The Irish state consists of 17 government departments and over 300 associated bodies. In the one hundred years since the foundation of the State, many of these entities had developed their own separate identities with diverging positioning in the minds of the public. This led to a lack of differentiation by the public between state and private bodies, and undermined recognition of government departments and public bodies’ role in the formulation and delivery of policies and services.

The disparate expressions were also believed to drive further fragmentation and competition between agencies that all ultimately share the same role of serving the Irish people. As part of a wider programme to streamline and improve public engagement and information across all of government, it was decided to develop and implement a unified identity system.

The system was designed around the State harp (the emblem of the State as defined by law) and an approach to typography that conformed with the Official Languages Act. We created a definitive version of the State harp based, optimised for consistency and application across digital, print and environmental applications.

A dynamic relationship between the State harp and departmental names was devised to accommodate both languages and the considerable variation in length that exists across department and agency names. Green was adopted as the State colour (it was formerly blue) and a series of supporting elements were introduced to establish an overarching housestyle that aided recognition and supported a more effective roll-out of the system.

We prepared tools and templates to guide the efficient transition to the new government identity over a two year period. This empowered all of the government departments to adopt the unified identity and in the process rationalise communitions and reduce on-going costs. The system also facilitated continuity across changes of Government and changes in brief and scope for various departments. The unified system was also extended to Public Bodies such as the OPW and now provides the default identity for newly statutory bodies, further aiding coherence and efficiencies across Public Services.

The identity has been firmly embedded across all of government and empowers hundreds of designers and communication professionals in delivering trusted information and services to the public. The identity system was recognised as bringing coherence and clarity to Government communications during the COVID pandemic, establishing consistent, accessible and simplified information from a recognisable and trusted source. We have also observed the unified identity programme has assisted in elevating the role of design to a user-centred solutions-oriented methodology within civil and public service, moving beyond appearance to the development and ongoing delivery of better, more accessible, information and services.