ID2015 Visual Identity

The challenge speaks for itself — just go ahead and design a logo and flexible brand guidelines to represent; celebrate and promote all of Irish Craft and Design sector for national and international audiences in 2015. That's all, no pressure.

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The stated ambition and strategic vision of ID2015 clearly articulates and defines

– the value of Design;

– the opportunity for Design Sector;

– the intrinsic and fundamental relevance of Design and the Design Sector;

– of Design Practices for Irish society,

– for the Economy,

–and for our Cultural Capital.

Seeking a singular touchpoint for all of the above. We sought first to define or articulate the objectives of ID2015 in one coherent statement that is accessible and comprehensible to all stakeholders and all audiences, one that has currency and would define define its legacy.

We proposed a clear, unambiguous and aspirational brand position — Ireland; the Design Island

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While the brand positioning defined an ambition and provided the basis for the "programme architecture" the logo itself was more grounded in our past whilst exploring our future.

Embracing and reimagining cliché offered a way of demonstrating that heritage and tradition can be presented in new ways and can provide the basis of a distinctive and original design concept/programme. Through wide-ranging desk research Kerbstone 52 (Newgrange, Co. Meath) emerged as an interesting and iconic visual reference for the "concept of dialogue". A suite of basic geometric forms (and general design principles) were extrapolated from the carvings that are engraved onto the surface Kerbstone 52. These geometric forms were then assembled in a variety of combinations to produce the ID2015 logotype — which was then extended/developed to produce a custom typeface — ID2015 Display. An extensive suite of logotype variations were produced to address specific print, online and environmental applications.