed colour and become gloopy, strain the caragheen through a muslin cloth, (wear gloves if you like although the seaweed gives you silky smooth hands if you don’t).

Discard the seaweed and add the gloopy mixture to slightly whipped cream, then add the milk and sugar, (it should thicken slightly). Pour into small ramekins and leave in the fridge for at least four hours or preferably overnight.

Fennel cream is made by mixing roasted fennel with a little sugar syrup and blitzing in a blender.

Serve with the fennel cream, lots of seeds, fronds and the gooseberries.

Milk caragheen with fennel cream and salted unripe Dublin gooseberry

Ingredients25g of dried* or 80 g fresh caragheen moss (seaweed) *if caragheen is dried soak for twenty minutes.200ml cream 50g caster sugar 200ml milk Toasted fennel seedsFennel frondsSalted gooseberriesFennel cream

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Break chocolate into a saucepan with condensed milk, butter and half the rosemary. Do not walk away from the pot, stay gently stirring until it melts. Sieve in icing sugar and some of the salt. Place into a tin lined with greaseproof paper and add more chopped rosemary and sea salt. Place in the fridge for a few hours.

Rosemary and Connemara sea salt fudge

Ingredients400g dark chocolate 500g condensed milk 50g butter 90g icing sugar Small handful of chopped rosemary 3 pinches of homemade sea salt

ObJECTS

Objects

MOuRNE TEXTilES

Irish heritage brand Mourne Textiles is a family business started in the 1940s in a workshop at the foot of the beautiful Mourne mountains by Norwegian design pioneer Gerd Hay-Edie, using traditional weaving techniques on custom-made handlooms. Gerd’s name became a staple in mid-century British design through long collaborations with Robin Day for Hille & Co. and Terence Conran. The Mourne Milano Rug, originally commissioned by Robin Day, won the silver award at La Triennale di Milano in 1951 and is just one of the recently re-issued pieces in the collection. Gerd’s unique tweed fabrics were celebrated within the fashion industry when they were shown as part of Irish designer Sybil Connolly’s 1956 collections and were supplied to design and retail emporiums such as Liberty of London, Hardy Amies and House of Lachasse.

Gerd’s daughter Karen Hay-Edie and grandson Mario Sierra are building on the legacy of Mourne Textiles for the 21st century. They continue to design and source much of their yarn from Donegal and custom-dye to match the heritage pieces and iconic designs that sprang from the company’s Irish-Scandinavian roots. Gerd’s designs are revived in vibrant tones and rich textures in a lifestyle collection that includes blankets, throws, shawls, cushions, tableware, rugs and upholstery fabrics.

mournetextiles.com

Mario Sierra Karen Hay-Edie

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Marcel Twohig Ian Walton

Notion was founded in 2009 by Marcel Twohig and Ian Walton and in 2013 went on to launch its own in-house product brand, NTN. Marcel Twohig has a background designing consumer electronics and digital devices for leading global consumer brands. Having worked both as an in-house designer and as an external consultant, Marcel has gained a deep understanding of the role of design and the value that it brings. His work has received numerous industry awards including iF, Red Dot and Good Design. Ian Walton studied Industrial Design in Dublin and Helsinki and went on to work in diverse roles from freelance interaction designer to a senior design position in an international consultancy. During this time he brought products to market for several international consumer brands. Over the past decade Ian’s work has featured in publications and competitions including Time Magazine, Red Dot, iF, Design Week UK, the Institute of Designers in Ireland (IDI) and Royal Society of Art (RSA), London.

designbynotion.com

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Featured Work:Hang coffee table featuring a woven fabric shelf and two variants of the Frame upright chair upon which a fabric cushion is suspended on wooden uprights. Both pieces are an evolution of previous pieces in a collection for NTN, which balanced classic furniture references with industrial textiles and CNC machined wood.

The Mourne Milano Rug first exhibited at La Triennale Di Milano in1951 as part of a room display that also featured furniture by Robin Day, etched panels by Geoffrey Clarke and ceramics by Hans Coper and Lucie Rie. Mourne Textiles won the silver medal for their design, which was also shown at the Festival of Britain.

The Mourne Check and Mourne Mist furnishing fabrics have been used by Notion in their Hang table and Frame chair. Designed in 1952 by Gerd Hay-Edie, these fabrics have been brought back into production, staying true to the original designs with custom spun yarns and colours matched to the archive originals.

Tweed Emphasize, Mended Tweed and Shaggy Dog tweed designs are presented as a range of cushions and throws. These designs were shown in Sybil Connolly’s 1956 fashion collections and have been revived using custom spun yarn to match the originals, woven on traditional shuttle looms.

Collaborative Process:At the core of the collaboration is the relationship between hand and machine, the combination of production techniques and the qualities found in each yarn. The Mourne textile designs play on the relationships between the different fibres used and how they feel and look when used together. The Mourne and Notion teams discussed the different characteristics of the textiles, deriving from the looms on which they are woven, and the benefits and limitations of each. Mourne Texiles were pleased by the appreciation and understanding of their work shown by Notion, who in turn were fascinated and inspired by the unique Scandinavian Irish heritage of the Mourne fabrics. The introduction of handwoven Mourne textiles brought a heritage and tactility which directed the evolution of the new furniture pieces. The geometry of the seat pan and table top – fully CNC machined from French ash – and the aluminium legs act as contemporary counterpoints to the textiles. Mourne and Notion discovered similarities in their approach to design and potential ways in which their collaboration can progress, combining the industrial with the traditional and developing this relationship into the future.

Materials: Hang table and Frame chair: CNC Machined Ash hardwood, anodized aluminium legs, PET foam, Mourne textiles. Mourne Milano Rug: hand woven on a linen warp using wool and hand twisted fleece.Mourne Check Furnishing Fabric: 50% wool, 25% cotton, 25% linen.Mourne Mist Furnishing Fabric: 70% wool, 30% cotton.Mourne Cushions: 50% wool 25% cotton, 25% linen.Merino Cushions: 100% merino wool.Throws: 100% merino wool.

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I was looking through old newspaper clippings about the workshop and I found a quote by my grandmother from 1956. She’d said “out of the past flows the future,” and it was almost as if she was saying it to me today. We’re in a lovely part of the world, right on the edge of the Mourne Mountains, and although I grew up here, I don’t take it for granted. I’d left to go to art college in the UK and coming back, I appreciated it even more.

I did a lot of travelling, and studied textiles at college, but I had itchy feet, and the idea of coming back to the Mournes permanently didn’t immediately appeal. But that’s changed, and even though I’m back and forth to London a lot, it’s lovely to be here involved in weaving again.

Gerd Hay-Edie, my grandmother, was an amazing woman she was very influential during my childhood. At the age of six my mother built a small house next to the workshop where I spent my early years. While the house was being built I slept in the workshop on a makeshift bed between the looms. After school, the workshop would be my playground, I’d build dens, make spaceships out of the old cardboard yarn cones, generally getting in the way of the weavers.

Gerd came from Norway, she worked in Huddersfield before the war and lived and travelled in Shanghai, Calcutta and Hong Kong before settling in Ireland. The Milano Rug came about when Robin Day asked her to create a piece for his room display at the Triennale di Milano in 1951. “Of all the rugs which I have seen, only yours have got the character enough as a background of my new designs of furniture,” he wrote. It won a silver medal that year.

My mother, master weaver Karen Hay-Edie, has been involved in the running of the workshop from an early age, designing and weaving rugs to commission. We recently brought the Milano Rug back into production, and now it returns to Milan for Liminal. There’s something poetic about the way it has all worked out.

My mother and I are working through the archives, bringing designs back into production. The fabric structure and textured yarns used come from the archives, but the colours and feel are evolving for today’s market. We’ve also taken on new apprentices. The workshop is really buzzing. The Mourne Textiles workshop began with the Milano Rug, so it’s now come full circle.

Interview

“ After school the workshop would be my playground.”

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Objects

Aodh is a young Irish furniture brand with a strong design ethos. It is the brainchild of Garrett O’Hagan, an Irishman passionate about design, architecture and the island on which he lives. O’Hagan grew up surrounded by modern furniture and has spent his adult life sourcing and supplying the very best international design for private and commercial clients. Aodh marks a turning point for O’Hagan, from that of a buyer, to that of a manufacturer and editor. With Aodh, he seeks to create a design-centred business, rooted in Ireland with a strong international focus. Aodh’s products are universal – suitable for use everywhere, at home, at work and in public spaces. Above all they bring atmosphere, spirit and character to the spaces we use and love. O’Hagan commissions independent designers, whose sensibility, language and spirit he’s drawn to. With Aodh, O’Hagan seeks to create a ‘family’

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of products – objects of personality and character that work together as a collage or happily stand alone with presence. Aodh uses the very best materials and processes and where possible, seeks to produce at home in Ireland. However, the pursuit of quality and skill, rather than location, will always be the overriding decider. Making furniture that remains functional and aesthetically pleasing for decades to come is Aodh’s raison d’être and is also at the heart of ecological making. In commissioning new pieces and seeking inspiration for ‘lifetime’ furniture, O’Hagan often refers to the materials, colours and textures found in the Irish landscape. These elemental references guide Aodh’s pursuit of ‘longlife’ furniture pieces: heirlooms, filled with love and memory that are made to be passed down from one generation to the next.

aodh.eu

Featured Collaborative Work: “The Lann table is a development for Aodh Furniture of our solid timber “Companion” table. Slightly taller and with an additional twist in the shape, these tables are finished in a dead matt lacquer and are designed to wrap over a seat. They can be used as a temporary work surface while sitting or just somewhere to put down a drink, phone or book.”Knut Klimmek

Materials: Grey fibre boardH 60 cm x W 30 cm x L 60 cm

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Garrett O’Hagan

Featured Collaborative Work: The stackable Aran Armchair designed by Alexander Gufler is a chair for use everywhere – at home, at work, and in public spaces. The chair is made of solid wood, its production combines traditional joinery methods alongside advanced CNC techniques. Details and techniques abound in its design and construction. No surface, join or connection, has escaped the designer’s attention.

Materials: Beech, ash or oakH: 795 mm X D: 565 mm X W: 525 mm

Dublin based Knut Klimmek founded Klimmek-Henderson Furniture in 1986, having graduated from the world-renowned John Makepeace School for Craftsmen in Wood. In 2015 the company rebranded as Klimmek Furniture. Knut is a driving force at Klimmek Furniture, responsible for design, customer liaison, production and quality assurance within the company, while leading the team to ensure the production of high quality, handcrafted pieces.

klimmek-furniture.ie

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Garrett O’Hagan approached Italian Alex Gufler to design the Aran chair for Aodh. O’Hagan feels it is important to work with a range of designers both within Ireland and internationally. This approach enables the evolution of a fluency in design aesthetic.

Born in 1979 in Merano, Italy, Alex started his career as a goldsmith in his father’s shop. Following his MFA degree in crafts at Pforzheim in Germany, he went on to study Industrial Design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, where he graduated in 2009. It was there that he cultivated his passion for furniture and everyday objects.

In 2010 Gufler founded his studio in the heart of Vienna, from where he collaborates with national and international clients. He creates design objects with a high attention to detail, simplicity and a profound knowledge of materials and production processes. His work has been exhibited in multiple countries and has been honoured with international design awards, including the Red Dot Design Award and the 2015 iF Design Award.

alexandergufler.com

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PERCH

Perch was set up in Dublin in 2008 with the aim of improving the quality of everyday living through design. Specialists in research-led design for applied human movement, the Perch team works from a deep understanding of the emotional and physiological requirements of the active human. Their approach to critical thinking and problem solving is truly interdisciplinary and they always strive to find that perfect balance between interactive simplicity, scientific relevance and aesthetic beauty.

Perch has forged long, meaningful client relationships and works in unison with clients, right through the processes of discovery, trials and international commercialisation. This way of working builds strong connections and enables true, disruptive innovation. Perch also actively participates in the post-commercialisation phases, to continually improve standards and gain a deeper understanding of each sector in which they work.

perch.ie

Philip Hamilton Simon Dennehy

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lAbOFA

Labofa A/S is a Danish manufacturer specialising in the development and production of chairs and furniture for educational environments and public and private offices. The company strategy is to develop a conceptual collection of furniture and chairs focused on quality, innovation, flexibility, ergonomics and design and - not least - new durable materials. Individual pieces of furniture are perceived almost as elegant animations in the actual arrangement and users perceive a clear Labofa DNA. Labofa began producing school furniture in 1947 and in recent years this market segment has again become a focus area. Labofa launched its first office chair in 1950 and in 1995 introduced the world-renowned series of EGO office seating, of which more than one million have so far been delivered. In the summer of 2014 the new office chair series FOX was introduced.

labofa.com

Featured Work:The Ray and Ray Junior family is a new generation of ergonomic school furniture. The patented ‘Flexible Seat’ design achieves flexible sitting with effective height and angle adjustments on both chair and desk with almost no mechanisms, levers or complications. The design and process has featured on FastCo, Core77, NotCot and TEDx and been published by The Irish Ergonomic Society, BINI and FIRA’s “Furniture Design Toolkit”.

MaterialsRay: Backrest, base and undercarriage: glass-filled nylon. Seat: specialised thermo-plastic elastomer by DuPont, called Bexloy.

Ray Junior: Stool: glass-filled Polypropylene undercarriage with Bexloy seat. Tubular, reverse cantilever, high-tensile steel legs.

Collaborative Process:The Ray range is the outcome of nine years of research including successive prototype testing in Irish schools and clinical laboratory trials, and a successful collaboration between Perch and Hans Thyge & Co., for Labofa. The range takes inspiration from the work done by Dr. Gearóid Ó’Conchubhair and the body of research on applied movement for task work and is an example of a productive international collaboration that has merged interdisciplinary skills and processes to deliver a very disruptive and health-positive educational furniture solution.

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MONTGOMERy

Thomas Montgomery Ltd is one of Ireland’s leading contemporary soft seating and upholstered furniture manufacturers. Established in 1975, the company has built a reputation for designing and manufacturing high quality upholstered furniture for the office and commercial interiors markets. Quality through design is at the heart of the company ethos and is encapsulated in every product. Thomas Montgomery’s team of skilled designers, craftsmen and upholsterers understands what is needed to deliver the highest quality product and service. They have worked with architects and designers on a number of prestigious projects throughout Ireland and have the imagination, willingness and skill to work on customer-specific projects while continuing to grow the company’s own range of design-led furniture. Thomas Montgomery Ltd is now working to develop and produce design-led office and commercial furniture which reflects the evolution of the modern working environment, supports the technology driving these changes and fosters interactions among workers of the 21st century.

thomasmontgomery.ie

Stuart Montgomery

Collaborative Process: Float is a collaboration between Thomas Montgomery and Perch, born from a shared desire to partner Irish-based design and manufacturing to develop products that are internationally focused and offer truly modern, thought-provoking solutions for workers in the 21st century. The two companies are developing several further collaborations with the aim of a long-term strategic partnership.

Materials:Steel tubing, wood, fabric.

Featured Work:Float is a soft seating solution for the modern work environment. It consists of a central, 360-degree swivel seat and arm/back rest that not only supports the user, but also acts as a surface for working and collaborating. Based around the idea of encouraging and improving informal interactions for workers, the concept grew from observation of people working individually and in small groups. The aesthetic is guided primarily by the spatial requirements of the dynamic human form and the subsequent angles of interaction when engaged in collaboration.

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“ The physiological and the psychological are linked, so we found a way to bring that to a piece of furniture.”

On the one hand I’m saying that the world doesn’t exactly need another chair, but chairs for educational furniture are so bad. There is so much wrong with seating in schools, and so little has been done because of the perceived cost. Looking at how to solve this became the subject of my Master’s degree at Dublin’s NCAD [National College of Art and Design], where I now also teach. I worked with Gearóid O’Conchubhair, and in 2009 we got funding from the EU’s FP7 programme to create TFE: Task Furniture in Education, so now there’s a team of designers on the project.

It’s revolutionary: if you look at marketing brochures for school furniture, you’ll see the perfect ‘right angled child’ sitting down. But we don’t sit like that, and when the seat doesn’t support us, we slouch. When you slouch in your seat it’s because you’ve lost control of your pelvis, and your spine collapses into a ‘C’ slump; and that compromises your heart, lungs, blood flow. Get the seat right, and you’re training young kids how to sit for the rest of their lives.

