Earlier this year it was announced that 30 organisations and projects nationwide would receive funding from Creative Ireland through its National Creativity Fund, allowing diverse creative projects to occur all over Ireland in 2019. We are delighted to say that the 100 Archive is one of those organisations and we are now embarking on a major project entitled ‘Map Irish Design’.
Since our foundation, it has been the mission of the 100 Archive to capture, present and contextualise contemporary design in Ireland and the individuals, studios, clients and collaborators who make it happen. But here’s the thing: we’ve been gathering this stuff for years through your 1800+ project submissions and our 8 (so far) annual archive selections, but have yet to have the resources to really take a proper look at it. We have a sense of what’s in there, but have never been able to draw some insight from it. Now, thanks to Creative Ireland, we have resources to put behind a proper analysis of what we’ve got, to take the guesswork out of it all, and to share a clearer, more detailed picture of Irish communication design and the impact it has on culture, commerce and society.
Some things we’re interested in:
— how does design affect/reflect Ireland’s changing economy? What’s in the archive that shows us how and where money is made and spent? What does the archive tell us about Irish businesses and Ireland’s place in the global economy?
— how does design affect/reflect Ireland’s changing society? Do our archive selections reflect recent changes in Irish society? Does design play a role in social movements?
— what is the relationship between design and Ireland’s changing culture? Is Ireland’s cultural sector still the most significant commissioner of design? Does design have a place in Ireland’s cultural heritage, and can the 100 Archive help articulate that?
—what does the 100 Archive tell us about Ireland’s changing design industry? Who works in design in Ireland, where are they from, where are they based, where did they study? How are women represented in the 100 Archive, and what do new career paths mean for the future of designers in Ireland?
To answer these questions we want to look at the data held within the site, look at the work submitted and selected for the past number of years, survey users, interview designers, collaborators and clients, lead and feed into discussions and share what we find with and far beyond the design community. We are calling out for team of people to work with us on this: we need expertise in research, design/data visualisation, editorial/curatorial work and videography.
We welcome applications from individuals and teams interested in collaborating on the project with us. Please get in touch with a CV and a cover letter explaining your interest in the project, relevant experience and proposed methodology. Please also let us know if you are applying as an individual practitioner to join a team (i.e. you are the designer and we will team you up with a researcher and a videographer), if you feel you can fulfil more than one role (i.e. design and research), or if you are a group of practitioners applying to take on the whole project. We are interested in hearing from designers, design historians, social scientists, social historians, illustrators, data visualisers, motion designers, animators, videographers, writers, curators and multidisciplinary practitioners and teams.
Take a look at the brief, and applications should be submitted by email to onehundredarchive@gmail.com by 10am on Monday 14 January 2019, with research to begin as soon as possible in February. Got a question? Email us by Monday 17 December and we will publish all answers to all questions by Friday 21 December so anyone interested can read over them while munching on a mince pie...