IDEA awards didn’t just get entries from large groups

David Bartholomew (Letters, DW 25 October) seems to have linked the increased cost of entering the Design Business Association’s International Design Effectiveness Awards to a) prohibiting smaller consultancies from entering their work, and b) ‘diminished value’ for the winners by reducing the number of entries.

As a first stage judge for the past two years, I can categorically state that the level of entries, far from going down, has actually risen.

Virtually all of the entries met the criteria for proving design effectiveness and there were fewer entries of a photograph of the product with effectiveness measured as ‘… and the client really liked it’.

As to assuming that only larger consultancies would be able to afford to enter the awards, I would also disagree.

Coley Porter Bell did win two IDEA awards [plus a Judge’s Award], Design House won three, but another worthy winner was Pillar Information Design, comprising only three people.

As a design client I will continue to use the IDEA as a benchmark for judging the business focus of design consultancies and hope that Folio will be putting in its own entry next year.

Philippa Butters

Head of Design

Yell

philippa.butters@yellowpages.co.uk

Start the discussionStart the discussion
  • Post a comment

Latest articles