We stopped taking on clients, and drove our own research-led design, looking at architectural space, psychology, acoustics, physiology. We came up with a patented flexible seat to make the Ray, and Ray Junior, which we’re producing with Labofa in Denmark.

I’m also looking at designs for the soft spaces, where we work away from our desks: in coffee shops and hotels, and in breakout spaces in offices. We sit on couches, lined up in squares, with rectangular furniture – but we don’t hold ourselves in square forms. When we stand, we’re free to express ourselves through body language, but when you hunch over on a sofa, you’re less likely to be confident. You should be able to move around and face people at different angles. The physiological and the psychological are linked, so we found a way to bring that to a piece of furniture, Float, which we’re making with Irish company Thomas Montgomery.

Chairs aren’t new; we have to treat them with respect and think of the aesthetics. Form follows function, but people make emotional connections through form, so our work has to look beautiful as well. My hope for ID2015 is that it’s a catalyst for change. We want to change the standards of educational furniture across Europe – and the world.

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Ceadogán Rugs create contemporary designer rugs and wall hangings at their workshops in south County Wexford.

Denis Kenny, owner and maker, leads the team at Ceadogán. Over the past 25 years the team has amassed a lifetime of experience specialising in the creation of striking rugs and wall hangings in wools and silks, designed for specific spaces. The team is focused, highly skilled, very experienced and dedicated to pairing the traditional values of remarkable craftsmanship with contemporary design.

Ceadogán have a tradition of collaborating with leading Irish artists and textile designers. The energy and dynamic created by the collaboration of designer and maker has distinguished this small niche company over the years.

Visitors are very welcome to the Ceadogán Rug workshop by appointment. Situated in an eighteenth-century farmyard, the workshop and studios overlook the saltwater marshes of Bannow Bay Estuary and the medieval monastic settlement of Clonmines.

ceadogan.ie

Denis Kenny

Andrew Ludick is a ceramics artist based in Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny. Born in the United States, he majored in Illustration at the Columbus College of Art and Design, Ohio before moving to Ireland in 2003. Andrew’s work has slowly evolved towards forms that illustrate the natural properties of clay and the processes he uses to create them. The building of these forms involves coiling and pinching the clay to create vases, bowls and various other shapes. This slow and meditative process takes him into a space that allows a natural, organic progression to happen where the form seems to build itself. The built form is often either seen as a blank canvas to draw shapes on or an interesting form to complement with patterns. The final pieces are covered in a clear transparent glaze, which serves to deepen the colours and seal the clay so it can be used for functional purposes. Andrew’s work is influenced by Native American and African indigenous art and music, as well as artists and musicians such as Paul Klee, John ffrench, Peter Bruegel, Lester Young and Thelonious Monk.

andrewludick.blogspot.ie

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Collaborative Process:Ceadogán’s work with ceramicist Andrew Ludick began in 2014 when Fiona Gilboy, Creative Director of Ceadogán Rugs, saw the potential to collaborate. Both rug designs came directly from the hand-painted ceramic work of Ludick, whose distinctive and intuitive use of pattern and colour was seen by the Ceadogán team to lend itself perfectly to their textile medium. Together, they worked out the translation of the ceramic designs to a much larger scale, bearing in mind the impact a rug can make on an interior space. It was decided that for the rugs to have the impact of the ceramic work, it was best not to use perfectly square or perfectly round rug shapes.

Featured Work:Lime Sun (green, orange) measures: 1.65m diameter, weighs 11kgs

Solar Opposite (yellow) measures: 1.32m diameter, weighs 7.5kgs

Materials:Both rugs are made from 100% New Zealand wool with hessian backing; wool dyed at Cushendale Woollen Mills, Kilkenny, Ireland.

Ceramic Material: white earthenware clay, coloured slips, clear glaze.

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The intricate nuances of the small-scale ceramic pieces change dramatically when blown up to the rug size. Each subtle, fine distinction of the original designs evolves to take on a boldness, confidence and delicate playfulness in the larger scale of the rugs.

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ClAiRE ANNE O bRiEN

Claire Anne O’Brien is a constructed textile designer who creates three-dimensional knitted fabrics for interiors. Originally from County Cork, Claire Anne set up her studio in East London after completing an MA in Textiles at the Royal College of Art in 2010. She has exhibited at London Design Festival, Milan Furniture Fair, Wool Modern and Spinexpo and received the Future Maker Award from the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland in 2011 and the Cockpit/Haberdashers’ Award from the UK Crafts Council in 2015. Claire Anne’s work is inspired by traditional techniques such as weave, knotting and basketry to make playful investigations into structure and form using the unique properties of knit. The studio produces a range of knitted wool furniture as well as bespoke commissions and fabric development for commercial and private clients.

claireanneobrien.com

Featured Work: The Ciséan grey pouffe is part of the Olann Collection, which is inspired by a traditional Ireland where fishing and knitting were at the heart of village life. Patterns and structures found in hand-knitted Aran sweaters and willow baskets are explored through exaggerated scale and new applications. Ciséan is hand-knitted and woven into 3D form using a chunky, undyed Swalewick wool.

Materials:100% Swalewick wool, upholstery foam, ash wood.

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CEAdOGAN RuGSCollaborative Process:Claire Anne O’Brien is best known for her structural approach to knit and her passion for texture and surface pattern. Ceadogán are well known for the quality and contemporary design of their rugs. The collaboration allowed both designers to explore new ways of working. For Claire Anne the challenge was in how to animate and bring her design aesthetic to a two-dimensional surface. This was achieved through the use of varying pile heights to create a relief pattern on the surface of the rug. For Ceadogán, the use of the pile to create form and pattern represents a departure from their usual rug-making and collaborative process.

Featured Work:Téadra is an un-tufted rug made with 100% felted, undyed wool in 18mm cut pile and 8mm loop pile.

Materials: 100% wool, felted. Chunky 3/ply, L: 2m x W: 1.29m,13.5kgs approx.

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Love & Robots are a Dublin-based design studio that works at the intersection of art, digital design and technology. With a passion for both design (love) and 3D printing (robots), they push the boundaries of design and technology to create beautifully crafted, customisable, unique products for design lovers everywhere.

loveandrobots.com

Kate O’Daly Emer O’Daly

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Niamh Lunny is Head of Costume at the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s national theatre. She has designed costumes for The Abbey Theatre, ANU, The Performance Corporation, Fishamble Theatre Company and Rough Magic along with many other film, TV and theatre companies. She has also designed sets and visual art for the Peacock, The Abbey Theatre and The Big House Festival.

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Featured work: Plumage is a 3D printed free-moving customisable cape. This collaborative project between Love & Robots and Niamh Lunny looks at traditional costume and theatre design and how it can be reinterpreted using new digital design and 3D printing technologies. It is an exploration of patterns in fabric such as knit and lace, as well as three-dimensional structures and surfaces, and natural phenomena. The Plumage cape is designed as 3D printed chainmail with ornamental attachments to create a wearable garment. The ornaments are attached to the chainmail and can move independently of each other – creating movement, visual interest, and fluidity within the material.

Love & Robots have previously experimented with 3D printing chainmail structures, as well as complex organic patterns. The Plumage cape extends those explorations to construct a piece of clothing that can be 3D printed all in one piece without any assembly required. The exhibited piece has over 6,000 moving component parts.

Materials: Nylon polyamide.

Interview Objects

Plumage is the world’s first 3D printed, free-moving, customisable cape. We collaborated with Niamh Lunny, Head of Costume Design at the Abbey Theatre. We’d been working with 3D printed chain mail, and we were excited about the idea of being able to push that further. We both trained as architects, but we’d been making jewellery and accessories, and as Niamh is in costume, our collaboration was obviously going to be something wearable.

Niamh understands how textiles work, and how to lay out a pattern to create the overall form. As she put it, chain mail behaves like a fabric, so we’ve actually created a new kind of textile. Each piece is a solid, rigid piece of nylon, but because of the chain mail structure, each “feather” moves independently. So, with 6,000 moving pieces, it’s fluid and free moving, it rustles, it tinkles.

The cool thing about 3D printing is that now we’ve created the file (it took weeks and weeks, as each of the 6,000 parts has to be drawn in space, not touching another), every feather can be customised. Then, the printer makes it, all in one go. You can’t see it, unfortunately, as it’s in a vat of powder. Lasers are zapping it, and it takes about a day, and then you pull it out fully formed and shake it out. There is some post production, but that’s more or less it.

Emer had done a Masters degree in Digital Design in the United States, and realised 3D printing was going to change everything. What excites us is that you can make anything, and each thing you make can be different, but all of a really high quality. We teamed up with software developers, so that each of our Love & Robots products is unique, and customisable.

Iris van Herpen and Chanel have experimented with 3D printing and you see some on the catwalks, but our cape is the first of its type, the world’s first, customisable 3D cape. And yes, it will be for sale on our website. We have just opened our first pop-up shop at Fumbally Exchange on Dame Lane, Dublin. There will be iPads, so you can come in and customise, then take your own unique piece away.

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Dublin-born jewellery designer Emma Cahill creates wearable objects with an innovative approach to jewellery that focuses on gardening tools. Her main source of inspiration comes from her mother’s back garden and the hard work that goes into it. Gardening is a tiring process of hacking and cutting but the results are beautiful and rewarding. Emma’s focus is on the gardening tools that aid this process using a range of materials from traditional metalwork techniques, new technologies and hand dying. The colour inspiration comes from the graduating hues of tulips, hydrangeas and the deep hues of beetroots. Emma aims to promote jewellery that uses interdisciplinary techniques and challenges current conceptions of nature. Emma has just completed a BA in Metals and Jewellery with History of Art at the National College of Art & Design. She has received recognition for a number of awards and was the winner of the Mark Fenn Award from the Association for Contemporary Jewellery. She has also worked for a number of international jewellery makers and companies. Since September 2015, Emma has been attending Central Saint Martins in London for an MA in Design in Jewellery.

emmacahilldesign.com

EMMA CAHill

Featured Work:Hand-dyed, 3D printed blue neckpiece inspired by the twisted roots of trees and the blue gradient colours of hydrangeas.

Materials: Hand-dyed, 3D printed plastic, rubber tubing, silver. 50cm x 20cm.

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Genevieve is a designer/maker from Dublin who has recently graduated with a BA degree in Metals and Jewellery from the National College of Art & Design. She is also an accomplished musician interested in combining her skills as a designer with her passion and love for music. Her initial collection fuses elements from both of these areas into a series of innovative jewellery designs. She is interested in translating pieces of music into tactile and wearable forms. She makes wearable musical sculptures using new technologies such as laser cutting combined with traditional handmade and metalwork techniques.

Featured Work: The Sonatine Bracelet. Laser cut grey and black bracelet. Inspired by a three part sonatine written for the piano by the romantic composer Maurice Ravel. The graphic notation in the neckpiece mirrors the sequence of the original musical score.

Materials: Japanese linen card, elastic cord.

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Genevieve was recently featured as an emerging maker in the RDS National Craft and Art Awards exhibition in Dublin. Her work was showcased at the New Designers exhibition in London this year, where she received invitations to exhibit at The Great Northern Events Contemporary Craft Fair in Manchester, The Kath Libbert Youth Movement exhibition in Leeds and the Galarie Marzee Annual Graduate Exhibition in Nijmegen, Netherlands where her work is currently on display. She was awarded the Galarie Marzee International Graduate Award 2015.

genevievehowarddesign.com

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Designgoat is an industrial design studio based in Dublin that creates experiences through products, spaces, furniture and food. Established in 2011, Designgoat has worked on a broad range of projects including self-directed products, commercial interiors and exhibition designs. The aim is always to deliver unique experiences for clients ranging from small start-ups to large international brands. Designgoat does much of the prototyping and manufacture on its projects in-house and has built close relationships with trusted local fabricators to realise its work.

wearedesigngoat.com

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Cian Corcoran Ahmed Fakhry

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kATiE SANdERSON

For the last ten years Katie Sanderson has been creating unique food experiences in spaces that are out of the ordinary: disused warehouses, galleries and a Wicklow rainforest. The common theme is a playfulness with location, with food and the way that it is served and enjoyed. Vegetables are the main feature and Katie likes to evolve recipes from the past and use seaweeds and other sea vegetables as an enhancing ingredient. In The Hare, a collaboration with artist Fiona Hallinan, Katie created a moving vegetarian café that was structured to easily work within Temple Bar Gallery in Dublin’s historic centre. The Hare went on to be hosted in The Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. In the summer of 2014 Katie and her partner Jasper O’Connor converted a boat shed on the water’s edge in Aughrusbeg, Connemara into a restaurant for the summer months, making a journey out to the far west of Ireland part of the experience of the meal.

katiejanesanderson.com

Objects

Featured Work:A collection of tableware with various materials and finishes, all inspired by the food to be served on them.

Collaborative Process:The collaboration between Designgoat and Katie Sanderson has come from their discussions on process and experiences. They have developed a collection of objects that will be used to serve a collaborative dinner inspired by Irish food, sea and raw materials. The aim is to create an experience that is built up throughout 2015, growing with each show. The process of preparing the food, the materials used and the crafting of a unique experience all influence the tableware for each dish.

Materials: Spun, polished brass bowl. 55mm x160mm diameter, 360g.

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Garrett Pitcher is Creative Director at Indigo & Cloth, a Dublin based menswear boutique and branding studio that works with a number of local and international brands, conceiving and producing creative ideas. Garrett has worked with Designgoat on the development of a chair and magazine rack that was exclusively launched in Milan.

indigoandcloth.com

GARRETT PiTCHER

Collaborative Process:The collaboration on Dyflin was devised through numerous conversations and a shared appreciation for simplicity, functionality and a respect for Scandinavian lifestyle and traditions and a desire to bring them into an Irish context, using Irish manufacturing and materials. The chair and magazine rack are designed to be beautiful when they are not being used and invisible when they are.

Featured Work:The Dyflin chair and accompanying magazine rack were born from an intriguing notion: what if the Vikings had never left? What would Dublin as a city be today?

Materials:Both the chair and magazine rack work off the same angles and ideology. The materials are kept as simple as possible, using a steel frame to accommodate the sling of high quality Irish leather.

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dESiGN PARTNERS

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CAlORSee company profile on page 12

Featured Work: The Calor Mini BBQ is a neat, portable gas barbeque that is practical and simple to use. Designed to create a new experience around the family, it can be carried in one hand and set up and cleaned with ease. The Calor Mini BBQ has been awarded iF, IDI and Good Design awards.

calorgas.ie

Featured Work: The Le Creuset Activ-Ball is a beautiful corkscrew constructed in a durable metal alloy. It has an innovative self-pulling mechanism that pushes the cork from the screw after removal. The Le Creuset Activ-Ball has won iF, IDI and Good Design product awards.

lecreuset.ie

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lE CREuSET

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dEREk WilSON

Belfast-based ceramicist Derek Wilson graduated from the University of Ulster in 2007 with an MA in Applied Arts. He runs a successful contemporary studio practice that focuses on producing a range of hand-thrown porcelain tableware as well as a selection of sculptural objects. He has exhibited extensively throughout the UK, Ireland and Europe and his work has featured in Wallpaper magazine’s ‘Handmade’ Milan exhibition. His practice as a ceramicist draws inspiration from a diverse range of sources – from mid-century British Constructivism to the history of the ceramic industry in Europe and Asia, with an aim to push the boundaries of a traditional and diverse art form through playing with its aesthetics, materiality and processes.

derekwilsonceramics.com

Featured work:A curated collection of studio ceramic pieces that reference functional elements yet retain a sculptural aesthetic. The selective colour palette and quality of finish and form reflect local elements within the historical landscape where the pieces are produced. Their colour, shape and materiality reference the ideas of restraint, containment and minimalism.

All pieces are hand thrown; some are made in sections and then constructed when the clay is leather-hard. Pieces with an engobe finish are fired up to five times with layers of the engobe painted on between each firing until the required quality and depth of finish are achieved.

Materials:Porcelain and stoneware, high-fired with an engobe finish and glazed interiors.

