Ceist GAA Preview Video

And, for Lairdesign and Ulster GAA the perfect inspiration for the stunning visual campaign that has been used to promote the last two Ulster Championships. The most competitive of provincial championships. Maybe you have to be from Ulster to understand…

Fehin Quinn of Lairdesign explains: “The famous Ulster cycle of folks tales recounts the tales of Cuchullain and the Red Branch; stories of epic battles between larger-than-life figures in signature landmark locations throughout Ulster.

“We tried to capture that landscape and that sense of these legendary figures doing battle throughout Ulster in epic head-to-head contests.”

He added: “These were the starting points for the Land of the Giants campaign. Over the decades, the Ulster Championship has seared into our collective minds those matches, heroic achievements, and days of individual brilliance. Days when we are there and we could tell others we were there.”

The Inspiration

With the ancient tales of Ulster the inspiration, the link with the Championship was easily slotted into place.

In hurling, the modern day Cuchullain’s carry the flame. In football the giants of the game bestride the Championships like the colossus from the tales of Finn McCool.
Fehin says: “The Tyrone writer John Montague compared the Ulster landscape to a manuscript that we have lost the ability to read. Such is the richness of the sense of place. The GAA in Ulster is no different. Every club, every county and every pitch has its unique history. We’ve tried to capture that.”

He points to the collective Ulster memory that recalls Art O’Hagan snatching a goal at Casement from Cavan in Casement in 1953; Down with their tracksuits and their interchangeable forwards coming out of Ulster to claim three All-Ireland titles.

The seventies saw the Armagh of Kernan, Moriarty and Smyth emerge to contest an All Ireland Final. Frank McGuigan in Clones in 1984; Down and Derry in the Marshes in 1993 and again at Celtic Park in ’94.

The landscape of the province provides an endless manuscript of great players and great achievements. Frank McGuigan in the lee of Ardboe Cross, the likes
of Kieran McGeeney born and raised in Slieve Gullion and Brian McGilligan from Dungiven sur, nestling among the Sperrin foothills. Sambo and the hurlers of Antrim living cheek by jowl among the beautiful Glens or their Down rivals clustered in the Ards. Martin McHugh by the Atlantic Shore, or the Cavan legend John Joe O’Reilly the Pride of Cornfean.

“More than any other province we celebrate the uniqueness of the Ulster Championship. It’s cut-throat lack of sentimentality with shocks every year.”

And we all know what that means – the sudden clinical despatch of the Ulster dream in a flurry of scores plunging one tribe into despair for another fruitless year. To the victors, the joy of fighting another day.

The ‘Land of the Giants’ pays homage to all these achievements, and those of the modern day giants of the game. They have become legends in their own right with their own epic tales. Bear witness. If you’re from Ulster, you know what it means.

We’ve only moved a few feet but it presents a big step for Lairdesign. Our new studio is much more spacious than our last home, we work side by side in a bright and comfortable space. We’ve even got a new showroom for our sister company Squareball where we showcase our latest designs.

You can see some shots of our studio on our Flickr Page.

You should also have a look at “Negative Space logo design”, a post on the logo design blog www.logodesignlove.com.

There are many tools online you can use as a reference when designing websites, Web Design Ledger have complied a list of some of the best tools available. Defiantly worth a read:

CSS Grid based layouts

www.thegridsystem.org

We’ve launched a Squareball Facebook page to keep you updated with what’s going on in the world of the GAA with News, Videos and links as well as special offers.

If your out and about in your Squareball Gear take a photo and upload it to the Facebook page and there could be something in it for you.

We’ll be posting videos and news which include the current topics in the GAA so get discussing!

Join us on Facebook now!

Out now!

The Spring/Summer 2010 range of our sister company Squareball is now available online at www.squareball.com.

The range includes more colours in the popular Yoda T-Shirt, a new Stormtrooper Version of the t-shirt, All-Star Dead Ball and the Playmaker Hoodie to name a few.

Visit the Squareball shop now!

iPady

Superirish

Working with the Tyrone County GAA Board, Lairdesign have re-designed the Tyrone 2010 Allianz NFL Match Day Programme the “Red Hand View”.

This year there will be four issues of the programme with Tyrone facing Mayo, Cork, Kerry and Dublin at Healy Park, Omagh.

