After four years of conceptualizing, brainstorming and pencil-chewing, 36 Visual Communications students are ready to probe the alluring world of design professionalism. Bringing Limerick to Dublin, LSAD final year students are hosting an exhibition event to showcase our work. Through projects on the theme of Truth, the event is an opportunity to discover our concepts, approach and design work. Join us for a night full of creativity and craic!

SCHEDULE:
Thursday March 8th, 7pm.

VENUE:
The Loft, South Studios, 27/28 New Row South, Dublin 8.

Institute of Designers in Ireland,
FX2 the Fumbally Exchange,
Fumbally Square,
Dublin 8.

Email: info@idi-design

Telephone: 01 4537492
Office hours: Tuesdays – Wednesdays from 10am – 6pm.

Red Dot Award: Design Concept 2012 is now open for entries. The Award calls upon designers, companies, design institutions and design studios to submit their latest and best idea, as a product with good design, to the competition.

The aim of the award is to be the defining platform that separates good ideas with good design solutions from the mediocre, to provide a professional evaluation and internationally recognized seal that gives an advantage to the design and designer in the competitive market. Read more: http://red-dot.sg

How to Renew

We have just launched a new facility on the IDI website where you can renew your membership online.

» Online Membership Application/Renewal Form

As it is the first year of the new system you will be asked to complete a membership application form. In future years you can renew your membership quickly using you username and password that will be generated when you renew now. You can now pay by Credit Card, PayPal, Direct Debit or Electronic Funds Transfer.

Our new system will make it a lot easier for you to renew your membership each year and give you access to manage your directory listing and profile page online, however, as this system is still in development please bear with us while we iron out any teething issues. If you coming across any glitches in the form please let us know.

Corporate Membership

We are delighted to announce the IDI is now offering a Corporate Membership option. Corporate membership is for companies with at least two employees working as professional designers. Find out more.

New Online Members Directory

As part of the website improvements we have also launched a new online members directory. Once your membership renewal has been processed your details will be included in the new directory.

In the coming weeks a new Member Login area will be available giving you access to login update your directory listing and include images from your portfolio on your profile page. We will keep you posted as soon as this is available.

New Office

Please note our new contact details:

Institute of Designers in Ireland,
FX2 the Fumbally Exchange,
Fumbally Square,
Dublin 8.

Email: info@idi-design

Telephone: 01 4537492
Office hours: Tuesdays – Wednesdays from 10am – 6pm.

DMI’s first events, held in the mid-1970s, developed from a small group of Design Managers confessing the challenges they were facing in their roles, and sharing solutions, methods and empathies over a few beers. DMI Night Out continues this tradition of like-minded people sharing their knowledge around current issues facing design leaders.

“These are not business as usual times”

Join the conversation at DMI Night Out at Griffith College on 9 February 2012. A good old-fashioned roundtable (which might not be a table or round), that will be an honest discussion on what you are doing to lead over, around and throughthese challenging times. Come share what you’re doing more of… less of… in this new normal business of design.

Hosted by DMI members, DMI Night Out will provide a local source of support and partnership for today’s critical issues, connecting cross-disciplinary design and business leaders in their communities—a local gathering of DMI members and the extended community of design leaders, with the goal of fostering community, collaboration, and content that informs and inspires.

Get the Details / Join us February 9 in Dublin!

There is no charge to attend and the event is open to members and non-members, but space is limited. RSVP now, and see you at Night Out!

The function of jewellery has always been to convey status. This was particularly true of the torc, whose ostentatious size and weight by itself could communicate the force and power of the wearer. The bronze and golden neckwear of the Celts is understood to have had a ritual significance, often being buried with the dead as their currency for the next life, to have functioned as a signifier of Royalty, and to have denoted the wearer as a Celt. It sometimes even had practical applications, such as closing a cloak.

In contemporary usage, the torc has become an object of kitsch, often geared towards the tourist. Contemporary examples abound on the web, never managing to really explore the significance of the object and the possibilities of re-interpretation. If we were to design neckpieces now that conveyed something about us – as Irish – to the world, what would they say? And what would they look like? Would they be gold? Recycled? Injection moulded? Would they be images of power and beauty? Shackles? Or blue collars?

This exhibition is an opportunity for makers to suggest some answers…

Find out more information on the Crafts Council of Ireland Website.

Hiberform is a new collection of screens, sculptural structures and furniture products designed for use in offices, hospitality, retail and domestic spaces.

These designs have been created for contemporary spaces, where clean lines, functional and colourful structures are required to give vibrancy to the interior.

Room dividers are available in a range of sizes and colours to suit any interior scheme and can be configured in dramatic yet practical layouts. The design team can also create custom solutions and modifications to any product and our high tech production network enables an efficient, high quality supply chain.

Designer
Leo Scarff has been a product designer for over twenty years, studying and working in Scandinavia before setting up his own design studio in Dublin in 1997. He has been fascinated by natural and man made structures for many years and developed the Hiberform collection from his research in this area. The idea for the collection originated more than 2 years ago when Leo began developing a series of sculptural structures from his research in natural form and Geodesics. The nature of these structures required computer navigated router and laser cutting processes to produce the components. However, having recently relocated to the creative hub of north west Ireland – Manorhamilton, Co.Leitrim it was necessary to locate several high tech local manufacturers with the capabilities in these areas.

