History

The Graphic Design Business Association (GDBA) the predessor of Design Business Ireland was established in 1991 to represent, support and promote the Irish graphic design consultancy sector. A number of years ago a series of meetings were held with design leaders to debate on the best strategy for the GDBA, these meetings resulted in a overwhelming desire for the Association to evolve and include design disciplines other than purely visual communications. In November 2008 after a period of consultation with GDBA Members and other design bodies and design leaders the GDBA evolved into Design Business Ireland. Since its launch it has promoted the services of its members through the media. It has held seminars on business focused areas such as HR and it has carried out and distributed the results of an industry-wide survey. Design Business Ireland has a single mission - to promote effective design.

Part of the the GDBA's 'DNA' was its stance on Free and Speculative Pitching and this has not changed. This practice is discouraged as it does not comply with best practice internationally. In fact Design Business Ireland believes that the founding principles of the GDBA still apply to our sector and will continue to work to ensure that Irish design firms are world class.

During the early days of the Association the mebership was in single figures and has now grown to over 40 member firms in a number of disciplines throughout the island of Ireland.

Over the years the GDBA has had the support of a huge number of groups and individuals, and although these are too many to mention, we would like to list previous GDBA Chairpersons who include:

Neil Condron
Martin Gaffney
Peter Kruseman
Camillus O'Brien
Nicholas Cloake
Eunan McKinney
Alan Howard
Ciaran Flnangan
Nicholas Cloake