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Victoria Rothschild is an Irish designer and a graduate of the National College of Art and Design. She moved to the UK in 1998 and went on to study at the Royal College of Art in London. Specialising in glass, much of her work is a tactile response to the raw material, retaining a close relationship between the product and the process of making. She has worked on a diverse range of critically acclaimed projects with the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland and her work has been exhibited internationally. In 2007 Victoria and business partner Mark Bickers set up the Rothschild & Bickers studio in Hertford to produce hand blown glass lighting. With a known commitment to craft and a mission to revive the industry, the brand is inspired by the heritage of this unique material and the skills used in its transformation. Today, Rothschild & Bickers has a portfolio of over 20 products and its lighting adorns hotels, restaurants, bars, shops and homes around the world.

rothschildbickers.com

Featured Work:The clear cylindrical lights of the Empire range draw focus to elegant metal finishes featuring braided metal flex paired with copper or zinc fittings and eye-catching filament bulbs.

Materials: Glass, metal, fabric flex, bulbs.

“Every piece that we create, whether it’s a bespoke commission or something from one of our signature collections, is an original. Each one is free blown and comes with its own tiny irregularities. It is impossible to imagine the many steps and techniques which go into producing each of our designs if you haven’t seen the process for yourself. ” Victoria Rothschild

Victoria Rothschild

From their workshop in Snugboro, Co. Wicklow, Conor Kelly and Nell Roddy run Snug, creating well-crafted and designed furniture that will sit comfortably in any home. Conor is a trained cabinet-maker with over 15 years’ experience working with crafted furniture in Ireland, Kenya and New Zealand. Nell has a passion for design and together they started Snug in April 2014 to demonstrate their belief that good design can transform everyday living. Each piece is a celebration of design that is playful, functional and crafted. The structural simplicity of the Snug range is the outcome of a considered process of sketching, prototypes, wood and colour changes until the final product is realised. The aim is always to achieve a balance between simplicity, function and beauty.

snug.ie

SNuG

Featured work:The Snug Bench injects a playful aesthetic and modern design into traditional kitchen seating, taking the lines of its constituent birch wood as its primary visual focus.

Materials: Ash and birch plywood.

Conor Kelly

Objects

Cathal Loughnane is Creative Director with Design Partners, a leading Irish strategic product design consultancy. He studied Industrial Design at Carlow IT and the National College of Art & Design, Dublin and has played a core role in developing Design Partners’ unique approach to industrial design, merging craft techniques with advanced computer-aided technology. His consulting work with a broad spectrum of global brands has been recognised internationally by Red Dot and Industrie Forum in Germany and Good Design in the United States and Japan. A sculptor at heart, Cathal has a passion for storytelling and the study of human motivations and strives in his creative work to make meaningful connections that resonate with people’s lives and to reflect the balance between refined form and visceral beauty.

designpartners.com

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Peter is a graduate of the National Collegeof Art & Design, Dublin and has worked for over 25 years across the spectrum of design consultancy for global brands, for much of that time as Creative Director of strategic product design consultancy Design Partners. He has developed several iconic computer input devices for key client Logitech, all of which blend the signatures of Peter’s work: thoughtful detailing, functionality, ergonomics and a quiet, honed, sculptural aesthetic. His work has been exhibited in MoMA San Francisco, MoMA New York, the Chicago Athenaeum, at the Red Dot and Industrie Forum awards, Germany and in Good Design, Japan.

In 2011 he set up Peter Sheehan Studios to take a wide-angle view of design, making, craft and art while continuing to do a certain amount of design consultancy and mentoring.

petersheehanstudio.com

PETER SHEEHAN

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Featured Work:The History Chair is the latest step in a long-standing design collaboration between two designers that goes back to when they first worked together at Design Partners over 20 years ago. Both are scribblers, and sketching is at the heart of their process. Both are sculptors, striving to capture beauty in form. Their work together is underpinned by conversations more than anything else.

Collaborative Process:The collaboration between Peter and Cathal is rooted in their history of working together, their own experiences and observations, sharing stories and conversations, a shared approach to how they work and their complementary yet different perspectives and strengths. Identifying and understanding the essence of an object is central to their work.

Following the crafted scupltural approach of The History Chair, over a number of months Loughnane and Sheehan worked with the craftsman Ryan Connolly, paring back the design language to realise a new sibling called The Pilgrim Chair with a similar presence but with the emphasis on a pared-down functional silhouette and an austere simplicity.

Materials:Oak.

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Ireland is home to a vibrant design and craft sector which has its roots in Ireland’s heritage and tradition but is continually innovating, exploring new ideas, approaches and techniques.Inspired by the country’s stunning landscapes and an abundance of local materials, designers and craftspeople throughout the island of Ireland create contemporary objects with a strong sense of place.The ambition of The Souvenir Project is to showcase the extraordinary creative talent and quality of materials and making within Ireland. Souvenirs are a symbolic reminder of experience, location and culture, and this collection of authentic Irish products, designed and made in Ireland, provides visitors a means of taking home the very best of Irish design. These products reinvent, reclaim and redeem the humble and often stereotypical souvenir, making it beautiful, meaningful and eminently collectible.Irish Design 2015 marks a pivotal chapter in Irish design, helping to inspire, promote and develop Ireland’s design capacity and culture. This commissioned project, through a series of collaborations between designers, makers and manufacturers, demonstrates the power design has to create a future where designers make opportunities, and businesses have the opportunity to make it.Taking elements of the island’s past, the designers and makers featured in The Souvenir Project have created a collection of products that reflect Ireland’s design-led future and celebrate Irish materials, culture and heritage. Each tells a unique story of Ireland.

Alex Milton, Programme Director, Irish Design 2015

The term souvenir may have an unfortunate veil of commercialisation drawn over it due to mass tourism but, at its root, it is literally about memory and recollection. A souvenir is so much more than useful or beautiful; it is a loved object laced with emotional associations. This collection of new Irish souvenirs carefully explores this thinking, filtering it through the local context, embracing the subtleties of the land, weather, histories and people. It is a gathering of objects with meaning and depth that softly speak of a time and place.

Jonathan Legge, The Souvenir Project Curator & Creative Director,

makersandbrothers.com

THE SOuvENiR

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“ Exploring new ideas, approaches and techniques. Inspired by the country’s stunning landscapes and an abundance of local materials, designers and craftspeople throughout the island of Ireland create contemporary objects with a strong sense of place.”

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This plate is the result of a collaboration between Nicholas Mosse Pottery and animator Johnny Kelly, commemorating the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Ireland on the 22 May 2015.

Inspired by the pottery’s extensive back catalogue of designs and colour, the resulting rainbow pattern is reconstructed entirely from this archive of motifs, including elements dating back to the 1970s when Nicholas Mosse Pottery was established. This souvenir is a small celebration for a big moment in Ireland’s history, a gently waving flag for equality.

Souvenir 01 – The Rainbow PlateDesigned by Johnny KellyMade by Nicholas Mosse Pottery

Johnny KellyJohnny Kelly is a London based animator and designer from Ireland. He moved to London to work at a graphic design studio and somehow found himself studying animation at the Royal College of Art. He now works at Nexus, working on interesting projects and commissions for Adobe, Vitra, Google and the Victoria & Albert. His short film Procrastination was broadcast by the BBC, and won the Jerwood Moving Image Award. The stop motion animation he directed for Chipotle Back to the Start won the Film Grand Prix at the Cannes Advertising Festival. Johnny is an AGI member, and has judged for AICP and D&AD. He is rubbish at cooking and likes the countryside.

mickeyandjohnny.com

Nicholas MosseNicholas Mosse established Nicholas Mosse Pottery in 1976 after training in England and Japan. His mission was to produce beautiful, functional pottery in the style of Irish spongeware – the traditional pottery of Ireland used in the 18th century. His work derives from his strong love of the country. His range is based on generous hand thrown forms and traditional sponge decorated patterns applied directly onto his own locally made clay. All patterns are designed by his wife, cut on site and applied by local, in-house trained workers.

nicholasmosse.com

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One field, the source of both the clay for the pot and the raw honey that it holds. Good food is very much related to the land and, as such, to memory of place. This honey pot is about one very specific place – a field in East Cork. The pot contains raw honey created on the banks of the Blackwater.

Clay was sourced next to the hives. That same clay was formed and fired a few miles down the road from this field and the raw honey sealed inside with the wax created in the production of that same honey. A vessel containing all that one field in Cork has to offer.

Helena NewenhamHelena Newenham, who holds a BSc. in Food Science from University College Cork and is a third generation beekeeper at Coolmore Bees, has been beekeeping with her father on their family farm in Co. Cork for almost 8 years. Coolmore Bees are now one of the largest beekeepers in Ireland, supplying raw, Irish multi-floral honey to many shops around Cork. However, their main focus is on the breeding and conservation of the native Irish honeybee. By working closely with researchers in National University of Ireland Galway and University of Limerick, their aim is to overcome one of the main causes of the decline of bees in Ireland, the dreaded varroa mite, by developing a varroa-tolerant bee.

coolmorebees.com

Stephen PearceSince throwing his first pot at the age of ten by his father’s side in 1953, Stephen Pearce has gone on to become a leading figure in Irish design and pottery. His three distinctive ranges of earthenware ship all around the world each day. They are one of very few modern potteries that continue to dig and process their own clay which is sourced from the banks of the Blackwater river. Each pot undergoes at least eighteen individual hand processes on its way through the workshop in Shanagarry, Co. Cork.

stephenpearce.com

PostPost is a Dublin-based graphic design studio founded in 2015 by Robert Farrelly, Andrew McNamee and Seán Mongey. They use creativity, collaboration and clear ideas to make work that serves many purposes and use design as a catalyst to effect change and growth for the businesses they work with. Recent completed work includes an identity and campaign for a physics festival; a book with limited edition box for a photographer; print and exhibition graphics for a fashion event showcasing new designers; and an identity and signage for a progressive steak house.

workbypost.com

Souvenir 02 – The Honey PotDesigned and made by Stephen Pearce PotteryHoney produced by Coolmore BeesPackaging by Post StudioDirection by Makers & Brothers

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J. HILL’s StandardJ. HILL’s Standard produces handmade contemporary crystal in Waterford, Ireland, cut with precision by craftsmen who use age-old knowledge and skill. They found the physical nature of rain is especially satisfying to interpret in cuts on crystal. They have used a series of different cutting techniques to achieve the effect of imagery created for them by Graphic Designer Scott Burnett.

jhillsstandard.com

Scott Burnett Scott Burnett is a Dublin based designer and creative director of Aad. He works with organisations of all sizes, and from a wide range of sectors, shaping identities, objects, ideas and experiences. He is an active advocate of design and creativity helping establish and develop projects such as 100archive.com, a platform for Irish graphic design, and makeshapechange.com, a film, website and educational workshops programme that illustrates the role and effect of design on our lives.

studioaad.com

Souvenir 03 – Naming RainPatterns designed by Scott BurnettMade by J. HILL’s Standard

In Ireland we have many names for rain. The words ghost their original Irish form. They describe the force, direction and potential consequences of the rain. Most tellingly, they lay bare our diverse feelings about this too regular imposition. A soft day brings steel grey cloud that wipes out the landscape and dulls all feeling; “spitting” conveys a mild inconvenience allowing the suffering to weave between the drops. It’s absolutely lashing, rain bounces off the ground and unleashes a torrent of dialogue, aghast at the state of the weather. Elements speak of nature and landscape and our interpretation of them says a lot about us. Rain can be symbolic of melancholy, passion, wistfullness, creativity. It lends the Irish land its verdant greenness and its water and fire colour palette.

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An brandub is the boardgame mentioned since the sixth century in Irish texts. The old game of ground is presented here as a section of peat, compressed and cut into thirteen figures, played on a punctured wool felt mat. An brandub, the raven, is perched at the centre of the board, outnumbered and surrounded, and plays for stalemate – an island game.

“The centre of the plain of Fal is Tara’s castle, delightful hill; out in the exact centre of the plain, like a mark on a brandub board. Advance thither, it will be a profitable step: leap up on that square, which is fitting for the branán, the board is fittingly thine.” Attributed to Maoil Eoin Mac Raith

de PaorTom de Paor was born in London in1967 and graduated from the School of Architecture at University College Dublin in 1991. He has since taught at a variety of schools at home and abroad and has lectured widely. He has received various national and international acknowledgements for his work, which includes public buildings and interiors, exhibitions, homes, furniture, books and film. He was elected a member of Aosdána in 2015.

depaor.com

Sphere OneSphere One is a collection of modern, conceptual design from Ireland, under the creative directorship of Lucy Downes, a native of Dublin shaped by Wicklow and New York City. A directional label of design integrity with a strong focus on colour, a mastery of construction and clean-lined, flattering silhouettes, it is shown at Paris Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week twice a year. The individually hand-framed pieces, using the world’s finest cashmere yarns, give rise to exquisite knitwear identified by Lucy’s trademark circle or ‘sphere’ of handstitches.

sphereone.ie

Souvenir 04 - BrandubDesigned by dePaorBoard design collaboration by Sphere One | Lucy Downes

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SuperfolkBased on the Atlantic coast of the west of Ireland, Superfolk design and make simple, beautiful home goods for people who love the wild outdoors. With a passion for wildlife, nature and wild food and a respect for material heritage they celebrate the natural world and share their passion for it through their products. Craft is at the heart of what they do and their products reflect the character and behaviour of the raw materials from which they are made. Superfolk design through making and take time to create quality, durable objects that embrace the patina of use and the passing of time.

superfolk.com

Print BlockPrint Block is a studio collective and textile printing facility in Dublin. It is run by a group of textile artists and designers who are committed to developing the Irish textile printing industry. They offer workshops, masterclasses, open access days and membership to a community of printed textiles practitioners. The vision of Print Block is to raise the profile of printed textiles in Ireland and to make an important contribution to the Irish cultural landscape and economy.

printblock.ie

Souvenir 05 - Stone Wall PatternsDesigned and made by SuperfolkPrint assistance by Print Block

Stone Wall Patterns is a collection of prints inspired by the dry stone walls of Ireland. Seemingly haphazard yet structurally sound, the dry stone wall holds its form without mortar. The expressive character of the wall describes the underlying geology of the area. Distinctive patterns emerge as you journey through the countryside. This collection of patterns (Aran, Burren and Connemara) has been developed by hand, through loose ink brush drawing and relief block print methods before screenprinting on natural Irish linen.

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Souvenir 06 - LumperDesigned by Makers & BrothersMade by Bronze Art Fine Art Foundry

The hidden and humble root vegetable introduced to Europe in the 16th century that has since become uniquely associated with Ireland. The hardy tuber has a deep and emotive narrative. The Lumper, once the most prevalent food source in Ireland, is now grown on only one farm. An oddity in bronze, Lumper is a memento with a wonderfully curious form and is presented with an essay by celebrated Irish chef Darina Allen.

Makers & BrothersMakers & Brothers is a design-led multichannel retail operation developed by Jonathan and Mark Legge. They are a content-driven retail venture founded on a belief in the simple things; the handmade, objects of integrity, contemporary vernaculars.

Alongside makersandbrothers.com, they run an ever-evolving series of retail events at home and abroad. Each event offers a new array of products by designers and makers from all over the world plus work by the M&B in-house design team, who are actively working with makers to produce new and exclusive objects of use, the simple, beautiful and sometimes nicely odd. They believe in a quiet, human approach to retail.

makersandbrothers.com

Bronze Art Fine Art FoundryBronze Art Fine Art Foundry was established in 1996 and has become a leader in fine art bronze casting in Ireland. They produce bronze castings to the highest standard that endure for generations. They produce awards, plaques, gallery works, monumental outdoor sculptures as well as bronze castings for the film and TV industry. They pride themselves on a close working relationship with the individual artist or commissioning body.

bronzeart.ie

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Souvenir 07 - ibiDesigned and produced by Cathal Loughnane & Peter Sheehan

ibi is a precious and personal object – a souvenir – that allows an individual, through a simple gesture, to be immediately transported back to a time, a place and a feeling. Special memories are collected during a lifetime, forming an intimate record of how we experience the world. Objects, images and sounds trigger them. Small things that are completely meaningless to others have a heightened resonance for the individual. Crafted from native Irish hardwoods and Wexford linen, each ibi contains a personal memory. Rotate gently and listen.

