Whether addressing chiffon and velvet or hand-cut crystal glass, the art of the designer is to transform the material and bring distinction and innovation to an established product brand.
Thurles-born Louise Kennedy has gone back to her home county to take up the creative challenge of devising the inspiration for a new range of products to be launched by Tipperary Crystal early next year.
The acclaimed Irish designer, whose clients include Ms Cherie Blair, wife of the British Prime Minister, will bring her personal style and signature to the new line, which will be aimed at a contemporary, younger market.
The 10-year-old company, like other leading Irish manufacturers of quality products, is convinced that creative product development is a cornerstone of its future business.
For its "big brother" down the road, Waterford Crystal, the collaboration with designer John Rocha, has brought exciting results and strong market impact. Ms Kennedy now plans to bring a unique image to the Tipperary brand.
"My handwriting is so different to John Rocha," she says. "It will be a different look and appeal to a different consumer. I think the market is big enough - there is plenty of scope for Tipperary to develop."
She has already been working with the Tipperary crafts people to familiarise herself with and "get a feel" for the technology and skills involved.
"Once you understand the limitations of what can physically be done, the design elements that can be brought into play are all about the visual, the touch and the proportion."
Twice winner of the Irish Designer of the Year award, she promises to stay true to her personal design ideals in tackling this different medium. "There should be a continuity of my handwriting."
"We have faith in her," says the company's chief executive, Mr Niall Wall.
The new product line will be subjected to formal market research. However, outside of the area of production capacity, Ms Kennedy has a free hand.
"While we have a design capability ourselves, by bringing in somebody with no association with the crystal industry you import a completely new perspective - and we're looking predominantly for something different," says Mr Wall.
"The business is becoming more fashion-oriented and you have to meet these challenges."
Collaboration with the famous Tiffany brand through the designs of the late Sybil Connolly had earlier enhanced Tipperary's status overseas. Ms Kennedy's international reputation in clothing design will bring further opportunities to tap the global market.
She stresses, however, that in recruiting her it was not just a case of the company saying: "Can we use your name?" The key factor was whether her design capabilities could translate into a different medium.
The experiment is part of a £6 million investment announced earlier this year by the company's shareholders, Yeoman International and the Ryan family of Ryanair fame. Dr Tony Ryan is chairman of the company.
Tipperary Crystal will continue to produce traditional hand-cut crystal in the forms which secured its market base in the past, while the new designs will hope to gain a market niche.
Market experts point out that some designs become classics and run for many years, while others have to be replaced.
An expanding Irish tourism market, which is keenly brand-conscious, is seen as creating strong opportunities. Some 60,000 visitors a year come to the "thatched cottage"-style showrooms at Tipperary Crystal's plant south of Clonmel, while high-tech interior design is blended with a 200-year-old stone exterior in the company's new visitors' centre recently opened in Birdhill.
The quality image of Irish crystal has firmly established its place at the top of a demanding international market. The contribution which both artists and designers can make to keeping it there is increasingly recognised.