June 2009 could have been an extremely difficult month for Limerick native Niall O’Kelly. The New York-based design company where he worked as a senior designer lost its main two retainer clients and with that O’Kelly was out of a job.
The day after being told the news, he decided to set up his own business – O’Kelly Design – and four years on it has amassed a slew of awards for work done for major companies including Lily O’Brien’s Chocolates, MindGames, ISPP and New York University.
O'Kelly completed a four-year BA in Visual Communications at Dublin Institute of Technology before going on to work for Dublin-based XMI Design, then one of Ireland's leading branding and print design studios, for several years. Whilst there, he worked with clients including Bank of Ireland, GlaxosmithKline, Nestlé, Treasury Holdings and Ireland West Airport Knock.
He moved to New York in December 2006, and initially worked for Empire Design on movie posters and campaigns before taking a position at MSDS in Soho, which specialises in website design and branding for nonprofit, financial services and technology companies.
After being told he was out of work in June 2009, he set up his own business in the New York suburb of Brooklyn.
“It’s a lot easier to meet decision makers in NYC than Europe. Within a few weeks of setting up my company I had a meeting with a large union in New York. They were doing a whole campaign around Obamacare and so I did the campaign and websites for them.”
His former employer MSDS also helped him out with work, sending projects which were too small for them his way.
“The smaller projects were often for start-up companies, but these ultimately ended up being much larger projects for me as the companies grew very big very quickly.”
O’Kelly also got involved in the Irish Business Organisation of New York (IBO) where he sat on the board. That led to more work and clients including Lily O’Brien’s Chocolate Café. O’Kelly’s fellow IBO member Lily O’Brien’s Chocolate Café owner Cathal Queally commissioned him to design signage and a website for the chocolatier’s Bryant Park café.
Over the next few years, O'Kelly added to his client portfolio, doing work for companies and nonprofits including Goal, CARE International, New York University and Mindsports Football.
“It was very hard work trying to get work. There were many proposals and pitches I did that never saw the light of day. You could spend days preparing a pitch for a tender and then never get it. You have to move on though. There’s not much point dwelling on it. It’s part of the process and you have to plan for that.”
One of the best pieces of advice O’Kelly received when starting out, came from the now IBO president Sheila Lynott Hourican, who told him never to be afraid to ask someone for their business, and it’s something he has stuck by.
Contrary to popular belief, he says the Irish accent isn’t a huge advantage in New York.
“The accent will get you a smile at the beginning of a conversation or meeting, but at the end of the day you still have to prove yourself. We are natural storytellers though so that can help build a relationship with people quickly.”
Last year he moved to Amsterdam with his Dutch wife Jojanneke Van Der Toorn.
“My original plan was just to maintain my business in New York and freelance here to build up contacts and add Dutch companies to my client base. I quickly discovered things operate very differently here. It’s not good enough to have done a vast amount of work for US companies; they want to see what Dutch projects you have done.
“It became apparent that to freelance in a significant way in the Netherlands and to run your own design business here, you have to be in a network of people, but it’s very hard to get into that circle. They are not as big into networking as they are in the US, so it’s more difficult to meet people and build relationships.”
O’Kelly also found the language a barrier. “Everyone speaks English fluently here but the work you do is in Dutch. The advertising campaigns, posters and websites you design are aimed at Dutch people so you do need the language.”
As a result he took a job with User Intelligence in the Netherlands as a senior visual designer, to improve his language skills and get used to the working culture.
He is still maintaining his own company, but hopes experience in the Dutch studio will open the door to larger and more comprehensive projects.
As for the future, he says he would ultimately like to go back to running his own business full-time, with an office and staff in Europe.
“I still want it to have an international focus though, and will continue working with US-based companies as well as European.”
