William Curran Archive
NIVAL is delighted to share the William Curran Archive via our online catalogue, with select materials accessible in person in our Reading Room. This rich and wide-ranging collection captures the career of one of Ireland’s most accomplished and quietly influential twentieth-century artists and graphic designers.
Born in Dublin in 1919, William (Bill) Curran grew up in an environment shaped by print. His maternal grandfather and two uncles were printer compositors, an influence that likely sparked his lifelong interest in lettering, typography and design. That early exposure matured into formal training when Curran undertook a six-year apprenticeship as a lithographic artist and designer. During this time he also attended the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (DMSA), now the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), studying commercial art under Professor Bernardus Romein. Curran appears in the College Student Registers Collection between 1937-46.
Curran spent a trial period in London working on banknote design and, although offered a position there, he chose to return to Dublin. This decision would impact the visual language of Irish public life for decades to come.
He worked with Browne and Nolan printers in Clonskeagh until 1953, before moving into freelance practice. Over the following years, Curran produced work for printing offices, advertising agencies and major national clients including Guinness and CIÉ. His career took him through agencies such as O’Kennedy Brindley and O’Keefes.
In 1964 he married and relocated to his wife’s hometown of Belfast where he continued an active and varied career with Well’s Advertising, RMB Advertising, the Belfast Telegraph and later McConnell’s.
Curran’s versatility as an artist and designer is clearly evident in the range of work he produced for CIÉ in the 1950s. These designs moved between bold modern graphics and richly detailed landscape illustrations. Through playful symbolic imagery and painterly scenes he demonstrated a unique ability to adapt style to message and medium.
Curran was an award-winning artist and designer, with a track record of winning multiple prizes in a single competition. In 1967, Bord Fáilte Éireann (Irish Tourist Board), ran their first National Anti-Litter Poster Design Competition. Curran was awarded 1st and 3rd prizes with his designs ‘Play Your Part, Keep Ireland Tidy’ and ‘Think Tidy’. His iconic designs were not only used for posters but also on bin stickers, buses, and leaflets. The archive includes some of Curran’s original sketches for these designs as well as related correspondence with Bord Fáilte, and newspaper clippings.
Curran’s work is notable for its range. The archive reveals an artist equally comfortable with bold graphic posters, delicate illustration, disciplined typographic layouts and expressive hand lettering. He was an expert calligrapher and designed two typefaces, ‘Kilfane’ and ‘Carrick’, which were released by Letraset.
Created by Curran in 1978 for the Letraset competition sponsored by Kilkenny Design Workshops (another example of Curran being awarded multiple prizes in a single competition), both typefaces were subsequently used in many publications and designs. The ‘Kilfane’ typeface was most widely seen on the last Irish Punt banknotes (Series C) that were designed in the 1990s by Robert Ballagh.
Curran designed the typeface for the Irish aibítir (alphabet) in Gaelic typescript used to teach primary school children in ‘An Príméar’.
To celebrate their bi-centenary in 1959, Guinness commissioned Curran to create new labels featuring Irish lettering for the first time. These anniversary labels mark a significant moment in Guinness’s use of the Irish language as a prominent design element.
Curran’s skills further extended into everyday consumer goods and commercial design. Through widely circulated advertisements for brands like Tayto and Dale Farm, and packaging designs for brands such as Dromona Butter, Batchelors, and Fruitfield, his work entered shops and homes across the country. As with his work for Guinness, CIÉ and Bord Fáilte Éireann, these familiar designs reveal how Curran’s hand is embedded in everyday Irish visual culture.
In addition to his extensive commercial output, the collection also includes work Curran created for public information and safety notices, environmental and public health campaigns. With their bold imagery and immediate visual appeal, these striking designs would undoubtedly have been effective in capturing attention and communicating essential messages in public spaces.
Alongside these finished designs sit studies, working sketches, typographic experiments and design proofs that show Curran’s process and precision. These materials document his careful consideration of composition, lettering and colour, and provide insight into the working methods of a highly skilled artist and graphic designer.
Away from commercial work, Curran painted for pleasure, particularly in watercolour. He was drawn to landscapes, buildings and scenes encountered in daily life, always attentive to light, colour and structure. These works provide a more personal counterpoint to his professional practice and allow a deeper understanding of his visual sensibility.
William Curran died in Belfast on 12 November 2016, leaving behind a body of work that spans advertising, public communication, typography, graphic design and fine art.
In 2025, the archive of William Curran was deposited with NIVAL by his daughter, Marie Curran, for digitisation and long-term preservation. The collection comprises almost 500 items, including graphic design and illustration work, calligraphy and typographic designs, photographs, correspondence, newspaper clippings, posters and other ephemera. A selection of large-scale colour posters and related material has been donated and placed on long-term loan to NIVAL. These items can be viewed in the NIVAL Reading Room, while the majority of the archive is now accessible online.
The William Curran Archive offers a rare window into the evolution of Irish graphic design, capturing a pivotal era where traditional craftsmanship met a modernising nation. The collection showcases Curran’s unique ability to move between bold graphics, disciplined typography and expressive fine art. From children’s school books to Ireland’s national currency, Curran’s hand was a quiet but constant presence in the pockets, homes, and streets of the country.
We invite you to explore this extraordinary archive and find inspiration in a legacy that remains woven into the fabric of our visual landscape.
Our sincere thanks go to Marie Curran for her time and invaluable insights during the deposit and cataloguing process. Her dedication to honouring her father’s legacy, and her careful work compiling and organising his materials, has been essential in the safeguarding, interpretation, and accessibility of this significant collection. We are also grateful for the personal photographs and biographical information she provided.
Clare Lymer is Digital Collections Officer at NIVAL.