Cathal Loughnane, see page 74 designpartners.com

Peter Sheehan, see page 75petersheehanstudio.com

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Souvenir 08 - Measc Muddle Designed by WorkGroupMade by Shane HollandCocktail by America Village ApothecaryDirection by Makers & Brothers

Measc Muddle is an Irish sycamore and brushed brass cocktail muddle, inspired by the layered landscape of west Galway. The muddle is the result of a collaboration between design studio WorkGroup, Shane Holland and America Village Apothecary. It has been designed to work beautifully for any drink where ingredients need to be crushed, pounded or ground in the glass.

Measc Muddle is a specially created tool, designed so that the markings on the shaft can be used to make an Irish red clover, bog myrtle and Irish whiskey cocktail: the Móin Bhuí.

Shane HollandShane Holland is a product designer and sculptor trained at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and University of Limerick. He is best known for his lighting, furniture and awards work in mixed materials and is an expert in metals. His work has been exhibited in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Dublin, Hanover, Beijing and Tokyo. He is constant in his pursuit of functional elegance and experimentation with materials through the design and making process. He set up his first studios in central Dublin in 1991, before moving in 2006 to a purpose built studio and workshops where all his designs are now produced with a skilled team in Duleek, County Meath. Holland’s award winning studio is involved in custom commissions in furniture, lighting and sculptural projects and collaborates with design practices and private and corporate clients worldwide.

shanehollanddesign.com

Móin Bhuíby America Village ApothecaryA cocktail representing season and placeLate summer/Connemara

Ingredients per drink50ml Jameson Black Barrel Whiskey

25ml America Village red clover & myrtle syrup

6 Fresh mint leaves

1 Fresh lime wedge

4 Dashes of aromatic bitters

3 Drops of bog myrtle tincture

MethodBuild in glass

Muddle mint and lime wedge in glass

Add whiskey and syrup using muddler as your

measure

Add aromatic bitters

Add ice & stir well

Garnish with a few drop of bog myrtle tincture,

clover & mint

America Village ApothecaryAmerica Village Apothecary aims to connect old style medicas and botanicals with modern world living. It is a small, artisan business, developed in 2014, conceived and run by Claire Davey. They are based in north Connemara on the west coast of Ireland, where they are surrounded by an abundance of native wild herbs and botanicals. Their signature Syrups are crafted in small batches using this local, sustainably foraged, seasonal bounty. They are passionate about working toward creating greater harmony regarding the way nature and community interact in our modern world.

americavillage.com

WorkGroupWorkGroup is a graphic design studio founded in 2006 by Conor Nolan and David Wall. The focus of the studio’s work is to create useful and beautiful graphic design for print and screen, which they do for a wide variety of clients. They have worked with 3FE, An Post, Bewley’s, Brown Bag Films, David McWilliams, Gill & Macmillan, ID2015, Irish Design Shop, Oliver Jeffers, Open House Dublin, Pivot Dublin, Project Arts Centre, Roads Group, Senator Katherine Zappone and UCD, among others.

Their process is driven by a desire to create useful design that becomes part of the daily workflow of their clients. Their own interest in the craft and processes of design means that they challenge themselves to deliver these useful solutions in a way that is beautiful, elegant and engaging.

conoranddavid.com

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Souvenir 09 – The SallyDesigned and made by The Tweed ProjectPackaging by Post Studio

A wool pom pom ring with a refined heritage style. The Sally is a modern accessory inspired by The Tweed Project’s friend who wears and makes endless pom poms. The Sally is made from 100% Irish wool and created from the offcuts of The Tweed Project’s Blanket Coats, produced in collaboration with Molloy & Sons in Donegal. It continues The Tweed Project’s dialogue with the slow fashion movement, where time and craft take priority.

The Tweed ProjectThe Tweed Project is a modern Irish heritage brand using Irish fabrics in a contemporary way. The collection is fully made and produced in Ireland, for the world. It is the collective work of Triona Lillis, a designer and stylist, and Aoibheann Mac Namara of Ard Bia in Galway, who care about slow fashion and the future of the Irish textile market

thetweedproject.com

Post studioSee page 80 for description

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The meaning of what a souvenir is and what it does has slowly evolved over time, just as the way we travel and experience places and even how we access our memories has changed. Today’s souvenir is ripe for reinterpretation. Forget about products reflecting clumsy stereotypes, mass-produced somewhere far, far away from the place they depict and imagine instead objects with a genuine connection to the land from which they came: things that gently echo the people, history, geography or nature of a place. Today’s souvenir can be, if we allow it, an extra-ordinary object, rare in its bridging of experiential and object cultures and fascinating in its shape-shifting nature and sentimentality.

Consider how concerned we all are with ‘locally made’ produce, with provenance and with integrity. Think of our infatuation with and taste for craft and craft production. Then there is our love of ‘experience’; all of these modern day pursuits hint at the possibility for a renaissance of the souvenir, reborn as an authentic object making use of local materials and speaking directly, and strongly, of place.

Souvenirs have been around for as long as humans have travelled. The 17th century grand tour phenomenon established the popular tradition of souvenir collecting (miniature coliseums and pantheons were essential purchases, along with the odd renaissance painting), fashions such as Japonism fetishized objects from far away (and the cultures they represented) and the Victorians cemented our need to discover (conquer?), collect and display, a passion that permeated from museum to mantelpiece. For many people the idea of a souvenir will be stuck in the seventies with the jovial, kitschy mass-market type of objects that were popular by-products of package tourism. In the recent past the souvenir has been a collective thing: homogenous and unindividual.

The way we experience places and share those experiences is still changing. We no longer look to a stuffed donkey to remember a holiday; increasingly we revisit our travels in digital spaces and share those experiences, widely, with others. That doesn’t mean that the souvenir’s purpose is extinct, just that its value has shifted slightly. The souvenir has become a more personal artefact; it is less about sharing common or familiar experiences as it once was – we have Facebook for that – and more about preserving rare and intimate memories. Whereas we would once rejoice in the shared experience of a place and, in turn, the object that represented it (consider the classics here; Spanish doll, Eiffel tower, snow globe) we now search for something authentic and less expected, because that is also the way we travel and that is also how we place value on objects.

As a rule, souvenirs need not even be something purchased. A found object has just as much right (and perhaps more charm) to be called a souvenir as something bought at a local market or gift shop. But in the past there has been a heavy leaning towards cultural mementos; architectural monuments in miniature are a (personal) favourite, reproduced art works and even political figures (Mao, Lenin etc.) are common haul. This is commodification of course and it is interesting to consider the process of manufacture of these memories-made-physical: who has made them and why? And, importantly, whose memories are they in fact? Souvenirs use archetypes and iconography, they are by their nature reductive – a souvenir need only offer us a glimpse of a place, a tiny fragment of it, from which a whole experience can be accessed. This is where their power lies.

We live in an increasingly efficient and detached world and it is very usual, now, to hear designers and manufacturers talk about the importance of ingraining objects and products with ‘narrative’ and ‘emotional connection’. A souvenir is predisposed to contain these things. And it is this ultimately, the inherent sentimentality of souvenirs, which ensures their survival.

Souvenirs: Memory Rebooted

Sentiment, authenticity and identity in contemporary object cultureby Laura Houseley

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Essay

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Environment

Yvonne Farrell & Shelley McNamara

GRAFTON

ARCHiTECTS

the new university campus for UTEC in Lima (both now under construction); Institut Mines-Télécom university building, Paris Saclay; Town House building, Kingston University London; and Dublin City Library – all won by international competition.

Co-Founders Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara are Fellows of the RIAI, International Honorary Fellows of RIBA and elected members of Aosdána, the eminent Irish Arts organisation. They were appointed adjunct Professors at their alma mater University College Dublin in 2015 and have been visiting professors at EPFL,

Grafton Architects was formed in 1978 and has won many international plaudits for its work, including the World Building of the Year Award 2008 for the Bocconi University project in Milan; the British Civic Trust award and AAI Special Award in 2009, both for the Department of Finance building in Dublin; the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Biennale Common Ground exhibition 2012; and a shortlisting for the 2013 Stirling Prize for Medical School and Student Accommodation at the University of Limerick. Current projects include the School of Economics for the University of Toulouse and

Lausanne and at Accademia di Archittettura, Mendrisio where they were appointed full professors in 2013. They held the Kenzo Tange chair at GSD Harvard in 2010 and the Louis Kahn chair at Yale in the Fall of 2011 and were joint winners of the Jane Drew Award 2015.

graftonarchitects.ie

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Designer Eric Barrett and engineer Mark Dale joined forces in 2010 to form Graphic Relief, located in both Dublin and London. Mark had worked as both an engineer and manufacturing advisor, while Eric brought over 20 years’ experience working with a range of materials, especially concrete. They were joined in 2012 by Giancarlo Lovino, former managing director of Permasteelisa, who has extensive knowledge of the construction industry from experience on many prestigious projects. graphicrelief.co.uk

Graphic Relief has developed the capability to produce extremely fine detail moulds that can be used to cast a variety of different materials. Ideas and designs can be transformed into a wide range of architectural finishes, for both internal and external applications. Graphic Relief was created with innovation at its heart and has collaborated with many different designers, architects and artists over the past few years. Constantly involved in research and development programs, the Graphic Relief team is always trying to push the limits of materials.

GRAPHiC

REliEF

Eric Barrett

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Environment

Collaborative Process:The collaboration between Graphic Relief and Grafton Architects aims to push the boundaries of what can be achieved when two companies are willing to take risks. Grafton bring their wealth of experience to bear in the design of large scale iconic buildings while Graphic Relief bring their expertise in working on highly detailed architectural concrete panels. The fusion of scale, experimentation and the opportunity to test how diverse materials react when combined with glass reinforced concrete will result in a mixture of unexpected outcomes and happy accidents that could lead in multiple directions.

For Liminal, their collaboration has evolved from a series of small-scale samples to 23 nine foot high concrete fins, each representing the bark of a native Irish tree, first shown at the Victoria & Albert Museum as a landmark project during London Design Festival. This installation was viewed by over 109,000 visitors during the festival.

Materials:Cast concrete and steel.

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MilAN

Liminal – Irish design at the thresholdwas exhibited at Milan Design Week, marking Ireland’s inaugural presence at theleading international event. The exhibitionlocated in Zona Tortona, drew over 40,000 visitors.

April 14-19

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Environment

Smarter Surfaces (previously known as Smart Wall Paint) was founded by Wicklow born Ronan Clarke in 2011. Their first product was Smart Wall Paint, an award-winning, one-coat whiteboard paint available in White and Clear (which accommodates any colour) finish. Smart Wall Paint enables the creation of unlimited whiteboard areas in any space – offices, schools, communal spaces, homes. In 2014 the company launched Smart Magnetic Primer, which can be combined with Smart Wall Paint to create a surface that is both whiteboard and magnetic. Smarter Surfaces invests continually in R&D and innovation and in 2015, added more new products to the range: Smart Projector Paint, Smart Magnetic Wallpaper and Smart Whiteboard Sheets.

Smarter Surfaces trades globally through distributors and e-commerce sites and is a market leader in developing and delivering functional surfaces to customers worldwide. The paints are very popular with architects and designers as well as for planning and collaboration purposes in major multinationals involved in research, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and planning. Corporate customers include LinkedIn, Nike, NBC Universal, MasterCard, Web Summit and many small businesses, while in the education sector Smarter Surfaces paints are used by The Juilliard School for the Performing Arts, the Royal College of Surgeons, the London School of Music and many more.

Smarter Surfaces plans further new products and global expansion and has been the recipient of several awards including an EOPA Product of the Year 2014 Award (FM Category), an Export Industry Award 2014, the 2013 David Manley Business Category Award and the 2013 PwC Docklands Innovation Award.

Featured Work: Smart Wall Paint was used to create an interactive zone at Liminal Milan.

smartersurfaces.com

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Irish design was represented for the first time at WantedDesign, Manhattan during NYCxDESIGN. The exhibition was attended by over 16,000 visitors.

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An evolution of Liminal – Irish design at the threshold focusing on the design & technology interface was presented atDutch Design Week. The exhibition at theiconic Klokgebouw building was attendedby over 70,000 visitors.

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Sarah Bowie

Communication

Sarah Bowie is a freelance illustrator and cartoonist. She is a founding member of The Comics Lab, a monthly comics salon, which aims to develop a vibrant alternative comics scene in Ireland. Based in Dublin, she is also a founding member of OFFSKETCH, an urban sketch event with pop-up exhibition, which aims to encourage active visual engagement with the city. Her most recent illustration work includes a chapter book published by Little Island in 2015, and she is currently working on a picture book for The O’Brien Press, due to be published in Spring 2016. sarahbowie.com

SARAH

bOWiE

Featured WorkSarah Bowie has collaborated with Dolmen and Novaerus to create a playful yet informative illustrated poster helping explain the project featured on page 20.

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VFXAI showcases Ireland as a centre of excellence and a destination with significant VFX talent. Representing Ireland’s leading VFX companies such as Egg, Piranha Bar, Screen Scene and Windmill Lane, the work of its member companies has been recognised at international award ceremonies including the VES Awards, the Emmy’s and the BAFTA’s, acknowledging the superb creative talent and production expertise available in Ireland.

vfxai.com

Egg Post Production, located in the heart of Georgian Dublin, is a dynamic and innovative company with a proven track record in all areas of post production and VFX.

It was founded in 2004 by Gareth Young and Gary Shortall, realising their vision of using cutting-edge technology and workflows with a focus on creativity to deliver high-quality finishing and VFX to the Irish media industry. Following highly successful careers as editors, their vast knowledge of the industry and post production processes ensures the best possible service to their clients.

Their facilities include two 4K grading suites with cinema calibrated projection, a finishing suite, 2 sound dubbing studios, 40 VFX seats and 8 offline rooms. At the heart of the facility is an Isilon storage system that allows seamless workflows across the entire facility.

Their work is consistently nominated for awards with credits including Emmy, BAFTA and IFTA winning shows.

egg.ie

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Piranha Bar is a creative production studio built around a full service post facility. Their roster of directors and studio of animators, 3D experts, flame artists and production specialists all share a passion for effective storytelling.

From live-action to animation and high-end VFX, every executional technique supports ‘The Story’ resulting in engaging, beautifully crafted work that speaks, sometimes whispers and occasionally screams. From inception to execution, Piranha Bar encourages a collaborative approach to the creative process

and looks to workshop concepts, techniques and media options with clients. In addition to the traditional production company workflow, Piranha Bar offers a collective approach, where every solution is explored and delivered in-house. As the world rapidly shifts focus from one medium to another and people engage across multiple communication platforms, Piranha Bar seeks to explore the concepts and techniques that result in true originality.

piranhabar.ie

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Established 30 years ago, Screen Scene VFX and post production facilities is a cornerstone of the Irish film and television industry. It has grown over time to become an award winning team of 60 people, with 50 post production suites and a VFX facility with 40 seats. Screen Scene has established Ireland as a VFX and post production centre of excellence with the capacity to deliver on the international stage.

The company is one of the most experienced suppliers of TV dramas and feature film VFX and post production in the UK and Ireland. They are currently working on TV shows ‘The Frankenstein Chronicles’ for ITV and ‘Ripper Street’ Season 4 for Amazon Prime, and the feature film ‘I.T.’ directed by John Moore, and starring Pierce Brosnan.

Earlier this year, Screen Scene’s work on ‘Ripper Street’ Season 3 received both BAFTA and VES nominations for best VFX.

In 2014 Screen Scene VFX received a VES nomination for best VFX for the Sky One drama ‘Moonfleet’. In 2011 Screen Scene’s VFX work on Series 1 of ‘Game of Thrones’ was Emmy-nominated and picked up a VES award.

Recent credits include ‘Room’, ‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 5, ‘Sing Street’, ‘A Dangerous Fortune’, ‘Die Hard 5’, ‘Last Days On Mars’, ‘Life Of Crime’, ‘Ice Cream Girls’ and ‘Loving Miss Hatto’.

screenscene.ie

Screen Scene

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Windmill have worked on feature films such as ‘Lockout’, produced by Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp, and Jake Paltrow’s ‘Young Ones’, as well as the TV dramas ‘Titanic: Blood & Steel’, ‘Vikings’, ‘Penny Dreadful’, and ‘Dracula Untold’ for Universal Pictures.

