PRESS
Friday, October 09, 2009
IDI Press Release
DESIGN THINKING AT ITS INTERNATIONAL BEST, IN IRELAND
The IDI was proud to announce The Lab Book by Ciara Cantwell from Creative Inc as the Grand Prix winner at their award ceremony in Dublin City Hall on Thursday the 8th October. The Lab Book, is a promotional communication tool for the Liberty Arts Building to showcase the work of 40 designers for all types of visitors to The Lab and was chosen from a shortlist of 79 entries.
The Liberty Arts Building director, Jack Gilligan, spoke of the exceptionally high standard of the design and how it “reflected everything that is best about Irish creativity and helps us to communicate effectively to our market”. Sean McNulty, IDI Awards Team and MD of Innovator and Dolmen described the Lab Book as an excellent example of the quality of design thinking available in Ireland. He describes design thinking as the ‘process which links the creative elements of finding new ways of doing things with the innovation process of bring those ideas into market and successfully achieving the objectives set.
The Lab Book was selected by this year’s panel of international judges as the Grand Prix winner due to the “effortless clarity” of the design solution and how it makes a “suitable visual language for the brand”. Using interesting combinations of stock and alternating process and spot printing, the aim was to produce a low budget book to create a keepsake book. This is not the first time that Creative Inc. has been awarded for the Lab Book design. Earlier in the year, the design receive the gold award” and the European Design Awards in Zurich.
Also to walk away with a coveted eye trophy on the night was Brian Heffernan from Red Dog whose client An Post commissioned them to design a stamp to mark the bicentenary of Louis Braille’s birth. Red Dog worked closely with the National council of the Blind to design a stamp that would be accessible and visually appealing, using clear-print guidelines and Braille.
The Guinness Storehouse was also a winner with a new entry and exit experience designed by Martello Media.
This year the Graduate Design award’s Grand Prix winner went to Naoise O’Conchubhair who designed a Gaelic Typeface, the judges all agreed that he was a most deserving winner.
The awards were a great success in celebrating the best of Irish design “It is important to commend and encourage the use of design thinking so that our design professional are recognized internationally as, not just designers, but ‘design thinkers’. It is this level of design thinking that will change how micro, small and medium businesses create competitive advantage, significantly add value for their customers and access new markets.”
With the focus on how to drive a recovery in Irish small and medium business, design thinking techniques can be applied to create competitive advantage quickly for businesses and at value for money levels over the longer term research driven R&D innovation activities, while both are needed, this type of innovation tools can create business growth in next couple of years depending on the type of market you are in. In UK, Denmark and other leading innovation countries, design thinking is now regarded at policy level as a critical cornerstone of their economic recovery, sadly that is not the case in Ireland, but these Design Awards, with its independent international jury, will show our policy and program makers the potential of this business tool
Ends