Design moment: Kilkenny Design Workshops logo, c. 1965

This column could get a year’s worth of content, at least, out of the work of the Kilkenny Design Workshops, given its influence on the evolution of Irish design in the 20th century; but rather than weekly bulletins, it will occasionally dip in and out of the work, starting with the logo.

The State-supported workshops established in 1963 (and closed in 1988) were an ambitious project to improve the design aspect of industrial production in the country – a lack that was notable when Irish exports attempted to compete in the design-conscious European market.

A group of Scandinavian designers visited Ireland to assess the design quality of work produced across several categories

The lack of indigenous designers and the poor standard of industrial design in all areas of manufacturing had been noted as far back as the 1920s by the visionary and brilliant lawyer, curator and National Gallery director Thomas Bodkin, but it took until the early 1960s for the project to get off the ground.

It was a vision supported by the government-commissioned Scandinavian report (1962), for which a group of Scandinavian designers visited Ireland to assess the design quality of work produced across several categories, including glass, knitwear, furniture and ceramics.

Designers brought in

One it its recommendations was that, given the lack of local trained designers, international designers should be brought in to establish workshops to raise the quality of design in industry. Kilkenny was picked by Córas Tráchtála chief William Walsh, who drove the project – the idea being that the designers from Germany, Sweden, the UK and elsewhere would be concentrated in one small area, living and working close to each other. The stables of the castle were converted for the purpose.

Initially any ceramic and textiles they produced were for display only, but demand was such that they became widely available to the public in the large retail space on Nassau Street in Dublin – and a logo was required. It was designed by Louis le Brocquy, then a well-regarded mid-career artist. Its simple, graphic style was consistent with the modern outlook of the workshops and stamped on a bowl or pot it was a sign of quality product and good design.