Design for Industry:
the Industrial Design Consultancy
and Product Design in the Republic of Ireland
Design for mass production has been neglected in discussions about Irish culture. Recent achievements in industrial design are examined in the context of increasing design awareness.
Traditionally, the terms industrial design or product design and Ireland have not been readily associated and there are few, if any internationally-known designers that were born, educated or worked in Ireland.1 In recent years there has been considerable growth in the number of designers working for design consultancies that are engaged in designing products for industry. Their contribution to the formulation of a new design identity for Ireland is the focus of this article.2
Products are important indicators of our material culture and as such are tangible expressions of individual and social values. They reflect contemporaneous attitudes of the society that produces and consumes them. Design mirrors the dramatic social and economic developments that have taken place in Ireland in recent years.3 For example, during the past decade public awareness of design has greatly increased. This has been partly fuelled by media interest, exhibitions, lifestyle publications and television programmes about design. There have been several television series devoted to interior and fashion design. The design of furniture and the decoration of domestic interiors are issues that are much more widely discussed in the mass media. The popularity of recent design exhibitions and the number of new specialist design shops that have opened demonstrates the public enthusiasm for design. The expansion of the market for luxury designer goods is partly the result of economic prosperity. However, it is part of a larger phenomenon. It is attributable to the successful lifestyle marketing and the aspirations of a new and socially mobile group of affluent consumers. The increased consumption of designer cult objects; reproductions of design classics by Eileen Gray or Charles Rennie Mackintosh, designer goods by Philippe Starck or Ettore Sottsass--and the popularity of lifestyle shops such as Habitat are only part of the explosion of interest in design.
But what of the products designed in Ireland and the contribution of Irish industrial design consultancies to product design? What is their part in the formation of the material culture of Ireland? Historians have not yet addressed the importance of design in the formation of cultural expression in Ireland. Accounts of design in Ireland have concentrated on the assessment of aesthetically significant artefacts and the contributions of the essentially rural, craft-based and vernacular design tradition. The designer who designs for industry, and who designs mass-produced products which may be maufactured and consumed in Ireland or abroad have hitherto been left out of the discourse on Irish culture and identity. This is understandable from an historical perspective; in Ireland, particularly in the South, where there was little industry to design for, the phenomenon of the industrial designer, who is usually an anonymous member of a team, has barely existed. In the 1950s there were two design consultancies. The Design Research Unit of Ireland, which organised and arranged design exhibitions, had Misha Black, the British design theorist as a consultant. Signa Consultants, which was established by Michael Scott and Louis Le Brocquy, designed furniture and greatly improved the standards of packaging and advertising design.
The importance of industrial design and formally-educated designers who were needed to work in fledgling Irish industries was advocated by Dr Thomas Bodkin (1887-1961) as early as 1932 when he suggested the Ringsend Bottle Factory model itself along the lines of the Swedish Orrefors factory.4 The need for better design to encourage exports was the driving force behind many of the early initiatives. As the market for goods was small within Ireland, well designed products were needed if they were going to be successfully exported. The connection between design and exports has dominated thinking about design ever since, perhaps at the expense of designing quality goods for the Irish market. The design environment changed during the 1960s, with The Scandinavian Report (1962) urging the reform of design education to include an industrial design course.5 In 1963 the Kilkenny Design Workshops (KDW), the first state-owned design consultancy in the world, was established. At KDW during the 1970s the question of designing for industries which did not have a craft base was addressed. Foreign industrial designers came to work at Kilkenny and some of them remained in Ireland where they established their own practices.
The lack of any industrial-design education provision in Ireland was the most serious impediment to the development of a design industry. During the 1970s a number of industrial-design courses were established.6 Significantly the first degree course in it was established at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in 1975. The course was set up as a joint venture with the National Institute of Higher Education at Limerick (now University of Limerick). The first students to be formally educated in industrial design to university degree standard in Ireland graduated in 1980.
During the 1980s the employment situation for graduates was quite difficult and many emigrated to find work with design consultancies abroad. Those that remained were pioneers in the field of industrial design in Ireland establishing their own design businesses. These included Design ID, Design 4 (later Beaver Design and now Allies) and Blackbox Design. They were influential in promoting design to business, making the link between efficiently designed products and increased profits. They showed that a well designed product could increase sales and cut manufacturing costs. The new design consultancies were an important source for providing employment to young industrial designers.7
Since then the profession in Ireland has changed greatly and the number of courses in industrial design has expanded. As well as at NCAD, there are now courses at Carlow, Sligo and Letterkenny Institutes of Technology.
