Profile of Business in the Traditional Design Sectors

This research report illustrates the findings form the “Profile of Business in the Traditional Design Sectors”. This research was commissioned by the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland as part of the Year of Irish Design (ID1025) which is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and was under taken on their behalf by Con Kennedy. The aim of this research is to develop an understanding of the size, location and demographic of design practices and business in the Republic of Ireland. For the purpose of this report, the agreed sectors and design sectors to research were: • Animation • Architecture • Communication/Graphic Design • Digital Design • Product/Industrial Design • Craft Design Specific objectives of the study is to gain a better understanding to how the design sector in Ireland is structured, this includes discipline type, business type, location in Ireland by count and the length of time in business. The traditional design sector is well represented with the distribution of practices throughout Ireland. Although, there is an understandable concentration of design practices in the capital and surrounding counties. This accounts for just over one third of all of design practices. The traditional design sectors in Ireland would seem to consist of just under 4000 practices, consisting of Sole Traders, Registered Business Names, Limited Companies and Partnerships.