The Institute of Creative Advertising and Design is proceeding with its annual awards, and has reduced the entry fee.

Pearse McCaughey, ICAD board member, said it may seem oddly indulgent talking about creative awards during a pandemic, but the ICAD awards go beyond an industry backslapping event, he claimed.

“For Irish creatives they are an important annual health check on indigenous creative standards and an occasion to foster and reward young creatives,” he stated.

The 2020 awards will utilise the existing platform to award entries to commendation level, or what was traditionally the ICAD exhibition standard. The entry cost for members is €25 and entries close on June 19.

Entries that achieve the exhibition standard will proceed to competition in 2021, and in November 2020 ICAD plans to mount a public exhibition of that work. The award Bells (pictured) will be presented next year.

In Association with

According to McCaughey: “ICAD was never intended to be an awards factory, where bottom lines are defined by cost versus profit. This is a membership-led not-for-profit, and that fact not only distinguishes us, it defines us.

“The awards programme is both an economic and a promotional vehicle for the Institute and those it represents, and the revenue it generates ensures that this social project is maintained, our community engaged and represented and importantly that their achievements are recognised.”

ICAD president Rossi McCauley added: “No matter what your reasoning for entering into the ICAD awards, let’s not shy away from the simple fact that to win at ICAD no matter what the level is a good feeling, and that’s ok, because the price that feeling comes at ensures our ability to continue this social project and support this community.

“It services the steps on the ladder of not only our own careers but the careers of those who will come after us. A collective responsibility which belongs to all of us to ensure that the opportunities we have been afforded and the supports and benefits we have received continue to exist for those who will become ICAD."