Current projects include ‘Jadotville’, starring Jamie Dornan, and ‘The Secret Scripture’ directed by Jim Sheridan and starring Rooney Mara and Vanessa Redgrave.

windmilllanevfx.com

Windmill Lane VFX specialises in creating high-end visual effects for feature film and television. Established in 2010, Windmill Lane collaborates with directors and producers to realise their vision and produce computer imagery of the highest standard. A wealth of talent and experience in all aspects of the industry allows the company to work efficiently in an environment that is both relaxed and creatively stimulating.

Windmill Lane

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JAMES MORRiS

WiNdMill lANE

I was involved in the student drama society, ‘Players’, in Trinity College, and in a band too, with the composer Shaun Davey. I’d studied history, and even though that was a good thing – it teaches you to marshal your thoughts – there were no jobs when I graduated in 1970. So I went over to London, and found my way to a cutting room in Soho. As soon as I got sight of a film editor at work, I thought ‘That’s for me!’.

I became a trainee, working my way up to a job at Roger Cherill’s, which was the top editing company at the time. I loved film, but didn’t want to spend the rest of my working life in London, so I turned down two job offers to come back to Dublin and set up my own editing company. Then Russ Russell, another college friend, joined me and after a short while we built a music recording studio. The timing was perfect.

Back then, if bands in the UK had a hit, they’d be told to make another record, but also to leave the country for tax reasons. Meanwhile, Paul McGuinness, who’d also been in college with us, said, “I manage a band”, and he brought in U2. MTV started up and suddenly every band needed a video. We were the only people who had a film studio alongside a recording studio.

By the late 1980s, we couldn’t grow any more in Ireland, so I was travelling to London each week, and with the help of Paul and U2 we then set up a post production facility in Soho and called it The Mill. The Mill was a dedicated commercials facility but digital technologies came along and made it feasible to work digitally on film. The Mill approached Ridley and Tony Scott, and set up Mill Film in 1998. It went well and led to winning the VFX Oscar for Gladiator. I left The Mill around 2005 and the company has gone on to great success in New York, LA and Chicago.

Throughout all this, Windmill has always been my base and a few years ago two talented Irish film makers, Stephen St. Leger and James Mather, persuaded Luc Besson to make Lockout with them, and they asked me to set up a VFX studio in Dublin. We rented a warehouse in Sandyford, took on a team from our contacts, and delivered the film.

Now we’re building a viable, sustainable VFX base in Ireland. It’s a tough market; the competition isn’t with other companies here, it’s with competitors abroad, so we’ve reached out to Screen Scene, Egg and Piranha Bar to form a collective, The Visual Effects Association of Ireland (VFXAI). Geography isn’t an issue any more, and we’re working together to put ourselves on the map, getting the message out that we can team up to handle scale if a suitable project comes along.

Digital production is leading content creation around the world. We have really great talent in Ireland - we’re writing our own software, coming up with our own angles. In the past, the majority of Irish creative talent was picked up by big companies working elsewhere, but there are many who’d love to come back. We all want to work on something challenging and good – now we can give them a chance.

“ Now we’re building a viable, sustainable VFX base in Ireland.”

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In the Company of Huskies is a creative agency based in the heart of Dublin’s docklands. With a team of more than 50, they combine a deep knowledge of digital with big brand thinking and creative firepower. In 2016, digital technologies will become the primary platform for the consumption of media and communications in the Irish marketplace, and Huskies is at the forefront of helping brands navigate this new environment. Their clients include Fáilte Ireland, Tullamore D.E.W., Guinness Storehouse, Britain’s Open University, Doyle hotels, Saint Vincent de Paul, eFlow and many others. inthecompanyofhuskies.com

Featured Work: Design is everywhere but we don’t always see it. The Vitrine Project is an ambient advertising campaign designed to make the public more aware of the prominence of design. By placing glass display cases, akin to those found in a museum, around everyday items and street furniture, we make design more accessible by showing its ubiquity. It forces the public to re-examine what design means. There is something enthralling about seeing an object that is usually overlooked, elevated to a higher status using just a display box. It proves that great design is all around us but can often become invisible. It is the intention that this project be extended beyond Dublin to continue the conversation on the crucial role that design can play in enhancing our environments.

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Jude Healy Edel QuinnNiamh Clohosey

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Featured Work:The work explores a range of potential futures awaiting Ireland, each represented by a short narrative and illustrated by an accompanying object.

Collaborative Process:The narratives shaping the work have been created in conversation with Fintan O’Toole, whose writing has examined how objects of the past can be used to tell the stories of their time. This project extrapolates this idea into the future, using fictional objects – grouped around the four themes of Living, Moving, Working and Searching – to offer compelling glimpses into fictional futures for Ireland. Inspiration is taken from theorists such as Roland Barthes and Adrian Forty who have written on the concept of objects as mediators of social, political and economic ideas, from designers such as Dunne and Raby, who pioneered the role of products as tools for questioning both the present and the future, and Noam Toran who further explored the balance between object and narrative.

Materials:3D printed paper and resin.

Patrick Stevenson-Keating

Communication

STudiO

PSk

Studio PSK is a collaborative design studio based in London, founded by Patrick Stevenson-Keating who is from Lisburn. Patrick has a background in digital technology and product design. He is also a product design module leader at Middlesex University and a regular lecturer at universities and events internationally. With a passion for detail and aesthetics, Patrick has produced work that has been exhibited internationally in arenas such as the Design Museum, MU Gallery Eindhoven, Selfridges, TATE Modern, NID India, Macau Tower and the V&A. Studio PSK’s work spans physical, digital and print media, often focusing on complex contemporary issues and the use of design as a way to communicate or challenge these. In 2014, Studio PSK was nominated in the Best Emerging Design Studio category in the Icon Magazine awards.

studiopsk.com

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The ‘Keep Ireland Emerald’ CampaignAs Ireland becomes increasingly worried about the impact global warming will have on its landscape, a national government campaign is launched called ‘Keep Ireland Emerald’.

This is a social and technological campaign to maintain Ireland’s green characteristics, both physically and culturally.

New Irish Time (NIT)In a bid to catalyse a new era of economic growth in Ireland, a radical idea is implemented. To capitalise on both Central American markets to the west, and Central Asian markets to the east, Ireland creates two new time zones splitting the country down its longitude.

ReGreen Spray System

Toy Pharming Set

‘Tullamore Two Timers’ GAA Supporter Badge

Pharming in IrelandAn Ireland that merges its agricultural farming culture with medical ‘pharming’. Rural agricultural villages are transformed into biotechnology cottage industries, catering for growing niche markets and rare diseases.

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Featured Work: ID2015 commissioned The Stone Twins to develop a concept that reflects their perception and unique perspective of Irish and Dutch culture. The resulting booklet, Double Dutch – Irish Blarney is an object to covet. It offers humorous observations on the nuances and idiosyncrasies of Dutch and Irish life.

Materials: Linen cover with fluorescent inks and silver thread stitching. Booklet size is 80mm x 120mm.

The Stone Twins are twin brothers Declan and Garech Stone (born 1970, Dublin). The work of their Amsterdam-based design agency is noted for its unconventional, engaging and witty qualities and has been recognised by industry awards such as D&AD, Dutch Design Awards and European Design.

Passionate and assertive about design, The Stone Twins are the authors of Logo R.I.P., a book that commemorates 50 defunct logos. Declan and Garech regularly contribute to design publications and blogs such as Eye Magazine, the International Review of Graphic Design, DesignWeek, and for 10 years had a monthly column in the Dutch magazine Communicatie. In addition, the duo was Head of the ‘Man and Communication’ department at Design Academy Eindhoven from 2008–2013. They currently provide lectures and workshops on visual communication at several international design schools.

The Stone Twins work is included in the permanent collections of the Cooper-Hewitt New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and their parents’ living room.

stonetwins.com

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Here To Fall by B

lacknorth Studio

Communication

Animation Ireland is a group of leading Irish animation companies working together to promote Ireland’s world class animation sector internationally. With millions of children around the world watching Irish produced animations each week, Ireland is a recognised leader with talented and technically sophisticated 2D and 3D studios creating and producing content for TV, film, games, mobile and apps. The Irish animation industry has experienced substantial growth over the past five years emerging as a central component of Ireland’s digital and creative economy. Award winning Irish studios employ 1,000+ technical and creative staff.

animationireland.com

A Man & Ink

A Man & Ink have been working hard for the past ten years producing animation both independently and in collaboration with other companies across shorts, TV series and features. For themselves, they have made the shorts Scarecrow, Miss Remarkable & Her Career (with Lisbet Gabrielsson AB (Sweden) and Bullitt Film (Denmark), winner of the Fipresci Award at the Annecy International Animation Festival), The Neighbours a – co-production with ithinkasia (Cambodia) that is currently touring festivals, and the mini-series The Variety Show. And with others: the series Ish’hafan (Freakish Kid, Hungary) and Joe & Jack (Dancing Girl Productions, Ireland); and the feature films The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea (both with Cartoon Saloon, Ireland). They are also currently working on a short called A Stitch in Time.

amanandink.com

Barley Films

Barley Films are passionate about diversity. The company has produced nine animated shorts since 2002 using CGI, cut-out, digital and hand-drawn techniques. Their work has screened at over 300 festivals in 39 countries. The Barley Films crew has always had an international flavour, with artists from Ireland, Canada, the UK, France, Sweden, South Korea, Lithuania and Italy all working at their Dublin studio. They are also proud that four of their films have been directed by talented women. The company plans to produce a trilogy of animated features in Ireland over the next five years. The first of these is their principal development project from the last few years, Little Caribou.

barleyfilms.net

Blacknorth Studio

Blacknorth Studio was incorporated in 2009 and started strong with its first BBC commission, Living with Alcohol, winning BAFTA: Best Factual Programme (Winner, 2010). Blacknorth was quick to realise its creative strength within the animation industry. They provide an animation serviceto producers working with seriouscontent, stories with sensitive subjectmatter that can reach specific audiences. In 2012, My Autism and Me won an Emmy, an RTS in the Craft and Design category, and Blacknorth were nominated for a BAFTA for this and Hardtimes.

Blacknorth has shaped itself into Northern Ireland’s finest and most stimulating digital media company by maintaining a mature and robust pipeline, providing a reliable and high-end service in both animation and VFX whilst generating in-house intellectual property.

blacknorth.tv

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Boulder Media

Boulder Media have been making high-end 2D and 3D animation for international markets at their Dublin studio since 2000, producing shows like the Emmy award-winning Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, El Tigre, and the BAFTA, Annie and Emmy award-winning The Amazing World of Gumball for Cartoon Network. They have already completed season one of Disney XDs flagship show Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja and also produced the first feature-length Lalaloopsy DVD for toy manufacturers MGA. Other high-profile clients include Nickelodeon and ABC.

bouldermedia.tv

Caboom

Caboom is a multi-disciplinary production company based in Dublin and LA. Working in live-action, puppetry and animation, the company draws on more than 20 years’ experience to produce award-winning content for creatively ambitious clients. Caboom’s work is broad and varied, from animation series for the web to live-action commercials; animated content for apps and games to live-action comedy series. Clients include Disney, TBS, RTÉ, CBBC, BBC, Fox, Warners, American Greetings, Mattel and the Jim Henson Company. The company is best known for its puppet series Special 1 TV, which has aired internationally on TV and online and has earned the company a YouTube partnership for its unique use of social media to build and engage an audience.

caboom.ie

Brown Bag Films

Brown Bag Films is one of Europe’s most successful creative-led animation studios. Celebrating twenty years in business, their Dublin-based headquarters have produced cutting-edge animation for the international market since 1994, bagging numerous awards along the way. These include Oscar nominations for Give Up Yer Aul Sins (2002) and Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty (2010), three Emmy® awards for Peter Rabbit (2014), and a host of BAFTA, Emmy, IFTA and Annie nominations for their hit shows Octonauts, Doc McStuffins and Henry Hugglemonster. Brown Bag Films are committed to producing the highest quality cross-platform animation with strong stories and engaging characters. Founded and managed by animators Cathal Gaffney and Darragh O’Connell, Brown Bag Films is one of Ireland’s business success stories, now employing over 160 full-time staff.

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Dancing Girl Productions

Dancing Girl Productions was established by veteran animation and live-action producers Maeve McAdam and Villi Ragnarsson and has offices in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Because of this, the company is in a unique position to source funding. Dancing Girl Productions is focused on developing and producing long-running animation series and live-action projects for the domestic and international film and TV markets.

animationireland.com/dancinggirl.htm

Cartoon Saloon

The Academy Award nominated animation studio Cartoon Saloon was set up in 1999 by Tomm Moore, Paul Young and Nora Twomey. With award-winning short films such as From Darkness, Cúilín Dualach/Backwards Boy, Old Fangs and The Ledge End of Phil (from accounting) to TV series like Skunk Fu! (broadcast in over 120 territories) and Puffin Rock (due for broadcast with Nick Jr UK in 2015), Cartoon Saloon has carved a special place in the international animation industry. In 2015 the studio received an Oscar nomination for the animated feature Song of the Sea following on from The Secret of Kells which was nominated for an award in 2010. Cartoon Saloon has also created an animated segment for The Prophet, a feature produced by Salma Hayek, released in 2014.

cartoonsaloon.ie

Double Z Enterprises

Double Z Enterprises is a multi-award winning television production company established in 1987. Double Z has provided both UK and Irish television with much-loved comedy shows and puppet characters for adult and children’s programming, including Zig & Zag, Dustin the Turkey and Podge & Rodge. Double Z Enterprises has produced original comedy-based programming for all the major broadcasters in Britain and Ireland, including RTÉ, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and MTV. Along with television production, Double Z have extensive experience in licensing. For over twenty years the company has produced merchandising and marketing campaigns for their characters in Ireland, the UK and Europe.

dze.ie

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Geronimo Productions

Geronimo Productions was awarded Producer of the Year at Cartoon Forum 2011. The studio offers a full range of animation services from development and across full production. In co-production scenarios, they can raise finance and invest 50 per cent of the budget, depending on work split. The following are recently completed projects: Roobarb & Custard Too, Fluffy Gardens, Fluffy Gardens Xmas Special, Ballybraddan, Punky and Planet Cosmo.

geronimoproductions.tumblr.com

Giant Animation Studios

Giant Animation Studios is an innovative Dublin-based company that is dedicated to the development and production of premium animated content for all platforms. The studio’s focus is on creating its own properties for the entertainment industry, as well as providing animation and design solutions for some of the leading production houses and agencies in Europe. The company has been nominated for an Irish Film and Television Award, selected for competition in Annecy 2012 and has also won two consecutive Digital Media Awards for Best Animation, in 2012 and 2013.

giant.ie

Ink and Light

Ink and Light develops and produces original television series and feature films. Established in 2011 by Tamsin Lyons and Leevi Lemmetty, the company has bases in Dublin and Helsinki. They work predominantly with CG animation but love exploring whatever form fits to tell a great story. Ink and Light’s previous work has been screened by RTÉ, MTV, Channel 4 and YLE, and at festivals such as Annecy, Sundance and Toronto. Alongside developing their own material, they are also interested in co-producing feature films and animation series for domestic and international distribution.

ink-and-light.com

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JAM Media

Since JAM Media’s inception in 2002, founders John Rice, Alan Shannon and Mark Cumberton have developed and created a number of award-winning TV series. They continually strive for immersive stories, engaging characters and quality animations in all of their productions. The company opened a new office in Belfast in April 2013. Their CBBC series Roy won the BAFTA for Best Children’s Drama in 2012, adding to its BAFTA nominations for Best Drama and Best Writer in 2010. Roy has also won a Royal Television Society Award and the Trickfilm Festival (Stuttgart) award for best animated TV series for kids. JAM Media won Producer of the Year at the Cartoon Forum in Toulouse in 2012, and in April 2014 their series Tilly and Friends picked up an IFTA for best animation.

jammedia.com

Lovely Productions

Lovely Productions was formed in 2004 and is run and owned by Lorcan Finnegan and Brunella Cocchiglia. They have made a number of highly acclaimed shorts, music videos and films as well as having won numerous awards. Lorcan is represented for commercials by Butter in Ireland and Independent Talent in London for films. They are currently in post-production on their first live action feature film Without Name, funded under the Irish Film Board Catalyst scheme.

lovelyproductions.com

Kavaleer Productions

Kavaleer Productions is one of Ireland’s foremost animation studios, producing high-end television series and commercials, as well as digital and interactive content for e-learning platforms, games and online media.

