THE JURY
The International panel of jurors will be representative of business, designers and design commentators.
The judging will be conducted in a round-table discussion format to be held in Dublin in September 2008.
The jury will seek to assess how successful the designer was in achieving the objectives set out in the design brief.
In addition the jury will evaluate each entry for:
- Function
- Innovation
- Content / Context
- Production technique
The 2008 IDI Awards Jury are:
Dr Frank O’ Connor
Frank is passionate about ecodesign and sustainability. He is the director of Ecodesign Centre Wales which he established in September 2006. Frank is responsible for creating, directing and leading the innovative Welsh ecodesign initiative (funded by the Welsh Assembly Government). The initiative and centre are the first steps towards establishing Wales as an internationally renowned ecodesign-led country within the next 15 years.
Frank has over 15 years' experience in product design, development and manufacturing, while his qualifications include a PhD in ecodesign. Since the mid-90’s Frank has lectured and worked as a specialist advisor to multinationals, government organisations, academia, NGOs and SMEs in ecodesign and related issues. He has presented his ecodesign ideas all over the world and has been recognised at a national and international levels for his ongoing contribution towards the sustainability agenda.
His other interests include walking, animals (especially dogs), people, nature, sustainability, gardening, reading, travel, writing Haiku, real food, socialising, cycling and religion.
Kirsten Dietz
Kirsten Dietz, born in 1967, studied graphic design at State Academy of Art and Design Stuttgart. In 1995, she founded the agency strichpunkt, which she manages as a director together with two partners. strichpunkt stands for an intelligent, creative combination of strategy and corporate communication in brand development, image media, finance market communication and packaging design. Constantly among the top ten European design companies, strichpunkt is one of the creative agencies with the most distinctions worldwide. Kirsten Dietz received international attention also due to her books. With „Finest facts & Figures“ (2004), for example, she wrote an excellent fundamental work on the significance and design of business reports. Kirsten Dietz is a member of ADC Germany, TDC New York, and D&AD in London.
Tom Hostler
Tom graduated in Industrial Design from Brunel University in 1993,
before joining the emerging web design industry in 1995 developing web
services for Apple, Sony and the BBC whilst at Soft Options. Joining
Deepend in 1997, Tom launched many familiar brands onto the Web for
the first time before founding the Convergent Media Team to focus on
Interactive TV games, services and advertising work.
Tom founded Poke in December 2001 with Peter Beech, Nick Farnhill and
Simon Waterfall from Deepend, and Nicolas Roope and Iain Tait from
Oven Digital. Poke was set-up as a creative 'practice' with the
founding partners actively engaged on day-to-day business with
clients, supported by a team of highly respected creatives, planners,
designers, and programmers. Tom has created sites for Topshop, Yahoo!,
Jamie Oliver, Penguin, Alexander McQueen, Nokia and BBC Worldwide -
picking up BIMA Awards, D&AD nominations, and two Webby Awards along
the way.
Tom is a member of the D&AD and BIMA, and lives in Chiswick, West
London.
Kees Spanjers
Kees Spanjers is the president of the European Council of Interior Architects since September 2004. He is also a co-opted board member of the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers IFI.
Kees is a registered interior architect and architect and lives and works in Amsterdam and New York. He is the director of Zaanen Spanjers Architects in Amsterdam, specializing in cultural buildings and public interiors. He is the recipient of numerous awards in particular the Architectural Record Interiors Award, European Parking Award.
During many years Kees has contributed to the design community with service on several boards, such as the Dutch Historic Interiors Society SHNI, Dutch Interiors Platform and the Dutch Board of Arbitrage for Architects. He is a past President and honorable member of BNI, the National Organization of Interior Architects in the Netherlands. Kees has written many professional articles in numerous publications, and has been active on many panels and jury’s. He continues to strive for excellence in professional practice and has been instrumental in this role for ECIA and for IFI.
Stephen Conlon MBS. MIDI
IDI Design Awards Jury Chairperson
Stephen Conlon is a founder member and a former president of the Institute of Designers in Ireland. He holds a Masters in Business Studies (Hons) in International Marketing and Diplomas in: Exhibition Design / Effective Marketing Management / International Marketing and Market Research.
Stephen Conlon worked for 34 years with Enterprise Ireland, initially in the design and implementation of Ireland’s overseas promotional programme and eventually in International marketing advisory. Stephen has worked in almost every developed and some undeveloped markets across the globe. He established and headed up the Enterprise Ireland’s Design Unit to promote design development strategies to Irish businesses, working with companies to redesign and re-launch existing products and the development of entirely new ones. The Design Unit was also responsible for establishing Design Ireland, Stephen has spoken at a number of International design conferences on the promotion of design strategies, Singapore, Sydney, Brno and Prague and Nagoya.
In 2003 Stephen founded Design and Marketing Management Limited a strategic management consultancy specialising in business and new product development. Stephen has a list of prestige clients and has undertaken a diverse number of assignments, he has also been involved in establishing several European funded development schemes and has worked on a number of international assignments and research projects.
Stephen serves on the boards of: Design Management Institute of Boston Mass. USA. / Design Shannon / Irish Tourism Industry Confederation / Executive member of the board of the Federation of Irish Marine Industries / Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Frank Ryan Travel Bursary.