Our Story

In the last two years we’ve written, photographed and designed two recipe books for John Stone Beef. It’s been an honour to work with so many talented and enthusiastic chefs and to produce something as enduring and cherishable as a proper, hardback bound book. We pride ourselves in our story-telling abilities and there’s no greater arena than a good old fashioned paper book. We’re ready for the next one.

In the last two years we’ve produced nearly fifty recipes for the John Stone Beef YouTube channel. The videos are a key part of John Stone’s strategy of continuously engaging with their customers. We consider ourselves very lucky to get to work on these videos with some of Ireland’s best chefs. We bring a professional, consistent and cleanly branded finish to these videos which are turned around in hours. But that’s how it’s got to be these days. Great stories, on demand, all the time.

It’s been our privilege to help our clients reduce the amount of packaging they use. We used to describe ourselves as packaging designers. Now, we might better call ourselves un-packaging designers. We’ve helped Wild Irish Game consolidate their retail offerings into one multi-purpose recyclable sleeve. We’ve helped Tipperary Water transition their signature pack from plastic to carton. We’ve helped McCambridge implement a host of recycling and composting initiatives. The momentum feels unstoppable. Let’s hope it makes a difference.

We never called ourselves packaging designers – we’d always prefer to talk about brand design. But you can’t control what others say; we were packaging designers to the outside world. Packaging design was a category once – when the supermarket aisle and the television ad mattered more. A box, a bag and a bottle could swing a sale so brands invested in them. No more. The front line is now digital. Now we shoot video, we run online ad campaigns, we update sites, we curate socials. And yet the food and drink products still need a box, a bag or a bottle. Today good packaging designers are hard to find. But we’re still here.

We don’t like to dwell on it but we’ve been working on branding for Irish food producers for over twenty five tears. DFM itself is twelve years old. We’ve seen a lot of changes. What was once a rentier-style industry dominated by high costs, slow turnarounds and technical specialists has been democratised. Anyone can now reach out to the consumer instantly. Anyone can take a good picture. Anyone can place an ad. So we don’t sell technical ability. We sell knowledge and we sell story-telling. Whether its the side of a milk carton or a social post, story-telling is what we do.