In November, Millimetre Design won the ‘Design Practice of the Year’ award at the annual Fit Out Awards in Dublin’s Clayton Hotel. Managing Director Ronan Holohan told Building Ireland more about his Dublin-based business which is currently thriving, as well as picking up national accolades.
Business is flying” at Millimetre Design at the present time and company founder Ronan Holohan can look back on 2017 as a year when his design studio has made more massive strides in the right direction.
Based in Ongar Village, Dublin 15, Millimetre Design has experienced rapid growth over the past two years, having set-up as many years prior to the recession kicking in, and Ronan is keen to maintain the momentum.
The man himself was able to take some time out from what has become an increasingly hectic schedule to explain to Building Ireland what Millimetre Design is all about.
“We’re established since 2005 and right now we’re a team of 31 and that number has doubled in the last two years for us,” Ronan outlined. “Basically we are a multi-disciplinary design practice, designing for clients throughout Ireland and beyond. Before I started up Millimetre Design I worked for a variety of interior design companies, each focusing on different business sectors. For example, hotels, bars, or offices.
“I wanted the Millimetre Design team to work on projects across all business sectors. I believed this variety would keep our designers challenged and the broader industry exposure would increase their creativity and heighten their problem solving abilities.
“This unique approach has allowed us over the years to build a highly motivated and passionate bunch of creative designers. Today we are a well-established design studio with a reputation for delivering highly creative design solutions across a broad spectrum of business sectors, including food, hotel, retail, restaurant, bar and office.”
Some of the projects that the Millimetre Design team have been busy with in 2017 include, the InterContinental Hotel, the Hilton Dublin, Chopped and Maxol, to name just a few. Outside the capital, Millimetre Design is working with the Kingspan Group in Kingscourt, Co Cavan. This is a client whose offices they previously designed, so are delighted to be back working with again to create some very exciting and innovative new office spaces.
Millimetre Design’s pipeline of projects already signed for 2018 is impressive when looking at the volume of projects, the scale of projects and the variety of industries across which they operate.
In short, business is going as well as expected and reflecting back on the tough years, Ronan feels his “mass market” approach to business meant Millimetre Design was well positioned to ride out the rough times.
“We were able to pick up what little business there was in each sector and this provided us with sufficient revenue to continue to invest in our business…ready to take advantage of the economic resurgence, when it arrived.”
From a team of 15 to more than 30, was quite the jump in less than 24 months but such has been the demand for the Millimetre Design service offering.
The awards have rolled in too over the last four years or so but what has been the secret to it all? Why do Millimetre Design’s clientele choose them first ahead of other competitors in the same industry?
“I think it comes down to our knowledge, experience and creativity– that and our ability to deliver really good solutions for clients,” Ronan stated.
“Many clients also choose us because we can offer a much broader range of design services than our competitors. These clients know how important first impressions are! They know that the design of their business premises, shop frontage, interiors, business logo, staff uniforms, website, social media etc all needs to work together to create that crucial overall image for their business.
“This image helps them to attract and retain potential clients and staff. These clients know that we are the only Irish design studio with the capabilities to support all their interior and branding design needs. They also see the impact that our design work has and how it contributes to their commercial success. That is why they are happy to continue to invest in their business with Millimetre Design as their design partner.”
The team had a project of their own this past year when they moved premises at the end of the summer. The new Millimetre Design purpose built design studio, is located just around the corner from the company’s original design studio in Ongar Village, Dublin 15. The new location provides all the additional desk space needed for the growing team, as well as plenty of break out spaces for those all-important creative sessions.
A little over a month later, the company found itself shortlisted for four different awards at the prestigious Fit Out Awards.
The annual awards are renowned for setting “the benchmark for excellence in the execution of world-class fit outs” so for Millimetre Design to be shortlisted in four separate categories in 2017 was quite the achievement.
Client project Dillisk on the Docks, was shortlisted under the category ‘Fit Out Project of the Year – Hospitality’, whilst another client project SpitJack Rotisserie Brasserie was shortlisted under two award categories – ‘Fit Out Project of the Year – Conservation’ as well as ‘Fit out of the Year – Hospitality’.
In addition, the Millimetre Design team was among the nominees for ‘Fit Out Design Practice of the Year’, having previously won the title in 2013.
Come November 2nd, the company was honoured to receive the Fit-out Design Practice of the Year award for 2017, with the award affirming its position as a leading interior design and branding studio.
“We’d been nominated for the award in September and were actually nominated in four categories in total but this was the one we really wanted to be honest,” said Ronan. “It was a fantastic honour and great for the team. We are a large but close-knit team where everyone pulls together, blending different skills and strengths for the common good of the project in hand. It therefore makes it incredibly satisfying to receive an award likes this which recognises the team, as opposed to any individual.”
It seems the team at Millimetre Design has had success in abundance so far and you get the feeling that there’s more of it to come down the line.
Millimetre Design
4 Ongar Square,
Ongar Village,
Dublin 15,
D15 H34C
Tel: +353 1 826 3971
Web: millimetredesign.com
E-mail: [email protected]
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, February 2018, Vol 4 No 2
