Institute of Designers in Ireland 13th Annual Awards

Con Kennedy MIDI, Chairman IDI Awards Committee

The 13th annual Institute of Designers in Ireland Awards took place in Dublin’s the Sugar Club on 27th of October. Hosted by television presenter Michael Hayes, the event celebrated the best of Irish design from the past year.

IDI Design Awards presenter, Michael Hayes

An international jury was assembled to evaluate the entries from diverse disciplines as interior & exhibition design, tv/theatre/film design, visual communication design, digital media and product design. One of the highlights of the evening was a Special Award for Outstanding Contribution to Design in Ireland, which was given to the Pivot Dublin bit team for getting Dublin shortlisted for the ICSID World Design Capital and for bringing an international focus to Irish design.

IDI President, Carol Coffey and Kieran Gallagher Deputy City Architect, Dublin City Council on behalf of Pivot Dublin Bid Team

Brian Stephens, CEO, Design Partners accepting Lifetime Achievement Award

The 2011 IDI lifetime achievement award went to Brian Stephens, CEO of Design Partners who gave a moving talk about working with the late Steve Jobs.

Miele IDI Grand Prix Winners, Honora Egan & Gregory Tobin of Spear Technologies for Read Assist

Honora Egan & Gregory Tobin of Spear Technologies won the Miele IDI Grand Prix award for their product  ‘Read Assist’ which is a tool to help dyslexic children and adults to read with the use of colour overlays.

The Institute of Designers in Ireland is the professional body representing the interests of Irish designers. Its function is to promote high standards of design, to foster professionalism and to emphasise designers’ responsibility to society, to the client and to each other.

Full list of the 2011 IDI award winners can be found here.

Pivot Dublin event

Last night I attended the Pivot Dublin presentation in City Hall, where Dublin City’s bid to become World Design Capital in 2014 was presented to an audience of a couple of hundred designer, architects, film makers, educators, students and city officials.

The the evening was presented by Ali Grehan, City Architect for Dublin City Council and the keynote speaker was Minister for Education and Skills, Mr. Ruarí Quinn, T.D. – who incidentally was once an architect!

Mr. Quinn highlighted the vibrancy of design in Dublin and how that dynamism effects the wider community and economy at large.

Other attendees were Dr. Linda King and David Smith from IADT, John O’Connor, Kiean Corcoran and Barry Sheehan from DIT, Ré Dubhthaigh from Radarstation, Séamus Byrne of IxDA, Illustrator and Offset organiser Bren B, Garret Stokes from Design Business Ireland, Architect Emma Curley, Bob Gray from Red and Grey and many, many more. Of course, I was wearing my Institute of Designers in Ireland hat, so pretty much the whole creative community was represented.

You can show your support for Dublin to become World Design Capital in 2014 by liking Pivot Dublin on Facebook , tweeting about fantastic design is in Dublin, by using the hash tag #wdc2014 or by following Pivot Dublin on Twitter.

G6 Series

The second G6 Series lecture entitled “Forget flippin’ burgers, I got a job in a design office” take place this week and features Naoise Ó Conchubhair, Paul Finnegan and Gregor Timlin. More>>

Date: Wednesday 9th Februrary.

Location: Room G6, DIT Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1.

Time: 6.30PM sharp.

Twitter: @g6series

Facebook: g6series

G6 Series

This talk will now take place Wednesday 8th December

Following on from the positive feedback received from the “How I became a designer” talk at Design Week 2010, myself and DIT colleague, Barry Sheehan have decided to expand on themes that came up for discussion as part of the questions and answers and tune them into a series of talks.

Starting on Wednesday 1st December and running monthly, this first talk is entitled “What they didn’t teach me in college” and features myself, Architect, Gavin Buggy, Product Designer, Martin Ryan and Digital Media Designer, Cormac O’Conaire.

Speakers will discuss what they learned in-industry and how the practical side of working as a professional designer differs from the academic side of being a student of design.

Date: Wednesday 8th December.

Location: Room G6, DIT Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1.

Time: 6.30PM sharp.

Twitter: @g6series

Facebook: g6series

This talk will now take place Wednesday 8th December

Ratio – Issue 3

Issue 3 of Ratio, the Institute of Designers in Ireland’s magazine is now available for download.

This issue features reviews of the recent AtypI and Offset conferences held in Dublin and the featured designer profile is fashion designer Una Burke.

Ratio – Issue 2

The second issue of Ratio from the Institute of Designers in Ireland has just been published and can be downloaded from here.

This issue features a number of articles, including items on the Design Challenge – a project run in conjunction with the Crafts Council of Ireland involving 5 Secondary Schools and a profile of Zinc Design.

Graduate Awards 2010 – Call for Entries

The Institute of Designers in Ireland are now accepting submissions for their Graduate Awards 2010.

Ratio – Issue 1

Just published is the new magazine from the Institute of Designers in Ireland.

Called Ratio, this PDF magazine will be published quarterly and is available to download from the IDI website.

This issue features the recent IDI Awards, OFFSET09 and an interview with shoe designer Julian Berwick.

IDI AGM and Council Elections

On May 2nd the Annual General Meeting of the Institute of Designers in Ireland took place in DIT, Mountjoy Square.

At the AGM the new Council and President-Elect were announced with a recap on the year reported by Barry Sheehan IDI Immediate Past President, financial report by Celine Cummins IDI Honorary Treasurer and the future programme was presented by Damian Cranney IDI President.

At this year’s AGM, I was elected to council as Visual Communications representative .

Pictured: Selma Harrington Honorary Secretary, Derek McGarry President-Elect, Damian Cranney President, Barry Sheehan Immediate Past President, Celine Cummins Honorary Treasurer.

’bout time!

I don’t know why I didn’t do this before now! But after 14 years working as a designer I eventually joined the Institute of Designers in Ireland. Many of my colleagues and former lecturers are members of the IDI and over the years have canvassed me on a number of occasions to join the organisation.!

You know what they say about procrastination!

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