IDEA

Indesign IDEA Template for presentation boards 2008

The Irish Design Effectiveness Awards (IDEA) was established by the Graphic Design Business Association in 1994 to reward the client community for their commitment to graphic design. It provides a platform from which design solutions are measured for their economic effectiveness and perceptible influence. Design programmes are too often judged solely on their visual content rather than how they met the objectives of the client brief.

In essence, the IDEA Awards encourage clients to recognise the importance of understanding and strategy and the need to see design as a consultative process rather than a craft enterprise. Clients rarely commission a design agency with the request to ‘make it look nice’. They have set objectives requiring the selected agency to deliver awareness or commercial benefits through the visual communications medium.

The IDEA Awards, and its central philosophy of rewarding design projects of proven effectiveness, continues to raise an understanding of design as a key communications expression and encourages the client community to exploit the power of strategically led design.

While the aesthetic value and creativity inherent in the award-winning projects are vital, ultimately it is the projects’ proven effectiveness in the marketplace that separates them as winners.

IDEA has become the premier design award scheme in Ireland, growing from a relatively small event to a major calendar date for the design sector. And finally, one of the most important benefits to both the client and design communities is that these awards provide a tremendous source of research on the role of design in enterprise. The winner's catalogue for 2006 can be downloaded from this site.