Graphic design has been one of the boom industries of the Celtic tiger years with various production houses and consultancy business popping up across the country.

Competition has been fierce with so many different companies competing for their piece of this growing industry. Among them is the Barry Design Consultancy set up by Jim Barry back in 1996. Barry Design has become one of the most respected and trusted names in the business during that time, growing with its customers to today's substantial operation based at the EastGate Business Park in Little Island.

It hasn't always been this way of course. Barry Design is the product of many years of hard work and steady progress under the stewardship of Jim Barry who was the only person on the staff in the beginning. Today the company offers the whole range of services from Consultation into Graphic Design, Web Design and Printing through sister company PrintPro which was established two years ago.

Jim himself is proud of the friendly atmosphere at Barry Design and the strong relationships the company has built up with customers over the years. For Jim art was always the one thing he was interested in, growing up in Turners Cross.

One of five boys, Jim was the second youngest in the family and attended Deerpark CBS where his love for all things artistic came to the fore. Unable to do the leaving in art at Deerpark he had to sit the exam at the College of Comm beginning a long career in art education. He then went on to attend Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa on the Tramore Road and from there went to Dun Laoghaire College and then finally to the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.

With years of training behind him Jim was ready to enter the world of work, but as he recalls it wasn't that easy getting his first break.

"I don't know what it's like now but it was a difficult area to break into back then. Every summer I'd head to the UK to work in catering but I finally got a break here and got into Dowling and Dowling. I know they are a competitor now but they gave me a break so they deserve a mention".

From Dowlings Jim did a stint at Southern Advertising and from there his career took an interesting turn. Working in the graphics department at the Irish Examiner his talent for cartoons was spotted and soon he found himself drawing political and satirical cartoons for the Examiner and the Evening Echo. That little twist in the story would lead Jim down a new path entirely.

"It got to the stage that I was drawing so many cartoons I didn't have time to do my regular job, so I decided to leave and focus on freelance work altogether."

He set up Barry Design in a small rented house working with "a little computer on an old kitchen worktop" and that was it. The cartoons kept him busy and he gradually expanded the business taking on more and more varied work.