Kerry Co-op – The Heart of Who We Are

Document and celebrate Kerry Co-op’s journey from a rural co-operative in the 1970s to Kerry Plc, a global food and nutrition leader in over 140 markets. The initial proposal — a standard A4 corporate history — risked underselling the brand’s heritage and overwhelming its diverse audience of farmers, employees, and directors, many of whom would not read a 480-page book cover-to-cover.

• UX for Print: Designed with usability in mind, ensuring each section could stand alone for “dip-in” reading rather than requiring a full sequential read.

• Visual Accessibility: Gave photography generous space, used extra-wide borders for breathing room, and applied a clean hierarchy to make historical content easy to navigate.

• Bridging Past & Present: Paired Kerry Plc’s Noto Sans typography with Bodoni for historical resonance, subtly applying the corporate colour palette throughout.

• Iterative Cover Exploration: Explored multiple creative directions — from spotlighting the founding members, to honouring the pioneering women of the Co-op, to focusing on key leaders such as Denis Brosnan who drove transformative growth.

• Final Concept – Faces of the Co-op: Featured every person mentioned in the ‘People’ section of the book to embody the co-operative core value that every member matters. For transformative figures — such as the first female board member and Denis Brosnan — I placed subtle emphasis on their eyes, using close crops to acknowledge the pivotal role they played in shaping key turning points in the Co-op’s evolution.

• Elevated the publication from a functional corporate history into a premium keepsake proudly displayed in homes, offices, and boardrooms.

• Strengthened brand heritage connection and internal pride across multiple audience groups.

• When presented by the author to the board, the design concepts received immediate, unanimous approval -exceptional given the board’s rigorous standards - and moved directly into production without revision.