A new production network was established in 2009 and Leo began prototyping his ideas last year which culminated in a residency at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre, followed by the ‘Futurescapes’ exhibition at the centre in May of this year. Many of the ideas for the Hiberform collection came from the sculptural works in this show and we are now delighted to officially launch Hiberform. Visit the website for more information on all the products including downloadable PDF files taken from the catalog which is available by post by contacting: info@hiberform.com

For more information please visit: www.hiberform.com

Saturday Talks Series: Talking Objects

at the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History, Collins Barracks.

Taking place on the second Saturday of January, February and March, this series of talks is designed to showcase fascinating new research on objects within the National Museum collection. All talks will be given by graduates of the MA Design History & Material Culture at the National College of Art and Design. All talks will take place in the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History, Collins Barracks. Please meet at 12.15pm at Main Reception.

All talks are free of charge. For further information contact bookings@museum.ie or Dr Anna Moran, morana[AT]ncad.ie (Coordinator of the MA Design History & Material Culture, NCAD)

11 February 2012, 12.30-1.00pm
‘Green-Coated Irishmen’ –The National Army Uniform from 1922 to 1939
Hannah Mullan

10 March 2012, 12.30-1.00pm
Limerick Gloves –A Curious Case of Leather Craftsmanship, 1780–1840
Liza Foley

Find more information on the NCAD website

Date:                     Wednesday 25th January 2012
Time:                    9.30-11.30am
Venue:                 Dublin City Enterprise Board, 5th Floor O’ Connell Bridge House, D’Olier St., Dublin 2
Fee:                      €5  Book now (click on the link to book)

tel:       (01) 635 1144
email:   ecurley@dceb.ie
The objective of the information session is a networking opportunity to meet other architect and interior design businesses (trading for at least 1 year in business) to meet and share information, experiences and solutions with your peers. We like to encourage networking and lots of interaction, Q&A.  The guest speaker is the inspirational George Boyle.

The format is mostly discussion, questions & answers.

• How do you increase sales in these uncertain economic times?
• How do you keep your marketing costs down?
• Selling; what works and doesn’t work?
• Finding strategic partners to help increase your sales
• Financing your business and trying to keep on top of cash flow

Guest speaker: George Boyle

Founder of the Fumbally Exchange:
Innovation Hub at the Heart of the Liberties
Architectural and Strategic Planning Practice
Founder of the Heart of the Liberties Project

George is a quixotic, determined, liberal architect and earth mother in a hat. Born in Dublin in 1970, she graduated in architecture with honours in 1992 from University College Dublin. In 1997 she became a member of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and the Royal Institute of British Architects, and after working in various practices during the early 1990s, was with international practice Murray Ó’Laoire Architects from 1995 – 2010, where she was an (outspoken) associate director
George established her own practice in 2010 and determined to confront the impacts of recession in architecture and related sectors head-on.  In pursuit of reform and innovation she established Fumbally Exchange in July 2010, a hub for entrepreneurs and creative professionals collaborating for change – Making Work. Together – in the heart of the Liberties in Dublin 8.  Within a year participant business numbers in Fumbally Exchange swelled to 60 and the organisation is expanding to other locations nationwide in 2012.  George was a winner of the Arthur Guinness Fund Social Entrepreneurship award in 2011 for her work with Fumbally Exchange.

George studied violin, cello, piano and Irish and pedal harp and is an associate of the Royal Irish Academy of Music (teaching and performance). She taught cello, Irish harp and general musicianship from 1986 to 1995 before turning her full focus to the creative platform in architecture.

George is a published columnist, writer and award-winning designer at both national and international level. Projects in her portfolio include framework development plan, development control plan and phased projects at Leinster House and the houses of the Oireachtas with the OPW; masterplan and staged phases of development at Belvedere College, SJ, Dublin; student residences at Trinity Hall, Dartry for Trinity College Dublin; masterplan at Carton House & Demesne; Meath Strand strategic plan; Cromcastle masterplan; Waterford Crystal village; fitouts for the National Women’s Council of Ireland, Rockland GAA, National Hurleymaking Academy, and many other projects. She specialises in strategic thinking, service design, framework planning, masterplanning and legal advisory services in addition to having an iconic design style.  She is an RIAI accredited Conservation Architect (Gd III).

George also works in a private capacity in a number of collaborative partnerships in architecture, design and adventures in other creative areas. She lives on the Grand Canal in Inchicore, which may, someday, be significant.

Pub Standards is a regular meetup for web designers & developers.
It has been running in London and other cities since 2005, and in Dublin since 2010.

Who’s it for?

Pub Standards is open to everyone. It’s loosely aimed at web design & development geeks, but that doesn’t mean chitchat need necessarily be work-related.  Don’t expect structure, don’t expect presentations, just relax with likeminded people and a few beers.

This is the post-conference drink-up, without the conference

Where?

The Bull & Castle, beside Christ Church, Dublin City. You’ll find us in the beer hall upstairs.

Find out more information on the Pub Standards website