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The setting up of Kilkenny Design Workshops Joanna Quinn
Left: KDW logo, Louis le Brocquy, KDW, 1965.
The mistaken belief that the Design in Ireland report led to the setting up of Kilkenny Design Workshops is documented in an internal memorandum written at the Department of Industry and Commerce, probably in the mid 1970s (the memo is undated) which explicitly states this: In 1961, Córas Tráchtála had set up a special section to deal with design. From the beginning this design section provided information and consultancy services but its resources in its first few years were mainly devoted to the setting up of the Kilkenny Design Workshops Limited (inspired by the Scandinavian Report). Yet there is no suggestion in the Design in Ireland report for the development of workshops. The idea came from William H Walsh, inspired by his visit to the Plus Workshops in Fredrikstad, Norway in 1962. Once Walsh had chosen the stables at Kilkenny Castle as the location for the new design project, architect Niall Montgomery (who had accompanied him to Fredrikstad) was
contracted for their restoration. The buildings included a long straight front facing the Castle with blind arches (later opened to become shop windows), a long semi-circular building called the Crescent enclosing the first courtyard, behind which were small workshops enclosing a second courtyard and a long garden back to the Castle’s dower house, Butler House. Montgomery was later awarded a Silver Medal by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and the project was given a National Heritage Award. Design work began in Kilkenny Design Workshops in 1963. An early promotional brochure states that the project: has been established by Córas Tráchtála/ The Irish Export Board, to provide a design service for industry. Its aims are to develop new products and to make new designs available to existing industries. One of the first designs produced by the Workshops was the double KK logo, designed by the painter Louis le Brocquy who was on the first Board, along with Sir Basil Goulding