After a short stopover in London for the prestigious 2024 Transform Awards, we were honoured to receive gold for our work with Debra Ireland.
The Transform Awards are one of the most celebrated accolades in branding, their focus on impact and performance over style and aesthetics setting them apart. This is incredibly important for us at RichardsDee as our primary purpose is to Design Meaningful Change for clients and their businesses.
That’s why when Debra won 3 of 3 nominations, we were delighted not only for the recognition of our partnership but for the amplification of the invaluable work they do for people affected by Epidermolysis Bullosa. This small but mighty organisation works tirelessly to transform the lives of people affected by this skin condition, raising essential funds and support for a cure. The visual shift towards positivity and empowerment now makes it an inspiring resource for families and people who live with all forms of EB.
As brand partners, we are thrilled by this acknowledgement and opportunity for the brand to continue bringing bold hope to everyone with skin as fragile as a butterfly wing.
We are delighted to win in the following categories:
🥇 Gold for Best Use of a Visual Property
🥈 Silver for Best Creative Strategy
🥈 Silver for Best Visual Identity by a Charity or NGO
What the judges had to say:
“In an increasingly alarming and alarmist world, charity communications often compete for the most emotive real estate. Debra, the charity supporting people suffering from epidermolysis bullosa, recognised that this wasn’t an effective strategy to serve all members of its community. Instead of focusing on suffering, they changed the narrative. It delivered a message documenting the fragility of the skin of those affected. The butterfly – beautiful, ephemeral – was the perfect visual representative.”
“I love, love, love this rebrand. It’s inclusive and beautifully crafted.”
We would also like to congratulate all involved and hope to be back next year.
2021 was an incredibly busy year in our studio. From new faces to new projects and group Teams calls to get-togethers, it’s fair to say there hasn’t been a dull moment. As the final few weeks of 2021 fade into a brand-new year with fresh surprises in store, we’re looking back on just some of the projects that we designed meaningful change for this year. And, if you have a strategy or branding project in mind for 2022, contact us at hello@richardsdee.com and you could find yourself on our list this time next year!
01 — Indigo
With Indigo Telecoms Group’s acquisition of our previous client 4site, we collaborated with the teams to define, design, and implement a strategic new brand built for the future of communication. By evolving the name to simply Indigo and the positioning to ‘Engineering a Digital Future’, as well as crafting an identity reflecting the new company’s three core offerings, a colour palette reflecting and complementing their name, a digital stream representing a future of limitless possibilities, and a brand voice and messaging deeply rooted in their core values, we helped set Indigo on their path to accelerating their growth strategy.
02 — Reitigh
2021 also saw us win new clients such as Reitigh, one of Ireland’s leading software companies solving the most complex processing challenges in financial services for banking, investment, and insurance enterprises. We worked closely with their leadership team to devise a unique set of values, a brand purpose, and a compelling promise as well as a strong design system and laser-focused messaging that brought their approach of ‘Always Simplifying’ to life. Plus, in the spirit of the festive season, we were even nominated for an ICAD Bell for our work! View more work here →
03 — Kerry
This year we helped Kerry look Beyond the Horizon with their stunning new pattern. Built in four layers to reflect Kerry’s From Food, For Food heritage, their strength in people, their unrivalled capacity for innovation, and their promise to reach over 2 billion people with sustainable nutrition solutions by 2030, the new hand-illustrated pattern brings their brand to life in miniature wherever it’s used. View more work here →
04 — MII
One of our biggest projects of 2021 was our rebrand of MII. Building on the brand strategy developed by Genesis, we delivered a revitalised visual and verbal identity system across the MII brand from the mark to a suite of impactful typefaces and the website to event naming. By amplifying MII’s role as the voice of authority for marketing in Ireland and an accelerator of marketing talent, we equipped the team with a brand that evokes their limitless ambition and radiates confidence. Read our full case study here →
05 — HOHR
2021 saw us appointed as Brand Partners to the Leadership team at the €1.6bn entrepreneurial powerhouse House of HR. Our challenge was to redevelop the Purpose, Vision, Mission and Values and crystalise these into a powerful creative strategy and identity system. Our solution was a rebellious and powerful system connected deeply to the brand we had defined previously, setting House of HR up for a bold and impactful future. Read our full case study here →.
06 — St. Vincent’s
For the third year running we produced St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group’s annual report. Designed around the theme of ‘Next Steps: Towards the Future of Healthcare’, we collaborated closely with the team at St. Vincent’s to deliver artwork and final layout for 2020’s report.
07 — Fáilte Ireland
2021 also saw us refresh the brand identity of Fáilte Ireland, Ireland’s national tourism authority. Building on the strength of the iconic shamrock, we imbued the revitalised logo with a sense of authority by reaching back to the classic identity born in the 1960s, as well as modernised the identity by refreshing the typeface, harmonising the colours with Fáilte Ireland’s regional brands, and reversing the mark from a negative shape (white) to a positive shape (green). Rich in storytelling, the new logo asserts Fáilte Ireland’s role as the trusted shaper of the tourism industry in Ireland. View more work here →
08 — Energia
2021 marked another busy year with one of our closest clients, Energia. As their longstanding brand partners, this year we collaborated on a range of exciting projects that unifies their brand experience across all channels and underpinning their mission. We have a number of interesting Energia projects on the go in our studio for 2022 in what will be a challenging start of the year for the energy sector.. View more work here →
09 — Irish Water
2021 also saw a stunning new photography project take off with our friends at Irish Water. Together, we embarked on a project to update Irish Water’s image bank to capture the scale and breadth of their investment in Ireland’s water infrastructure. In 11 days, across 28 locations around Ireland, we collaborated with photographer Keith Arkins to capture aerial and ground photography that visually evoked Irish Water’s national status from coast to coast.
10 — Childline
Just over a year ago, we won one of the most meaningful rebrands of 2021 – ISPCC Childline. Selected as brand partners to Ireland’s largest children’s charity, the past year saw us enter the worlds of children and ISPCC Childline teams across Ireland through workshops to discover how we could help ISPCC and their service Childline reclaim their roles as children’s advocates and allies. By crafting a visual and verbal identity deeply rooted in the vernacular of children while clarifying the relationship between the brands, ISPCC and Childline are established as the definitive destinations for resilience and support for generations of children to come.
11 — Studio Photoshoot
Earlier this year when we had the chance to safely – if briefly! – get back into the office, we took the opportunity to refresh our RichardsDee photography with the brilliant Josh Mulholland. Check out our sweet O’Connell Street space and the wonderful faces new and familiar that make it such a meaningful place to be. All it’s missing is a Christmas tree!
Socialise hosted their Studio Edition at the Sugar Club on Wednesday night and we were delighted to be one of the agencies invited to present. The line-up was all about nine – 9 of Dublin’s top branding and design studios with 9 minutes each to present.
With an audience of almost 200 people, we presented the work we have completed on the re-brand of Bewley’s, telling the story from initial brand strategy through to the development of the brands assets and applications – such as packaging. Seeing a full house of designers, brand agencies, creatives, etc. was, in itself, inspiring and exciting. Being able to share our work with Bewley’s was a great way to reflect on a project that started over three years ago and is still a work in progress.
