Reply To: Design Research Unit: the firm that branded Britain

In 1953, at the request of Herbert Read, and with support from the Irish Arts Council, Thurloe Conolly set up a “Design Unit for Ireland” office in Dublin. The co-directors included Senator Edward Maguire, Dermot O’Regan of CTT and Alan Nolan of the publishers Brown and Nolan. Essentially an Irish branch of DRU (Design Research Unit), a European design consortium founded by Herbert Read, Misha Black and Milner Grey, the Dublin office survived for several years before Conolly moved to London, to work with Read in the central DRU office.