The greatest changes for industrial designers, however, have been the impact of the new technology on the way they work and the range of products that they design. High-powered computer work-stations have liberated the designer from the tedium of the drawing-board and many of the difficulties of model-making. Previously, designers tended to design in straight lines but the computer has made it much easier for the designer to work in three dimensions and produce more useful designs. The use of microprocessors in the machines used for the manufacture of components has changed the way products look; for example, complex curved surfaces are now more easy to design and manufacture economically.
Computer-aided design (CAD) and modern prototyping techniques mean that the speed of product development is now so rapid that designers cannot work without the most advanced systems. When a product is designed, a clay, plasticine or foam mould is made which may be easily altered when the proposed product is being reassessed during the design process. The model can be scanned in 3-D form onto computer. The design in digital format can be transmitted anywhere in the world and communication through the Internet, e-mail and ISDN have effectively allowed design consultancies in Ireland to compete for work abroad as it is no longer vital for designers to be located in the traditional design centres of London, Milan or New York.
Designing the new technology has also presented a challenge for designers. For example, Hood Associates have designed a range of computer accessories which includes the Ergoblock, a low cost modular stackable platform which can be used to raise a computer monitor to optimum viewing height. It consists of a wavy platform, designed to provide even support for different computer monitors. In contrast, Hood's Raidtec FibreArray 12 is a highly complex data storage unit which, through its efficient use of space, stores 70% more computer hard drives than its predecessor.
Design Partners, located in Bray, Co. Wicklow, have designed a range of computer mouse/mice for Logitech. The award-winning TrackMan Marble FX was developed to enable greater precision and is particularly suited for use in the areas of computer aided design (CAD) and mapping. Three miniature cameras inside the device measure the relative position of the ball and the information is reflected on the screen. The design takes ergonomic considerations into account which allow the hand to work and rest in a more natural position.
The essential challenge for the industrial designer remains the same -- that is adapting technology for use by people. This distinguishes industrial designers from others who also design, notably engineers. The designer acts as a bridge between the manufacturer and the consumer, in a role which is constantly being questioned. An example of a consumer product that reflects this is the Party Grill which was designed by Design Partners for the French company Campingaz. This functional, compact and elegant design is combined with ease of use for the consumer and is relatively cheap to manufacture.
Economic constraints and pressure of work often allow designers to lose sight of their real contribution and responsibilities in the design of products, which is to focus on the human factors involved and not on superficial styling or merely changing the look of a product. What of the designers' responsibility to the society they design for? Why the constant need to design and redesign the same products? During the 1990s designers have been questioning the impact of design on the environment and addressing the need for new materials that are less destructive of the environment. In response to the EU packaging directive which sets recycling targets, Hood Associates, were commissioned to develop designs for waste management and recycling which resulted in the Streetwise Recycling station which is part of a range of street furniture that incorporates a receptacle for the collection of plastic bottles and cans which are then recycled. The sides display advertising which funds the cost of the service to local authorities.
Designers consider the use of products by the elderly or people with disabilities in coming up with solutions which are transgenerational or usable by all. In this regard, the European Institute for Design and Disability was established in Dublin in 1992. Based at NCAD, the Institute addresses the need to adapt technology and design for people with disabilities in an initiative that reflects the greater social awareness of designers.
During the last twenty years the phenomenon of the professional industrial designer working in a design consultancy has been established in Ireland for the first time. Some efforts have been made, most notably by the press and television, the Institute of Designers in Ireland, design awards and exhibitions, to inform the public of the importance of design and the nature and role of the often anonymous industrial designer. The new confidence in the economy and optimism are essential to the improvement of design consciousness,. Advertisers realise that design sells and with these factors in place the designer will assume a new importance in modern society and culture.
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank the following for their help: Brian Stephens, Managing Director of Design Partners, Eadaoin Glynn of Design Partners, Oliver Hood of Hood Associates, Paul Fortune and Gearóid Ó Conchubhair of the Department of Industrial Design, NCAD.
Dr. Paul Caffrey lectures in the history of art and design, coordinates the design history and theory courses at NCAD and is a member of the Institute of Designers in Ireland.; he has written on aspects of Irish art, architecture and design and is currently researching the material culture of modern Ireland.
