A brand identity and website for one of Ireland’s leading cabinet makers and Corian fabricators, established 1963.
I designed the brand identity and website for FitzGerald’s of Kells: the logo device and wordmark, the colour palette and visual direction, and the website with its project page template.
FitzGerald’s of Kells have been making furniture since 1963 and are one of Ireland’s leading cabinet makers and Corian fabricators, with award-winning work in both the Irish and international markets. Their reputation is built on precision and finish, and it travels almost entirely by word of mouth.
The problem was visibility, not quality. Anyone who had seen the workshop understood the standard immediately. Anyone meeting the brand for the first time, particularly an architect or specifier abroad, saw a trade supplier rather than a maker of considered, commissioned pieces.
“Take 50 years of tradition and make it modern, and at the same time be respectful of our heritage, history and craftsmanship.”
The brief asked for two things that pull in opposite directions: modern and traditional. Rather than meet in the middle, I gave each half of the logo one job. The device signals precision and engineering; the typography carries the heritage.
The device comes from the FitzGerald coat of arms, simplified and redrawn on a grid so it reads as something made rather than drawn. Clean lines and exact spacing echo the joinery itself.
The most important decision was a limited colour palette. Furniture photography is full of warm timber, stone, white Corian and changing light, and any strong brand colour would compete with it.
The trade-off is an identity that can look quiet on its own but works in use. The brand recedes so the joinery does not have to fight it, which is the right priority for a maker whose portfolio does the selling.
The mark developed in three steps: the original coat of arms, a simplified shield, and finally an interlocking FG monogram re-cut from the saltire, with the crown and laurel removed.
Three rules the identity had to obey
01
The coat of arms earns its place because the family and the workshop are genuinely continuous. It is reduced to a mark, never treated as an antique.
02
Spacing, alignment and construction are visibly exact. A brand for makers of millimetre-tolerance joinery cannot be loosely set.
03
Limited colour, generous space, minimal ornament. Every layout decision defers to the photography of the finished pieces.
The logo has two parts. The device carries the modern half of the brief; the wordmark’s typeface carries the traditional half.
Walnut
#2C211A
Timber
#6B4B32
Brass
#A5813C
Stone
#CFC7BB
The site has one job: convince an architect, developer or private client that this workshop can execute their commission. Structure follows how that decision is actually made, by looking at completed work in detail.
Home Page
The homepage leads with full-width workshop photography, then a short welcome, a grid of completed projects, awards, the team and clients. Navigation stays at four items (Home, Our Work, Our Team, Contact Us), so the projects are never more than one click away.
Case Study Pages
Every project page uses the same structure: a full-width photograph with the project name, a written description, a Project Info panel with the client and team, any awards, and a gallery of the finished work. New commissions are added in the same format, so every project reads with the same authority.
Close-up · Project page
Each project opens on a full-width photograph of the finished space, with its name and a one-line description set over it.
A written account of the brief and how the workshop approached it, set in a single readable column.
A gallery of the finished work follows, mixing wide views of the space with closer details.
Client, designer or architect, project manager and, where relevant, contract value, kept to one side so they can be scanned quickly.
Award logos sit on the project they were won for, where they carry most weight.
The identity gives FitzGerald’s a mark that reflects both the precision of its joinery and the continuity of a family business established in 1963. The website presents completed commissions the way an architect or specifier evaluates them: the finished space first, then the brief, the project team and any awards, with the workshop’s cabinet-making and Corian capabilities introduced on the homepage.