Expanding our Horizons

You can’t talk about the Irish economy without talking about tech start ups and multinationals, and you can’t talk about Irish anything without talking about the diaspora. ‘Expanding our Horizons’ explores the 100 Archive’s materials from a number of perspectives. One is Ireland’s increasingly important role in global business: we are home to a seemingly ever-growing number of EMEA headquarters for multinational corporations, while we foster an environment for the development of goods and services, increasingly technological in nature, which are leveraged worldwide. Technology as both tool and output is another; and Irish designers at home and abroad are using and shaping it in a myriad of ways.

At the same time, Irish designers themselves are expanding their horizons, in terms of working with international and global clients, making careers and lives for themselves across the globe, regardless of the economic circumstances we experience here in Ireland. Meanwhile, designers from other countries are making Ireland their home. As borders blur, the 100 Archive makes room for a more open definition of ‘Irish design’.