The studio won Best Animation and the Grand Prix at the 2010 Digital Media Awards for their acclaimed short film Hasan Everywhere, which was also nominated for an Irish Film and Television Award. They have also produced more than 200 episodes of television including Lifeboat Luke, Garth and Bev, Abadas and their recently completed IP Wildernuts. They are currently in production on Boj, which will air on CBeebies, RTÉ Jr. and PBS Sprout later this year.

Kavaleer have several projects in development including Tipto, which was presented at Cartoon Forum in Toulouse and Kira Khan Do!, their latest entry in the world of preschool animation.

kavaleer.com

Keg Kartoonz

Keg Kartoonz is a Dublin-based animation studio run by Michael Algar (producer) and Noel Kelly (creative director). Both Michael and Noel have worked in the animation business since the time when studios used pencils and paper. Over their careers they’ve each worked for many different studios around the world, but nowadays they concentrate on developing and producing Keg’s own projects. The most recent project to be completed at Keg Kartoonz is a 90-minute animation/live action special of comedian Brendan Grace’s character, Bottler.

kegkartoonz.com

Moetion Films

Moetion Films is a newly formed production company producing and developing animated feature films and TV series for international distribution. Working with a highly creative network of writers, animators, actors and directors, the team is a long-time co-producer with companies such as A. Film Productions, Anima Vitae and Ulysses Filmproduktion. Producer and owner Moe Honan recently co-produced the animated feature films Legends of Valhalla – Thor, Niko 2 – Little Brother Big Trouble and previously Niko and the Way to the Stars. Other TV credits include: The Ugly Duckling and Me, Lilly the Witch, The Fairytaler, The World of Tosh and Norman Normal.

moetionfilms.com

Magpie 6 Media

Magpie 6 Media is a Dublin-based studio set up in 2008 by husband-and-wife team Clifford Parrott and Christina O’Shea. Both worked in animation in Los Angeles for many years before coming to Ireland. Cliff is an award-winning animator, having produced animation for notable clients such as Adam Sandler. Magpie 6 Media has worked on animation projects for Disney and ESPN, among others, and creates its own in-house animated and live-action properties. In 2013 the studio’s international co-production, The Travels of the Young Marco Polo, was broadcast in Ireland, Germany and Canada. The studio is currently wrapping production on the animated preschool series Inis Spraoi, for broadcast on RTÉ this year.

magpie6media.com

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Communication

Monster Entertainment

Monster Entertainment is a brand management company with activities encompassing distribution, finance and production of TV programmes. In business for over fifteen years, Monster has a wide and varied catalogue, sourcing award-winning programming from all over the world and selling into more than 200 countries. Its catalogue includes animation series from preschool up to teens and adults including Oscar-winning, Oscar-nominated and Emmy winning animation programming. The company now has an in-house animation studio and is currently co-producing the animated series Inis Spraoi/Rockabye Island. It has also completed a four-country co-production of The Travels of the Young Marco Polo with Magpie 6 Media, having recently produced preschool series I’m a Monster and I’m a Creepy Crawly.

monsterentertainment.tv

Prickly Pear Productions

Prickly Pear Productions is an award-winning creative studio founded in 2009 in Ireland by Richard Kelly. The studio has offered a wide range of high-end animation services to the advertising, e-learning and music sectors and won multiple awards. This work has grown the talent base of the studio, enabling it to produce original short films that have received recognition and awards at many international festivals. The studio is now ready to produce its first full-length feature, Paperboy, and is assembling first rate international production and voice talent to realise this ambitious and exciting project.

pricklypearproductions.ie

Pink Kong Studios

Pink Kong Studios is Ireland’s first all female led animation studio, co-founded in 2014 by creative director Aoife Doyle and producer Niamh Herrity. Since its inception, Pink Kong has championed the idea that there is room in the market for female action-adventure properties. As such, Pink Kong looks to generate engaging content for girls.An award winning animation studio based out of Dublin who “bring stories to life”, Pink Kong stories and characters are developed in a unique manner, with multiplatform interactivity in mind, developing stories where the end user becomes part of the story evolution. Pink Kong Studios creates branded entertainment for TV, film and interactive platforms.

The studio is currently in development with their property “Rova-Novas: An Elite Team who are the protectors of earth’s puppies”, and have hit market places and international conferences with the trailer and proof of concept. pinkkongstudios.ie

Paper Dreams

Paper Dreams is an award-winning Irish production company run by Michael Lennon and Heidi Karin Madsen that develops and produces feature films and animated television series. Paper Dreams’s most recent production was Earthbound, a sci-fi rom-com feature film written and directed by Alan Brennan. Currently, Paper Dreams is producing an animated Christmas special called The Overcoat, based on the short story by Nikolai Gogol and adapted by Hugh O’Conor. The Overcoat will be a co-production with Slugger Film (Sweden) and A Film (Estonia). Paper Dreams is also developing a number of children’s animated television series for both the international and domestic markets, and is actively seeking co-production opportunities.

paperdreamsproductions.com

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Fear of Flying by Lovely Productions

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Telegael

Telegael is one of Europe’s leading animation and television production houses. Established in 1988, the multi Emmy and IFTA award-winning studio works with international producers, distributors and broadcasters to develop, co-produce and finance animation and live-action content for the global market. Telegael’s client list includes some of the biggest names in global broadcasting including Disney, Cartoon Network, France Television, Super-RTL, KIKA, BBC, Nickelodeon, PBS Sprout, ITV, ZDF and Discovery Kids. Telegael has co-produced more than 700 hours of television. Its productions have been distributed to over 140 territories throughout the world and translated into more than 40 languages.

telegael.com

Still Films

Founded in 2007 by Maya Derrington, Nicky Gogan and Paul Rowley, Still Films is a production company based in Dublin and New York that makes feature films, animations, documentaries, TV, trans-media productions and artist films. Still Films has a collective ethos; the team produce and edit one another’s work as well as supporting a wide group of associated filmmakers. Still Films was given the Michael Dwyer Discovery Award for new talent by the Dublin Film Critics Circle. Still Films projects featuring animation include the experimental film The Rooms; feature documentary Build Something Modern; hybrid feature documentary Last Hijack; and short films Learning to Fish, Trolley Boy and We, The Masses.

stillfilms.org

Studio POWWOW

Studio POWWOW creates and delivers entertainment brands with engaging stories and characters that are knitted seamlessly back together on multiple media platforms, by bringing their skill, knowledge and vast experience of award winning TV-quality animation, design and storytelling to interactive content and games.

studiopowwow.com

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Treehouse Republic

Treehouse Republic is where danger and fun collide to make outrageously awesome content. They create dangerously funny brands for everyone to realise their positive potential for mayhem!

Voted one of the top 25 up and coming animation studios worldwide, Treehouse Republic is an animation studio based in Ireland. Established in 2010, Treehouse Republic also offers development, pre-production and production services for a number of clients.

treehouserepublic.com

Wiggleywoo

Wiggleywoo is a Dublin-based animation company set up in 2012 by Gilly (Creative Director), Susan Broe (Producer) and Alan Foley (CEO). Wiggleywoo’s objective is to build a portfolio of highly commercial animated projects that have the potential to work crossplatform and to generate licensing, merchandising and other ancillary income. They have a number of animated projects in development, including preschool projects, a feature film, an animated documentary drama series and numerous apps, and they have just completed production on an adult animated documentary drama series, Tea with the Dead.

wiggleywoo.com

Zink Films

Zink Films are one of the top suppliers of quality animation and CGI content in the country, having created ads for companies such as Flahavan’s, Yoplait and Gateaux and collaborated on CG/live-action mix commercials for such clients as Tayto and Berocca. Zink also specialise in animation for the web and have created online content for major brands like Coca-Cola, Guinness, Carlsberg and Vodafone. They are the top supplier of pre-viz and concept art, with in-depth knowledge of CGI, animation, character design/creation and the web.

zinkfilms.com

David Smith

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Atelier Projects is the studio practice of designers David Smith, Oran Day and their associates. An independent design practice that distinguishes itself from many commercial practices by working almost exclusively — as designers and consultants — with public and cultural sector organisations, and within design education, on a project by project basis.

Since its inception the practice has established an enviable reputation for the quality of its design work. The success of the studio’s work is the result of collaboration with diverse and ambitious clients and the valued input of national and international associates. Despite a diverse creative output the studio advocates a clear and simple approach for all projects, one which is grounded in analysis and objectivity. From such pragmatism emerges original and distinctive solutions. atelier.ie

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Featured WorkAtelier were responsible for the development of the ID2015 brand identity, and worked with type designer Tom Foley to create the bespoke ID2015 display font. David Smith lectures on the IADT Visual Communication course, and as the design director for the project he worked with former students based in the IBM design team to help create the Design Island ID2015 tourism app described on page 14.

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Jamie Murphy

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Jamie Murphy is a typographic designer and letterpress printer based in Dublin. His interests lie where contemporary graphic design meets traditional production techniques. Since 2012 he has produced his books and broadsides under the imprint of The Salvage Press. Jamie has served as designer in residence at Distiller’s Press, NCAD since 2013 where he works with students of Visual Communication. His letterpress printed work is held in many of the world’s most distinguished private, institutional and academic collections.

thesalvagepress.com

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Featured WorkIt’s hard to overestimate the importance of tea in Irish culture. Tea is simultaneously a beverage, a medicine, and a social ritual. The Irish drink on average four cups of tea a day, amounting to 7 pounds of dried tea leaves over the course of a year, easily the highest rate of tea consumption in the world. No respectable Irish household would be found without tea, and its importance is such that even pubs are legally required to provide it!

Jamie Murphy in partnership with the Distiller’s Press have explored this love of a cup of tea through the design of letterpress printed packaging for a bespoke blend of Irish tea created by Solaris Tea.

Solaris TeaSolaris Botanicals is an internationally award-winning tea blending company from Galway, Ireland. Founded by Master Teablender and Medical Herbalist Joerg Mueller, they have combined their extensive knowledge of healing plants and their properties, with the blending of 1st Flush Whole-leaf Organic Teas, which contain 95% more antioxidants compared to ordinary tea bags. Their teas contain no artificial aromas or flavours and their focus on using the highest quality ingredients with biodegradeable materials has made Solaris Botanicals one of Ireland’s leading high-end tea suppliers.

solarisbotanicals.com

Distiller’s PressDistiller’s Press is the letterpress printworkshop at The National College of Art& Design, Dublin. As Ireland’s onlyworking letterpress facility in third leveleducation, Seán and Jamie work primarilywith students of Visual Communicationsteaching the fundamentals of typographyand facilitating research. With severaloperational presses and access toover 400 cases of metal and woodentype, Distiller’s Press is at the forefrontof letterpress design in Ireland.

distillerspress.com

Annie Atkins Eoghan Nolan

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Communication

With degrees in Visual Communication and Film Production, Annie Atkins cut her teeth in filmmaking on the crew of historical drama The Tudors, making vintage-style graphic props for use on set. She went on to specialise in the creation of artefacts, signage and documents on a wide range of period productions. After working on Oscar-nominated animation The Boxtrolls, Annie was called in by Wes Anderson as Lead Graphic Designer on The Grand Budapest Hotel, which went on to win the Academy Award for Production Design. Annie spent most of 2014 working on Spielberg’s historical thriller Bridge of Spies, set in 1960s New York and Berlin and scripted by the Coen brothers. She is now back home working from her studio in Dublin, where she is also a photographer and film poster designer. Eoghan Nolan is an award-winning copywriter and former Creative Director of McCann-Erickson, Irish International BBDO and Leo Burnett. In 2011, he founded Brand Artillery. The campaign created by Brand Artillery for Glasnevin Cemetery won the only Gold Bell given for Irish advertising at the prestigious Institute of Creative Advertising & Design (ICAD) Awards 2014, also taking Silver & Bronze. Those top honours marked 26 years since Eoghan’s work was first recognised at ICAD. The enormously popular Glasnevin posters have become collectors’ items and were featured in the documentary One Million Dubliners which took its name from the campaign. Annie and Eoghan now work together under the name Think & Son.

thinkandson.squarespace.com

Philip O’Connor

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Seymours Irish Biscuits is a family-owned specialist bakery producing individually hand-cut biscuits made in small batches. The bakery in Bandon, West Cork is about 8km west of the family dairy farm that supplies the fresh milk and creamery butter for the biscuits, giving a superlative taste that no other biscuit bakery can match. The bakery was set up in Bandon in 2008 and today the small team of bakers supplies Seymours’ sweet and savoury biscuits to Ireland’s finest food stores.

seymours.com

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Collaborative Process: Specialising in designing graphic props for period filmmaking, Annie Atkins steps into the shoes of the character she’s designing for rather than designing as a contemporary graphic designer. If she were a local baker, what stories would she commemorate on her biscuit packaging? She called in master storyteller Eoghan Nolan and together they came up with three slices of local Irish legend and urban myth, which were then sent to scenic artist Alan Lambert to be interpreted as full-colour illustrations.

Materials:Paint, paper, printing, round French poplar boxes, biscuits.

Featured Work:Packaged biscuits, baked by Philip O’Connor of Seymours Irish Biscuits in West Cork. The biscuits are wrapped in sheets of a fictional local newspaper and packaged in wooden French poplar boxes, to be given away at Liminal as keepsakes. The biscuit labels were designed to illustrate three parts of Ireland: coastal (Skibbereen), urban (Stoneybatter), and Northern (Cushendall). Food packaging from around the world features all kinds of Chinese whispers and legendary animals such as the iconic lion on the tin of Lyle’s Golden Syrup. Think & Son’s biscuit packaging features illustrations of missing cats, tugs of war, and slain fish that all hail from local tall stories told around Ireland.

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Ciarán Ó Gaora JP O’Malley Stephen Ledwidge

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Zero-G is a Dublin-based design practice engaged in research, strategy and design. Founded in 2004 by Ciarán Ó Gaora, Zero-G has earned a reputation as a creative partner for businesses who want to leverage design to build their brand, facilitate innovation and inspire meaningful change in their organisations. This has been achieved by creating stories that focus purpose and meaning, creating tools that empower employees to look at opportunities with fresh eyes, and demonstrating the power of design to make things better for the user, be they customer, employee, audience or citizen.

Current projects include a primary healthcare development in Nebraska, retail innovation in Maryland, brand repositioning with a national retail group in Ireland, and global brand strategy and management tools with a Washington DC-based NGO.

Clients include: Amnesty International; Áras an Úachtaráin; Bord Gáis Energy; Bord Bia; Barry’s Tea; Concern Worldwide (IRL/US/UK); Culture Ireland; Design & Crafts Council of Ireland; Elevation Partners (USA); Fáilte Ireland; Forfás; Irish Museum of Modern Art; Mumbai International Airport (INDIA); Musgraves Marketplace; National Digital Research Centre; Science Gallery (IRL); Special Olympics International (USA); Smurfit Kappa; SSP (UK); Storyful; TCC; The Wills Group (USA); Think Whole Person Healthcare (USA); Tourism Ireland; UDG Healthcare; Vodafone.

zero-g.ie

Featured Work: The Map of The State is a graphic work that took Ireland’s 1937 constitution as its starting point. The map outlines the legislative, judicial, executive and local governmental structures of state. Just as these state structures have evolved over the intervening decades to become complex, layered and intertwined, so too did the map as available information was layered on. The shape and structure of the map was informed by the available information and the challenges of displaying this information in a single view.

Over the duration of the project the map evolved to include greater detail on the departments, agencies and bodies that make up the Irish state in 2015.

There is currently no single diagram of Irish state institutions and associated bodies making it difficult, if not impossible, to identify roles, responsibilities and relationships. The project was inspired by the role that the Government Digital Services (GDS) played in increasing access to, and understanding of, government services in the United Kingdom. GDS continues to demonstrate how the design process can be used to affect change at a fundamental level from policy and structure to citizen engagement and cross-departmental collaboration. gds.blog.gov.uk

A key information reference point is the Irish State Administration Database (ISAD), a project developed as part of the ‘Mapping the Irish State’ project located at the Geary Institute, University College Dublin. isad.ie

Collaborative Process:The core Zero-G project team has collaborated with a range of partners as the project has unfolded. These partners have helped to access and gather information, parse it out and structure it, and ultimately present it in an engaging and accessible form. Collaborators include Emer Coleman, former Deputy Director for Digital Engagement at Government Digital Services in the UK.