Previous issues of the Red Hand View have won a McNamee Design award.

The Ails Of Typographic Anti-Aliasing on Smashing Magazine

Munster GAA, One of our clients whom we have worked with to create a new online visual style have started using Twitter to post fixture and news update.

If you are on Twitter and are interested in getting information on fixtures and latest Munster GAA news then you can follow the Munster GAA Twitter account at @munstergaa

As part of Lairdesign’s ongoing work with IT Sligo we been working towards a new visual style for their website which, Today, has gone live.

The project contained information systems for both the Faculty and Students, numerous sub sites for various faculties and an online prospectus for potential students.

Together, ourselves and ITSligo have been working together to Re-Brand the Institution which has included a new Corporate Identity, Signage and Printed Materials. The Website is another big step in the re-branding of ITSligo.

You can visit the new site at www.itsligo.ie.

Featuring a range of t-shirts and hoodies produced and finished to the highest standard complete with Squareball’s familiar sense of humour, the collection is sure to brighten up your Christmas stocking.

And, to brighten things up for the forthcoming festive season, the site has been given a makeover. Look out for our Squareball flyers in the Irish News, the Evening Herald and the Examiner.

Full details of what’s available for Christmas on: www.squareball.com

Our creative director, Fehin completed the New York marathon today on just under five hours. Despite a dodgy knee he completed the race for the second time. Well done from all in the studio.

Already we are working with the officials in Munster to build a website that does justice to the fine GAA tradition of the province. After all it was in Munster, in Thurles in Co Tipperary, that the GAA was created 125 years ago.

We’ll keep you updated on progress as we go along. Like our other web projects we’ll be getting the site up and taking on board soundings on what users like and don’t like. Hopefully more of the former than the latter.

The “Land of the Giants” website was officially launched earlier in May as part of Ulster GAA’s “Land of the Giants” marketing campaign and is receiving a massive number of hits every day.

The website contains all the Ulster GAA fan needs to know when it comes to the Ulster Football and Hurling Championships including video interviews, picture gallery’s, downloads, ticketing information, statistical records and much more. There is even the opportunity to purchase highly sought after match tickets online.

All the material on the “Land of the Giants” micro-site is exclusive and the website will undoubtedly find its way into the “favourite’s folder” of many GAA fans across Ulster.

Throughout recent weeks, Ulster GAA has been promoting the “Land of the Giants’ campaign via fixtures posters, flyers, newspaper advertising, Championship programmes and now through a dedicated website.

In the first week, almost 3,000 people visited the site, with the video interviews and the programme features proving most popular among the users.

As part of the production, Ulster GAA has also gone to great length to cumulate the records of the Ulster Football and Hurling Championships from down the years, from Final results to Top Scorers, and these can be viewed on the website.

The site is updated on a daily basis, and by tomorrow morning you will be able to view today’s match reports and pictures as well as exclusive video interviews with the players and managers which you’ll not see anywhere else.

This latest initiative by Ulster GAA will undoubtedly be popular among GAA fans across every county in Ulster. It’s not to be missed so log on now atwww.ulster.gaa.ie/landofthegiants

For this assignment, we built on the work we did on the new BA Kitchen and bedroom brochures to produce a website that we’re really proud of and one that our client really likes. More importantly for them, already it is delivering web traffic and all-important customers.

The inspiration behind these projects was the simple but brilliant concept offered by BA that their products would be offered in any colour and any style. We helped reinforce this business idea across their marketing communication by delivering the strapline: “Pick a Colour any Colour, Choose a Style, Any Style”. Translating BA’s iconic product brochures into a user-friendly website presented LD’s web ninja Michael with a few technical headaches and a few sleepless nights. Sleepless due to work, not worry!

The art catalogue look and feel of the printed brochures is retained, as are the highly original product descriptions. These were inspired by the names of the individual products. Check them out and see if you can pick up some of the references to film, poetry and literature! Hope you enjoy browsing as much as we did creating.

The venue is more than just a bar, or an evening out – we think it has a special atmosphere and ambience, and nowhere else is quite like it. Best of all the client likes it.

We’ll probably take a walk down Main Street later just to celebrate so feel free to join us!