Well, it's that time of year again. While submissions for the 100 Archive are accepted year round, none bar the most organised of us has managed to make any. So here we go, it's deadline time: you have until 31 January 2020 to get your 2019 communication design work uploaded for consideration for the 2019 100 Archive Selection! This will be the 100 Archive's TENTH ANNUAL SELECTION! Which means it's a pretty big deal, which means you should definitely make sure you're in the running... Here are the cliff notes, with a more detailed explainer below:
Cliff notes
— designers based anywhere on the island of Ireland (even places that aren't Dublin) are eligible to enter their work, as are Irish designers working overseas
— work published in 2019 within the broad and ever broadening field of communication design is what we're looking for
— you need to pay to submit: join the site for free and then pick up one credit per project (€30), get unlimited submissions with a subscription (€120) or contact the team to get a studio subscription (unlimited submissions and a few other features and perks, €360)
— to submit a project you need to supply max. 6 images or gifs (watch those file sizes), a video link if relevant, a URL only if the project is or contains a website (no portfolio links) and a short description of the who, what, when, how and why of the project. Don't include your name or your studio's name: assessment is meant to be anonymous... Ensure all those involved are happy for you to submit the work and credit all those involved in the appropriate fields: fellow designers, other collaborators and suppliers and the client
— any questions or issues? Hit us up on the site's Intercom or drop us a line at onehundredarchive@gmail.com
How it works
The 100 Archive creates an annual selection of 100 examples of contemporary communication design, in all its forms, made by designers all over Ireland and Irish designers overseas. Work comes to the 100 Archive through an open submission process and is assessed by two panels of designers, educators, curators and commissioners of design. Assessment occurs each spring, with the panels reviewing approximately 400 pieces of work made in the previous year. The intention is to create a selection of 100 examples of work which at once reflects where Irish design is at in any given year, while also showing the impact that work has on life in Ireland and around the world, from small businesses to global industry, from grassroots movements to national institutions and everything in between.
The criteria
To be eligible to submit…
— you must be a designer working in Ireland or an Irish designer working overseas
— work considered for the 100 Archive 2019 should have been published between 1 January and 31 December 2019 and submitted by 31 January 2020. Nothing older than that, and nothing made in 2019 to be published in 2020 — keep that for next year!
— work should have responded to a professional brief and been approved and made public by your client or commissioner. In the case of self-initiated work, it must have been legitimately publicly distributed by you to an audience, such as clients
— assessed student work is NOT eligible: if you got a mark or college credit for it, it's not for the 100 Archive. College work made for a public audience rather than assessment/credit is eligible, as is work that developed and was made public after having begun as college work (for example, a typeface made during your studies that you release commercially afterwards)
— work should be your own, and everyone who contributed to it (fellow designers, other collaborators, the client) should be credited accordingly and should consent to it being submitted
In terms of what type of work it ‘should’ be, we like to keep the criteria as broad as possible. We would like to see communication design projects submitted by designers at all levels of their career and for all types of clients. All types of outputs or media you are working in as communication designers will be considered, and anything that speaks to our industry’s ever-broadening remit, as well as its established core, is welcome.
When it comes to making their selections, the panels are generous and impartial, recognising that they have the influence to encourage emerging designers, to promote difference and to capture diversity. They identify work that deserves attention and further consideration, work that can be described as good, interesting, different, unexpected, simple, modest, clear, well executed, culturally relevant etc.
The process
Submit your work all year round and it will be assessed by our Professional Panel. If three or more panel members give it a thumbs up the project becomes live on the site.
After the annual deadline passes, the Professional Panel complete their assessment and our Archive Panel then begin their selection process, where each panellist creates a shortlist of 100—150 projects. The final 100 projects are those in receipt of the most votes from the Archive Panel, with two exceptions:
No designer or studio can have more than five pieces selected for the Archive in any given year. In cases where someone has more than five pieces selected by the Archive Panel, the designer/studio in question decides which five pieces will be included
In cases where there are more selections than spaces in the Archive, the decision as to what is included is made by taking into account the nature of the work being considered and the year of the Archive. For example, is the work similar or quite different to the other work in the Archive, or is it especially reflective of life/culture in the year in question...?
The 100 Archive selections are revealed in spring of each year. Keep an eye out for updates, to attend the annual launch party and to see what work has made the cut...