Materials: Digital print

A country or a nation-state is the ultimate collaborative venture. Understanding the roles, responsibilities and relationships at play is the first step towards making collaboration better.”Ciarán Ó Gaora

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ATTERS

A selection of the “Design Matters” columns published in The Irish Times Magazine each week in association with Irish Design 2015.

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Artist and graphic designer Jim FitzPatrick’s iconic red-and-black image of Che Guevara is a potent symbol of protest. “It was 1968. I’d been working in advertising with some of the best people from Europe who’d come here after the war. We highlighted ads with spot colour, single-block colour on a black-and-white image, so I knew how effective it was.”

“I worked on four poster versions of Che, to protest his murder. The famous poster was the most stripped down, pulled back to black and red, with the yellow star. The fourth - my favourite - was psychedelic. But the red and black one was the most bang in your face.”

“This was before the internet, so even getting a decent copy of the Alberto Korda photograph was tricky. I’d been working with a Dutch anarchist group and they got a copy from Jean-Paul Sartre for me. It was cloak-and-dagger stuff. I loved it.”

“Feltrinelli bookshops in Italy were selling my poster, claiming it as theirs; so I thought: how can I beat that? I announced that I was making it copyright free to the people, for the masses. I set out to make it proliferate, these days you’d call it viral, but I worked in advertising so I knew how. I got it out through different revolutionary underground networks - in Spain my distributors got arrested and the posters destroyed.”

“In 2011, I reclaimed the copyright, and gave all legal documents to Alieda Guevara, Che’s daughter, in 2012, giving the image rights in perpetuity to the Cuban people. The image is number six in a list of the greatest iconic images in the entire history of civili sation in Martin Kemp’s book Christ to Coke. The Mona Lisa is number four, Christ is number one. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

“I’ve just done a portrait of James Connolly, deliberately using the same colours. I’m always getting asked to do people in the style of Che. I always refuse. Connolly is the only one I’d do it for. It’s to raise funds for the Reclaim 1916 campaign. I’m not looking for a bloody revolution, I’m looking for an Irish Spring.”

A World to Win, a V&A exhibition exploring socio-political posters was hosted at the National Print Museum as part of ID2015.

nationalprintmuseum.iejimfitzpatrick.com

‘I’d been working with a Dutch anarchist group and they got a copy from Jean-Paul Sartre for me. Cloak-and-dagger stuff’Jim FitzPatrick, Graphic Designer.

Did you know Ireland is a world leader in the design of medical devices? At the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Enda O’Dowd, lecturer and co-ordinator of the college’s MSc in Medical Device Design, is enabling a new generation to fill jobs in this life-saving sector.

“It might sound like a strange one for NCAD: medical device design,” he says. “For a lot of people [it is], actually, but they’re complicated things. As more technologies are involved, including drugs, electronics and engineering, the complexity increases, so having someone to be the voice of the end user, patient or clinician is where we come in.”

“Although my background is in engineering, I had always preferred the creative side of things. I came to NCAD when the industrial design course was run in partnership with the University of Limerick. The medical device design course was set up in 2009 by Paul Fortune and when he retired in 2012 I took over.”

“Designers used to be brought in at the end to make things look good, but the clever companies are now getting us in as early as possible. The beauty of this course is that it’s very collaborative. We teach the students the technical skills they need – not to be scientific designers but to understand the languages of science and engineering so that they can collaborate more effectively. Nurses, doctors and patients are all involved along the way.”

“There’s usually about 12 students on the one-year course, they come from all over the world, and it’s probably unique in being studio-based. They all go on to good jobs, as nearly all the major players in medical device design have a facility in Ireland. We’re a European base for them, with a well-educated, English-speaking workforce, but there’s still a skills shortage.”

“The human-focused innovation is very important, and we still stick to the hands-on focus, creating sketch models and trying things out, not going straight to computer. What we teach is a skill set that wasn’t in the industry until now, and it’s growing more important all the time.”

NCAD MSc Medical Devices programme was featured in the Irish Design + Medical Technology exhibition created by Dolmen for ID2015

ncad.ie

‘It might sound like a strange one for NCAD: medical device design; but they’re complicated things’Enda O’Dowd, Lecturer at NCAD.

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From the Guinness Store house to the garment factories of Bangladesh, Aidan Madden of Arup says “structural engineering encompasses everything: from designing structures to detective work and a bit of ghost-hunting too.”

“My father is a carpenter, which was a fantastic introduction to making things, opening my eyes to engineering. I studied at UCD then applied to Arup. So many things appealed: Ove Arup was a philosopher as much as an engineer, he made the company an employee-owned trust, and they bring different disciplines together to create.”

“Irishman Peter Rice, who worked for Arup on the design of the Sydney Opera House, used to talk about ‘having the courage to start’. Not every project is a Sydney Opera House, but it’s always varied.”

“We started working in Bangladesh through Inditex, one of the largest garment manufacturers in the world. After the disaster in Rana Plaza in 2013, where a building collapsed and more than a thousand people died, we were asked to go in and develop a methodology for assessing the structural safety.”

“It’s a huge industry, employing more than four million people, many of whom are the only wage earners in their family, so you can’t just go in and start over. We came up with a pragmatic approach for carrying out this work, focused on critical life-safety issues. So far we’ve done about 750 assessments.”

“You go with a certain set of prejudices, and are often surprised. I went to one factory that makes 100,000 pairs of jeans every day. It’s a phenomenal business and the set-up was a far cry from my sweatshop preconception. But there are bad ones too. Of those 750, eleven needed to be closed, and around 50 per cent required immediate actions.”

“When you’ve built something, you know how it works, but this is more like detective work. Working with older buildings, like the Guinness Storehouse, is different again. Then you’re breathing new life and you’re a ghost-hunter too, finding the stories.”

Aidan Madden spoke about Arup’s work in Bangladesh as part of the Design Bites talks programme for Hidden Heroes: the Genius of Everyday Things at the Design Hub, Dublin Castle, and featured in the ID2015 Design Island exhibition at Dublin Airport.arup.com

‘I went to one factory that makes 100,000 pairs of jeans every day’ Aidan Madden, Structural Engineer, Arup.

Brewing up a storm by smart phone, Brewbot’s co-founder Jonny Campbell is part of the Belfast-based team bringing the art of making craft beer to your own home.

“I studied multidisciplinary design at the University of Ulster, graduating in 2011. I’d been working freelance with start-ups, where the big visions and exciting ideas gave me the bug. I grew up around Lego, art and drawing. Then I started playing with kits like Arduino, which is like electric Lego for grown-ups; but the idea for Brewbot came about, naturally enough, over a pint.”

“We were working as an App agency, and we’d attended the XOXO conference in Portland Oregon, which is all about creativity and independence. But we were also amazed at the variety of craft beers available, and realised that we couldn’t get that at home.”

“Invest NI helped us to create the Brewbot concept, which marries smartphone technology, cool design (made in wood and stainless steel, it’s like a piece of furniture), service design, and touches on the craft and maker movement.”

“We wanted to see if there was a market for us, so Kickstarter was a good way of doing research... We launched that in 2013, and were selected to join the Techstars accelerators programme in Austin, Texas.”

“I’m told it’s harder to get into Techstars than Harvard,and since then we been featured in Wired, New Scientist, and NBC News. We hired an RV and put Brewbot in the back and drove down to San Francisco. It was at the time that Breaking Bad was on TV, and there were the five of us in the RV, pitching up to companies like Dropbox and Twitter. We were pinching ourselves, they were so receptive.”

“Now there’s 29 of us, and we’re still growing. We were looking for a new office and development base, and found a pub on the Ormeau Road, so now we have a bar too. We’re in the final stages of engineering, and we’re hoping to have the first units out over the coming few weeks.”

Jonny Campbell spoke about Brewbot as part of the Design Bites talks programme for the ID2015 exhibition Fresh Talent at the Design Hub, Dublin Castle.

brewbot.io

‘The Brewbot concept marries smartphone technology, cool design... service design’ Jonny Campbell, Brewbot co-founder.

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Looking to back up her design skills with some business know-how put Dubliner Lorna Ross on a path that has taken her via Silicon Valley to developing Patient-First services at the famous Mayo Clinic in the United States.

“My first career after NCAD was in fashion then, realising I needed more business skills, I enrolled at London’s Royal College of Art. But the design management course was cancelled, and I ended up on their new interactive design programme, which is now world famous.”

“At first I felt uncomfortable, I didn’t think I had the computer skills necessary, but one day, about a year in, we were asked to design a new kind of telephone for a project.”

“I was stuck, and went back to what I knew – which of course was fashion –and presented a glove that functioned as a phone. That was the beginning of my career working on wearable technologies, which has seen me with MediaLab at MIT in Palo Alto, Motorola, the US Department of Defense, and the UK Design Council.”

“I’m now at the Mayo Clinic, where I’m strategic leader in directing the discovery and implementation of transformative, user-centric care models. What this really means is that I use my design back-ground to look at how to put the patient first in healthcare.”

“I’ve always run design teams with very tight parameters, but within healthcare you can have the situation where science leads, and the system has become institutionalised. I really believe design should be part of conversations that also consider people’s experience and that if something is broken, we should try to learn what is really the problem behind it rather than just fix it.”

“From the very first surgeons going to metalsmiths and glassblowers to create their tools, there has been a history of design and medicine connecting. As things have evolved, and medicine is as much a service as it is a product, design is still key.”

“It can help to create the environment, the culture that understands patient experience. The more people realise how crucial this is, the better, and more efficient our healthcare services will get.”

Lorna Ross spoke at Med in Ireland, Enterprise Ireland’s largest medical technologies event at the Convention Centre.

medinireland.ie

‘There has been a history of design and medicine connecting’

Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey met while they were studying architecture at UCD. Working together for more than 25 years as O’Donnell + Tuomey, they have won multiple awards for their sensitive and intelligent work. Earlier this year, they received the world’s most prestigious architecture award, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal. Buildings include Cork’s Glucksman Gallery, the Lyric Theatre Belfast, the LSE Student Centre in London, as well as domestic, schools and social housing projects.

“Architecture is more than monuments and civic buildings. It’s about all buildings and public spaces; how they are used in our lives. People often enjoy these spaces without realising they’re architecture. A porch in the rain – that’s architecture. When you get it right, it’s life enhancing.”

“From Timberyard in Dublin, to the Glucksman in Cork, our buildings don’t look like one another, but they do feel like one another in the way they extend the idea of threshold, blur the lines between inside and outside and dissolve rigid boundaries. We like the idea of that contingent space – where you don’t quite have to commit, it makes for invitational buildings.”

“A city is a living thing, and to weave new buildings and spaces into its fabric, you have to consider place, context and character. ‘New’ is only new on the day it’s new, so we want to make something that is of its time and which can sit with things from another time. As we travel more, talk more, especially since getting the Gold Medal, we’ve started to feel that architects in other parts of the world aren’t as concerned with those conversations between new and old.”

“Architecture has a secret life, a poetic life, it’s all about understanding the world and how we live in it. Yes, we’re obsessed. When we take a break, we go and look at architecture. Currently we’re working on a new Student Hub at UCC, centred around a very beautiful 19th century building, and a school on Patrick’s Hill, the steepest street in Ireland. We’re also building a new university in Budapest.”

O’Donnell + Tuomey spoke as part of the Design Bites talks programme for Hidden Heroes: the Genius of Everyday Things at the Design Hub, Dublin Castle.

odonnell-tuomey.ie

‘We want to make something that is of its time, and which can sit with things from another time’

Lorna Ross,Design Director, Mayo Clinic.

John Tuomey & Sheila O’Donnell,Architects.

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It has a world-wide work force of 8,500 people and turns over between €1.5 billion and €2 billion a year, but as technical director Muiris Flynn describes, working at Irish electrical heating company Glen Dimplex is still all about the excitement of problem solving and good design.

“It was my second job out of college; what attracted me was company founder Martin Naughton, and how he was building an Irish international success story. I wanted to be part of that, and started there in 1992. From a design and engineering perspective, the thrill is in being involved in a project from the ‘sketch-on-a-page’ stage, through engineering and eventually seeing it in someone’s home. Our judge is the end consumer, so we need to give them good design that functions well and helps in their lives.”

“Much of our current research agenda is driven by global climate change and the need to decarbonise the electricity system. That means generating more from renewable sources such as wind. The difficulty is that wind is intermittent. We’ve developed devices that allow that energy to be stored as heat. In our homes, most energy is used as heat, so storing it that way is cost effective. The products must also be easy to use and look well.”

“We can imagine a future where your home is part of a network, with smart technology managing the consumption and generation of electricity and trading with the grid system. As US House leader Nancy Pelosi said, Ireland is well placed to demonstrate such technology, small enough to test new ideas, but big enough to make the results significant. That’s the thinking behind our Quantum system, and the reaction worldwide has been amazing. In Ireland we are working with SSE Airtricity, Intel, EirGrid, ESB Networks and UCD to demonstrate the benefit of this type of demand side flexibility to the power system.”

“There’s a direct connection with creativity, Glen Dimplex are known sponsors of the arts; Martin Naughton may be president of a €2 billion company, but he still takes time to chair our monthly product development meetings and retains a passion for product design. That drives us all.”

glendimplex.com

‘The products must be easy to use and look well’Muiris Flynn, Technical Director

Glen Dimplex.

High fashion is all about fantasy, so it’s only fitting that Donegal-born designer Oliver Doherty Duncan also spends his days working on some of the extraordinary creations sweeping the screen on Game of Thrones. It all started with macramé.

“This will be my third season at Game of Thrones. There’s usually about 70 working in the costume department, and it can go over 100 when we’re busy. I always knew that I wanted to work in fashion, but I hadn’t thought of costume.”

“I got into the University of Ulster to do weaving. There were 30 other students, and I wanted something that would make me stand out. I discovered a book in the library that hadn’t been taken out since the 1970s about macramé. I took it home and taught myself. You can get structure with macramé, and I love the craft element.”

“On my final day, I’d just cleared everything up. I was on my way out when my tutor stopped me at the door and said would I like to work on Game of Thrones. The interview was the next day, I stayed up all night putting my portfolio together, and I started right away. The first two years I made the costumes for the characters North of The Wall. All the wildlings and the giants. Last year we had something like 300 hundred wildlings.”

“This year I’m the costume illustrator, which is a big change. The designer or assistant designer will come to me with an idea or a sketch, and I’ll develop it into a costume. I work on Game of Thrones from May until Christmas. Then, in my own studio in Derry, I make my collections. I can’t imagine many women wanting to dress up like wildlings, but it’s great that I’m able to incorporate things I’ve learned.”

“Who would I love to dress on the show? It’s not safe to have favourites, characters don’t always survive so long!”

“ID2015 has been hugely beneficial for me so far, I was at London Fashion Week, and have been flat out with orders and commissions since. Right now I’m getting the best of both worlds, having my own label and working in costume. I know I’ll have to choose one day, but not just yet.”

Oliver Doherty Duncan’s work was exhibited in In the Fold at London Fashion Week as part of ID2015.

oliverdohertyduncan.com

‘I work on ‘Game of Thrones’ from May until Christmas. Then, in my own studio in Derry, I make my collections’Oliver Doherty Duncan, Designer.

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Healthy eating means we can live well for longer and as Glanbia’s Director of Strategy and Development in global ingredients, Muireann Kelliher, explains, design thinking has enabled major developments.

“I studied economics in Trinity, went to Oxford, then to Mc Kinsey in Australia before coming to Glanbia 11 years ago. Irish farms had been scaling up since the 1970s but when milk quotas came in the 1980s Ireland was badly hit. Because our industry was so export based, about 90 per cent of Irish milk is exported, we looked abroad initially bringing our expertise to Wisconsin, Idaho and New Mexico.”

“The US was ahead of Ireland in performance sports nutrition, and Glanbia is now a major global player. Our products cover a wide range of users, from physique-based athletes to professional rugby players to exercise enthusiasts to people who want to keep their strength, as they grow older. Now we’re still based on but not limited to, dairy products, and in 2014 our revenues were around €3.5 billion, employing more than 5,800 people in 34 countries.”

“The beauty of design thinking is how it gives a way for companies to be systematic in their development. The key thing is empathy, which goes beyond knowledge and insight, letting us get in to the hearts, minds and feet of the people who consume our products. It’s like moving from thinking a person needs a drill to asking the question: do they really just want a hole in their wall?”

