Shasta Limited wins the Consumer Brand Identity Award at the Irish Design Effectiveness Awards (IDEA), presented by Design Business Ireland in the Shelbourne Hotel

Shasta Limited wins the Consumer Brand Identity Award at the Irish Design Effectiveness Awards (IDEA), presented by Design Business Ireland in the Shelbourne Hotel

IDEA Awards

Shasta was awarded best Consumer Brand Identity in the 14th annual Irish Design Effectiveness Awards (IDEA), presented by Design Business Ireland announced at a dinner in Dublins Shelbourne Hotel on Friday 7th November. IDEA is the premier award event for commercial design in Ireland. The awards focus on design projects that can prove their effectiveness in meeting clients’ objectives and deliver a measured return on investment. Ann Marie Durkin Director of Shasta explained, “Awareness of the brand is the key to driving our sales and she thanked Principle Design Consultants on the enormous amount of time and work committed to Shasta brand and packaging design and website. www.shasta.ie Shasta Limited is based in Granard and develops unique, valuable and functional products to meet the highly individual needs of parents and children.

Shasta’a first product, the unique Steri-Soother, is the world’s first pre-sterilised soother. The silicone Steri-Soother from Shasta is both taste and odour-free due to these characteristics Shasta’s Steri-Soother is particularly suitable for babies during the first 3 months of life. Steri soother is for sale in over 650 independant pharmacies nationwide, Smyths Toystores, Tony Kealy, Super Valus and numerous other nursery store in Ireland and well as exporting to five other countries, and have recently signed an exclusive distribution agreement to supply Iran and the GCC states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Steri soother has recently been selected for trial in Mothercare.

Shasta is developing further innovative products in collaboration with the School of Science and School of Engineering at Athlone Institute of Technology . Ann Marie Durkin is a client of the Midland and West Enterprise Programme (MWEP). The MWEP is based in the Midlands Innovation and Research Centre at Athlone Institute of Technology and is run in partnership with Enterprise Ireland.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Design Business Ireland Chairman, Nicholas Cloake, explained, “Design can play a critical role in differentiation and ensuring the delivery of messages in a planned and controlled way. In visual communications it costs as much to produce campaign material badly as it does to do it properly.

“As a design practitioner of over 20 years I have never once been asked by a client to make it look ‘nice’. They always have clear objectives that we strive to meet or surpass. The IDEA Awards are based not on a parade of designs but a written submission that seeks to define the effectiveness of any given project.

“The judges do not see the actual ‘design’ work until the end of the judging period – thus ensuring that effectiveness rather than visuality is rewarded. IDEA is the flagship event within our calendar with the simple philosophy of ‘promoting effective design’”, Nicholas Cloake said.

Mr Cloake explained that this year, there were no design professionals on the panel of judges. Chair of the judging panel, Etain Doyle, is the CEO of Vistage, the world’s largest chief executive membership organisation, based on revenue.

Other members of the jury included: John Whelan (CEO Irish Exporters), Gary Graham (Marketing, Bord Bia), Michael Maguire (Quintas and the Chartered Institute of Marketing), Seamus Doherty (Tradesmark legal expert (Cruickshank), Niamh Hall, Copywright solicitor (FR Kelly & Co), Aebhric McGibney, Director of Policy and Communications (Dublin Chamber of Commerce).