GMIT Letterfrack selected to exhibit work at prestigious international furniture fair

Students and graduates of GMIT Letterfrack’s National Centre for Excellence in Furniture Design and Technology have been selected to exhibit at one of the world’s leading furniture and lighting exhibitions - the Stockholm Furniture Fair (4 – 8 February 2020).

Kay Woodcock from Letterfrack, Co Galway; Roscoe Holt, Claremorris, Co Mayo; Maciej Dubiel from Ballymahon, Co Longford; Conor Cremins from Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin and Declan Barrett from Kilcullen, Co Kildare are students/graduates of the Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Furniture Design & Manufacture at the Letterfrack campus.

The group will exhibit their work (pictured) in the Greenhouse section where up-and-coming designers and leading design schools show their creations to future partners, producers and customers. Many of today’s leading designers had their breakthrough showcase in the Greenhouse and many young designers’ debut there resulted in their products going into production. To be chosen for this exhibition, the students’ work was judged, and accepted, by an international panel of experts.

GMIT Letterfrack Lecturer Jeremy Madden says “It is a considerable honour and acknowledgement that the standard of work our students produce is on a par with international standards of excellence. We are the first Irish college to ever have been selected to exhibit at this fair which will be attended by representatives from some of the world’s leading design universities and institutes.”

GMIT Letterfrack Head of Department Paul Leamy says “Our presence at this fair will help raise awareness, internationally, of the quality of furniture design and making in Ireland and in particular in GMIT Letterfrack. We see this as an opportunity to promote GMIT Letterfrack as a destination for potential international students to attend. We also see this as a significant prospect for our students to use this as a platform to showcase the value of their work, and potentially negotiate production contracts with manufacturers”.

Following on from the generous support of the Irish Embassy in Stockholm, GMIT Letterfrack has also been invited to participate in the Design Diplomacy event in the Embassy on 5 February 2020.  This is a popular concept that was launched at Helsinki Design Week 2016 and has since toured in cities such as Tokyo, Berlin, Madrid and New York. 

“We feel very privileged to participate in such a prestigious event”, adds Mr Leamy. “We would like to acknowledge and thank the generous support of our main sponsor the Irish Embassy in Sweden.  We are also very grateful for the support we received from our campus partners Connemara West Plc., and from Conor Clarke, Johnston Shopfitters and MJM Marine Ltd.

For more details about GMIT Letterfrack and the furniture design and manufacture degree course, see:
https://www.gmit.ie/furniture-design-and-technolgy/gmit-letterfrack and
https://www.gmit.ie/furniture/bachelor-science-hons-furniture-design-and-manufacture

Galway-Mayo IT, IT Sligo and Letterkenny IT are working towards becoming a Technological University for the west and northwest of Ireland.

Issued by Regina Daly, GMIT Communications & Press Officer, Dublin Road, Galway.
Tel 091 742826/0879618455 (m) regina.daly@gmit.ie
www.gmit.ie/news