“It’s also very galvanising within the organisation: design thinking gives people a set of tools to work together, and equips internal entrepreneurs to make those big leaps, while still keeping an intimacy with customers as we grow. We ask: is it desirable, feasible and viable? Once everyone knows the conversation we’re in we can have a much richer dialogue to everybody’s benefit. A lot is common sense but the tools, and realising why you’re doing it, are really important.”

“We’re at risk of an obesity epidemic, so the benefits of designing nutrition that helps build muscle as well as strong bones alongside an exercise regime are huge. It’s about helping people have healthy, mobile, useful and vital lives.”

glanbia.com

‘We’re at risk of an obesity epidemic, so the benefits of designing nutrition are huge’Muireann Kelliher, Glanbia’s Director of

Strategy and Development.

What exactly is service design? As Ré Dubhthaigh from Citi’s Innovation Lab explains, it’s nothing short of improving the systems that make up our world.

“I studied graphic design at DIT, but I’d always been more interested in how systems fit together. I went on to an MA in Interaction Design at the Royal College of Art in London in 2002. It was amazing to be plugged in to that network, to meet people who were not just making websites, but looking at the broader social impacts of technology. My internship was at Lego, which was reliving a childhood dream!”

“Myself and a friend set up a company out of college, consulting with clients such as the BBC, Hitachi, Sony and Hasbro. It was thought provoking to look at future technologies and what they might mean.”

“I realised that service design is about the wider systems, not so much about a ‘thing’, but about the wider context – how do you design an overall service with pieces of technology, and how do the people fit in?”

“Coming to Citi has been exciting. Citi employs more than 350,000 people globally. I work within the enterprise bank, which enables the financial operating systems of some of the biggest companies across large parts of the planet.”

“The Innovation Labs are there to look at new ways of doing things from all perspectives. There are labs in Singapore and Miami, but Dublin was the first and is the leading lab in the network.”

“Design is a team sport. We work across engineering, product management, financial and business functions. It’s not about art or craft; it’s about pulling things together to make tangible value in the world. Thinking in this way lets you think about how the world works, and what role design can have to make it better.”

“It gives you the opportunity to make change. Just adding a veneer on top of current systems is a waste of the potential of design.”

“It’s not magic that makes services work, people design them. Designers need to roll up their sleeves and go deep. My hope for ID2015 is that it can shift perspectives for designers as well as the general public.”

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‘Design is a team sport. We work across engineering, product management, financial and business functions’Ré Dubhthaigh, Citi’s Innovation Lab.

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Equestrian enthusiast and design expert Martin Ryan is the man behind a game-changing new saddle. “Bua is Irish for triumph, and the Bua saddle has been 10 years in the making,” says Ryan, who is Programme Director of Product Design at Maynooth University. “Its inception goes back to my final year at NCAD. Growing up in Co Wexford, I had been riding and competing all my life. With an open design brief, I relished the chance to design a piece of equestrian equipment.”

“I was keenly aware that the saddle was a piece of traditional equipment, made with great skill, but which hadn’t evolved too much over the years. Great advancements had come about in materials and engineering in the meantime and I knew they must have something to offer the future of saddles.”

“Sometimes to challenge things you need to unwind the current approach to their design and manufacture. I went back to first principles, spending time in the veterinary library in UCD, studying the anatomy and biomechanics of horses. I tried to imagine: if a saddle had never been made before, what would it need to achieve?”

“I grew up in a family business based on strong values of precision craft and progressive thinking. My father was always an early adopter of the latest technologies in production. I think these values come through in the Bua saddle, it avails of aerospace materials and production techniques, and marries this with traditional leather craft. It’s super-light, strong and yet flexible, offering great freedom for the horse.”

“After I first designed the concept, I started to win some awards beginning with Dyson. It was only then that I began to consider it as a business, he says. Once investors got involved we started a prolonged testing period. We selected riders to test it across many disciplines – from leisure riding, to dressage, to show jumping – and improved the product based on feedback and results.”

The Bua saddle launched at the RDS Dublin Horse Show 2015.

buasaddles.com

‘To challenge things you need to unwind the current approach to their design’ Martin Ryan, Designer & Lecturer.

UX – or user-experience design – is the art of bridging the gap between people and technology, as Frank Long, Director of award winning agency Frontend explains, it is becoming the most influential field in design today.

“I graduated in 1994 from NCAD in industrial design, and went to LG Electronics before joining Frontend in 1998, when it was just starting up. As a specialist UX research and design consultancy, we were one of the first outside the US, and in the beginning we had to persuade clients of the value of what we did, but now it’s considered integral to the success of any project.”

“In the early days most work was in websites, but we quickly graduated to more challenging problems like banking, digital TV, software applications, mobile apps and more recently healthcare systems.”

“Our clients can be big or small, from antivirus software that protects 100 million customers worldwide to a digital app that helps your local milkman deliver milk to your door. It’s about defining how people engage with the technology that surrounds them. Most people don’t know what UX is, but everyone uses our work on a daily basis, so the next time you tap your phone to check your bank balance or buy a flight online, remember that these interactions, now almost automatic, were defined and created by UX designers.”

“What makes UX design different is the need to get inside the user’s head, to understand what they want to do and why. We do a lot of user research at the outset, and then at regular intervals we put designs in front of users and listen to what they have to say. The feedback is not always positive but we like that. It tells us what we have to fix.”

“It seems to be working – Frontend scored a major international success for Irish design at the IxDA awards in San Francisco this year, ahead of competition from 29 countries, featuring brands like Skype, Nike, Lego, Yahoo and VW. Frontend were awarded the grand prix for MyMilkman.ie, a digital ecosystem designed for milkmen and their customers.” Frank Long spoke as part of the Design Bites talks programme for Hidden Heroes: the Genius of Everyday Things at the Design Hub, Dublin Castle.

frontend.com

‘What makes UX design different is the need to get inside the user’s head, to understand what they want and why’Frank Long, Director of Frontend.

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A number of films will be screened as part of the exhibition including: Liminal – Irish Design at the Threshold Dezeen

Ogham Wall TimelapseGlasshopper – Nik Eagland

Animation Ireland Short FilmsCoda — And Maps and PlansAfter You — Brown Bag FilmsSomewhere Down the Line & The Ledge End of Phil (from accounting) — Cartoon Saloon The Missing Scarf — Eoin Duffy Deadly — Kavaleer Productions Fear of Flying — Lovely Productions

VFX Showreel Windmill Lane VFXEgg Piranha BarScreen Scene VFX

Animation Ireland Showreel And Maps and PlansBelly CreativeBlacknorth StudioBoulder MediaBrown Bag FilmsCartoon SaloonDancing Girl ProductionsDavid O’ ReillyDouble Z EnterprisesGeronimoGiant AnimationIgloo FilmsJAM MediaKavaleer ProductionsKeg KartoonzLovely ProductionsMagpie & MediaMayfly FilmsMoetion FilmsPrickly Pear ProductionsStill FilmsTelegaelTidal FilmsTreehouse RepublicWiggleywooZanita Films

SHOWREElS

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The library includes seminal Irish design and designed publications including: Kilkenny Design: Twenty-One Years of Design in Ireland by Nick Marchant Art and Architecture of Ireland various Eds. Yale University Press Speculative Everything by Dunne and Raby, MIT Press Eileen Gray: Her Work and Her World by Jennifer Goff, Irish Academic Press A Bit Lost/Shhhhh by Chris Haughton, Candlewick Once Upon an Alphabet: Short Stories for All the Letters by Oliver Jeffers, Philomel Books Designing the Secret of Kells by Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart and Eloise Scherrer, Cartoon Saloon Logo R.I.P.: A Commemoration of Dead Logotypes by The Stone Twins, BIS Publishers Irish Country Posters (Plakate in der Irischen Provinz) by the Deutsches Plakat Museum Oranje & Green: Holland – Ireland Design Connections 1951 – 2002 by Conor Clarke, BIS Publishers Ireland Design & Visual Culture; Negotiating Modernity Eds. Linda King and Elaine Sisson, CUP Press The Moderns: The Arts in Ireland from the 1900s to the 1970s various Eds. IMMA PIVOT Dublin Bid Book published by Dublin City Council Architects Office Campaign published by ICAD IDI Awards 2014 published by IDI

libRARy

RIAI Annual Review, Irish Architecture, Vol 5 (2014/15) published by RIAI House Projects, published by Atelier Project and House Projects Into the Light; 60 yrs of the Arts Council Ed. Karen Downey published by Arts Council Motion Capture ed, Fiona Kearney published by Glucksman Gallery On Seeing Only Totally New Things Gavin Murphy & Atelier Projects Enignum and Other Stories, Joseph Walsh Second edition published by Atelier Projects and JW Studio

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Angela O’KellyAngela O’Kelly is the Head of Design for Body and Environment at the National College of Art and Design, Ireland. She has worked as a curator of contemporary design and craft since 2004 and has also worked as a consultant, educator, facilitator and practitioner. She holds a degree and postgraduate diploma in Design and Applied Art from Edinburgh College of Art and an MA in Arts Management and Cultural Policy from University College Dublin.

Alex MiltonAlex Milton is the Programme Director ofIrish Design 2015. As a designer, educator, researcher, curator and author he has promoted a critical, provocative and entrepreneurial approach to design. He is a visiting professor at Manchester School of Art, Aston University and the National College of Art and Design, Ireland. Alex has previously taught at a number of institutions internationally including Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Edinburgh College of Art and the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing. His creative work has been exhibited at numerous international venues including ICFF New York, 100% Design London, IMMA Dublin, MUDAC Lausanne, INDEX Copenhagen and Designersblock Milan. He has published extensively, and his most recent book ‘Research Methods for Product Design’ co-authored with Paul Rodgers was published by Laurence King in 2013. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Designers in Ireland and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.

Louise AllenLouise Allen is the Head of International Programmes for Irish Design 2015 and Head of Innovation and Development at the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland. Her experience ranges across design, enterprise, contemporary arts, education, curation and innovation. In her various roles she has led on the strategic development for the design and craft sector, forged relationships nationally and internationally and has delivered several EU funded programmes. Louise most recently curated ‘Second Skin’ which is touring as part of the Irish Design 2015 exhibitions programme. She is currently on the board of the World Crafts Council Europe.

CREdiTS

Curators

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Exhibition DesignJohn McLaughlin Architects

John McLaughlin is a graduate of UCD School of Architecture. He worked in Paris and London for over a decade on major civic and cultural projects before returning to Dublin where he was Director of Architecture with the Dublin Docklands Authority where he was responsible for the design of public spaces, notably the Grand Canal Harbour area. He was a member of the group who drafted the Irish Government Policy on Architecture 2009 to 2015, and started private practice in 2010. Often collaborating with practitioners from different disciplines, he leads a studio of six people based in Dún Laoghaire. Their work is inspired by modern Irish architects and designers and has been noted for its elegance, understatement and playfulness. They have received many awards and have been published internationally. In 2014 he co-curated and designed the Irish pavilion at the Fourteenth Venice international Architecture Biennale with Dr. Gary A. Boyd. Titled Infra-Eireann, the pavilion looked at how, since independence, the Irish state has used infrastructures to make Ireland modern.

johnmclaughlin.ie

Graphic DesignNew Graphic

New Graphic are a design agency based in Dublin. They think good graphic design combines clarity and beauty. Their work is idea driven. They look to communicate their client’s message clearly using the best medium for the job. Recently they’ve worked with John McLaughlin Architects on the Architecture Biennale in 2012 and 2014, the Liminal exhibition being their latest collaboration.

newgraphic.ie

Exhibition FabricationOikos Ltd Dublin, Ireland

Thanks toThe Irish design sector and community for their invaluable support and advice in helping develop the exhibition content and approach.

The Irish Design 2015 team, and our colleagues at the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland for helping to make the exhibition and catalogue happen. The Irish Film Board, Animation Irelandand VFXAI.

The OPW and in particular Mary Heffernan and her team for allowing Dublin Castle to host the Dublin iteration of the exhibition.

The Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Enterprise Ireland and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for their continued support of Irish Design 2015.

Exhibition Communication bySusan Brindley, Alex Calder, Sandford PR (Milan, New York, Eindhoven) and Elevate PR (Dublin). Exhibition coordination by Dobrawa Brach-Kaluzna, Leslie Ryan and Frances McDonald. Education coordination by Susan Holland.

Catalogue edited by Alex Milton & Louise Allen

Published by Design & Crafts Council of IrelandCastle Yard, Kilkenny, Ireland

dccoi.ie

© Irish Design 2015Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain permission for the use of copyright material in this publication. We are grateful to the individuals, companies and institutions who have assisted in this task. Any errors or omissions are unintentional. Corrections should be addressed to Irish Design 2015.

Printed by Plus Print Printed on Cyclus Offset Made from 100% recycled fibres

ISBN 978-1-906691-49-3

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Photo CreditsAll images by Peter Rowen with the exception of images on:Page 6, 7, 8, 13, 33 and 102 courtesy of Nick Bookelaar

Page 12, 68 and 69 courtesy of Design Partners

Page 15 and 17 courtesy of IBM and Atelier Projects

Page 18 and 20 courtesy of Dolmen

Page 19 courtesy of Novaerus

Page 22 and 23 courtesy of Mcor

Page 24 and 25 courtesy of Arckit

Page 29, 73, 98 and 138 courtesy of Fabio Diena

Page 32 courtesy of Shantanu Starick

Page 36 courtesy of Mourne Textiles

Page 42 and 43 courtesy of Aodh

Page 44 and 45 courtesy of Perch

Page 46 courtesy of Thomas Montgomery

Page 47 and 49 courtesy of Pauline Rowen

Page 54 courtesy of Claire Anne O’Brien

Page 56, 58, and 59 courtesy of Love & Robots

Page 57 courtesy of the Abbey Theatre

Page 60 courtesy of Emma Cahill

Page 61 courtesy of Genevieve Howard

Page 63 courtesy of Katie Sanderson

Page 66 courtesy of Garrett Pitcher

Page 72 courtesy of Rothschild & Bickers

Page 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87 and 89 courtesy

of Makers & Brothers

Page 92 courtesy of Grafton Architects

Page 95 and 96 courtesy of ID2015

Page 101 courtesy of Rich Gilligan

Page 106, 107 and 108 courtesy of Sarah Bowie

Page 110 courtesy of Egg Post Production

Page 111 courtesy of Screen Scene

Page 114 courtesy of Windmill Lane

Page 116 and 117 courtesy of In the Company of Huskies

Page 118 and 119 courtesy of Studio PSK

Page 120 courtesy of The Stone Twins

Page 122, 125, 128 and 130 courtesy of Animation Ireland

Page 132 and 133 courtesy of Atelier Projects

Page 134 courtesy of The Salvage Press

Page 135 courtesy of Distiller’s Press

Page 135 courtesy of Solaris Tea

Page 136, 137 and 139 courtesy of Annie Atkins

Page 140 and 142 courtesy of Zero-G

Page 146, 147, 148, 149, 150 and 151 courtesy of

The Irish Times

156 Liminal Irish design at the threshold156 Liminal Irish design at the threshold

An exhibition of furniture, paintings, sculpture and precious objects from the Chapel’s History

24 September 2015 – 6 March 2016

Opening HoursMon–Sat: 09.45–16.45Sun & Bank Holidays: 12.00–16.45 State Apartments, Dublin Castle

HOSPiTAliTy

PARTNERS

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Irish Design 2015 is the start of a job creation journey exploring, promoting and celebrating Irish design and designers through events and activities on the island of Ireland and internationally.

Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland, is Patron of Irish Design 2015 and the initiative has been included in the Irish Government’s Action Plan for Jobs.

ID2015 is being convened by the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland, in collaboration with partner organisations on behalf of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Enterprise Ireland.

irishdesign2015.ie

@Irishdesign2015 #ID2015Liminal

irishdesign2015.ie/liminal

Liminal – Irish design at the threshold will be exhibited at: Design Hub, The Coach House, Dublin Castle 20th November – December 30th, 2015 National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny,opening 8th April, 2016

For futher information and high resolution images (via Dropbox link), please contact: Aoife Smith, Elevate PR – aoife@elevate.ie+353 (1) 6625652elevate.ie