Merch Design Revamp for Touring Dance Show

A Taste of Ireland is an internationally touring Irish dance and music production. We perform across the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Ireland, with the bulk of our touring activity in regional America. The show has been running for over a decade and we sell merchandise at every venue on every tour. The Project We are looking for a designer (or design team) to completely redesign and expand our merchandise range. Our current merch range is very basic and everything is in black with our gold logo. The exception here is our printed program. After we recently went to Disney World we have been inspired by Disney's astounding merchandise offering and we are now looking to redo our whole merchandise range to stand on it's own two feet making it a vibrant, creative and saleable series of merch that we sell at our shows, connecting with our audiences who are there to watch our shows. This has the potential to turn into an ongoing engagement. If the work is strong and you can deliver variety across product types, and different designs for our target audience, we will continue to commission new designs, seasonal ranges and tour-specific items across our different productions. Audience — Read This Carefully Designing for the right audience is critical, and our audience is not the audience most designers default to. Primary demographic: 60+, predominantly in regional America Secondary: Families with children attending the show Strong cultural connection to Irish heritage, traditional Celtic aesthetic, and storytelling So I asked AI what this meant for design direction and this is what it came up with: What this means for design direction: Skate, streetwear, edgy graphic, and contemporary "cool" aesthetics will not work for this audience Lean traditional, warm, heritage-driven, decorative, family-friendly Folk art, illustrative, classic typography, and decorative Celtic motifs are all welcome We are explicitly moving away from "black and gold only" — variety in colour palette is essential. Greens, creams, ivories, deeper jewel tones, weathered golds, and vintage finishes all in scope Some items can lean playful or kid-focused; most should land squarely with our core 60+ audience We will provide you with a series of brand assets including: Current logos - although feel free to give us new options Graphics Photos Current Merch range Photos of Merch set up We want fresh designs, new graphic elements, and creative interpretations of Irish/Celtic themes. We are also having our website redone and plan to have these on the e-commerce part of our website. This is the kind of merch we sell and are open to selling: Apparel T-shirts (multiple designs across the range) Polo shirts Button-up shirts Hoodies 3/4 zip pullovers Hats and caps Aprons Small Accessories Enamel pins (multiple designs — high margin items) Keyrings Stickers Fridge magnets Celtic jewellery (pendants, charms, brooches) Bags Shopping bags / tote bags Lolly bags / branded paper bags Drinkware Mugs (multiple styles — classic, novelty, premium) Beer glasses / pint glasses Drink bottles Home & Soft Goods Blankets and throws Tea towels Towels Photo frames Stationery & Keepsakes Pens Signature / autograph books Themed Specialty Items Viking-themed merchandise Leprechaun-themed merchandise (lean playful, avoid clichéd) Golf merchandise (genuine angle for our regional America audience) Dance shoe slippers Music-Themed Decorative / mini bodhráns Mini fiddles Collectibles & Figurines Figurines of the lead dancers (premium collectible tier) Labubu-style blind-box / vinyl collectibles Christmas ornaments (tour-year dated) Confectionery & Packaged Goods Mints Candy / lollies Branded packaging design for the above Our merch in the US is printed by: (link removed)/ Technical Requirements All artwork must be supplied print-ready and production-ready: Vector source files where possible (.AI, .EPS, .SVG) High-resolution raster files where vector is not appropriate (.PSD, .TIFF, .PNG at 300 DPI minimum) Correct colour profiles — CMYK for print, with Pantone references where relevant Bleed and trim marks set up correctly Designs supplied in formats appropriate to each manufacturing method: DTG, screen print, embroidery, sublimation, enamel pin specs, foil stamping, etc. A consistent file naming convention (to be agreed) A product mockup / visualisation for each design We need to be able to send your files directly to manufacturers without further prep work. If you've worked with merchandise manufacturers before and understand the technical specs they require, that's a significant plus. Deliverables (per design concept) Print-ready artwork file(s) in the appropriate format(s) for the manufacturing method Editable source file Product mockup or visualisation Brief production notes — recommended manufacturing method, colour considerations, any technical caveats Ongoing Work If this initial engagement goes well, ongoing scope includes: Seasonal ranges, including a full A Celtic Christmas range Tour-specific designs (city-named or year-dated items) New product line extensions Design work for our other Pace Live productions We work on Slack and with Monday.com and we will on board you across our company systems to communicate with us. We have tours commencing late July, September, November that we need new ranges designed for. Please contact us and send us sine notes on how you would approach this brief and information on how you work etc. as we will contact successful candidates. See the show information here: (link removed) - new website coming June 2026.