IGI events
Illustrators Ireland Awards 2003
September 25 2003The winners of the second IGI Illustration Awards were announced at a ceremony in the Life Bar on Wednesday 5th November. Presented by RTE’s Rattlebag presenter, Myles Dungan, the results both surprised and delighted a full house. This year, the Awards were broken down into five categories, plus an ‘Illustration of the Year’ trophy, for the category winner who had accumulated the highest number of points.
We think that our event is unique in Ireland in that our panel of judges is comprised exclusively of art directors, designers and publishers from outside of Ireland. Specifically the UK and USA. This is not only with a view to impartiality. It also means that we can set our work against international standards and see how we fare!
Looking at the biogs below makes us realise just how privileged we are to have judges of this stature support our efforts:
Stephen Heller:
Art Director, The New York Times. Steven Heller is the art director of the New York Times Book Review and co-chair of the School of Visual Arts MFA/Design program. He is also the author of over 80 books on illustration, graphic design, and popular culture.
Nathan Usmar Lauder :
Joint Creative director Fibre (UK) Nathan is joint Creative Director and a founding partner of Fibre. Fibre has received awards from Design Week, Directors Club of New York and has been nominated for two D&AD Awards.
Phoebe Yeh :
Editorial Director, Harper Collins Children’s Books. (USA) Phoebe Yeh is an editorial director at Harper Collins Children’s Books. Prior to coming to Harper, she was a senior editor at Scholastic Press.
John Warwicker:
Head of art, Grey Worldwide (UK) John Warwicker was recently brought into Grey worldwide from the Multimedia group, Tomato. Gerald Rapp:
President, theispot.com & Gerald & Cullen Rapp, Inc. Jerry’s rep firm has been representing top illustrators since 1944. Eight years ago Jerry founded theispot.com, which is today recognized as the world’s leading illustration website.
The IGI Chairman, Kevin McSherry also spoke on the topic of royalty-free stock. He made the point that the increasing prevalence of royalty-free images is causing publishers and designers to turn away from using original illustration. ‘It’s surely a false economy, firstly for newspapers to rely on royalty-free images to illustrate their text’ he said. ‘Newspaper readers expect their editorial to be of the highest standard, and that surely goes for the illustration, too? For designers, the use of royalty-free images often lead to generic designs and that should be the last thing a designer’s client should get when they need to make their products stand out from the crowd. Good illustration sells products’.
The Award winners are:
Best Advertising Illustration:
Steve Simpson’s for his ‘Rainforest’ for Kellogg’s
Account Manager Gayle Gunning, McConnell’s Advertising Art Director John Watson, Tink Creative
Best Book Illustration:
Annie West for her illustration from her book “The Little Red Hen” published by Brimax.
Best Editorial Illustration:
Fintan Taite for his illustration in The Dubliner Magazine
Best Design Illustration
Padhraig Nolan - Carers Ireland Christmas Card
Best Unpublished :(including self-promotional material, private commissions, etc.)
Joven Kerekes
I’m Going Hunting for Wabbits! Self-promotional image
And...the winner of the Illustration of the Year Award went to....
