So its been a while, a little longer than we had planned, but very soon, we hope you will agree it's been worth the wait.
When we set out on this archive and community building project we had to make some educated guesses. This helped us develop the online framework, consider costs, time involved and overall potential engagement. All of these guesses were way off — but in a good way.
By March this year the 100 Archive had more than 500 members, more than 300 workplaces in Ireland and around the globe were represented and the submissions for the first archive group were over 600. These figures have continued to grow and have exceeded all of our original expectations.
We have been delighted by the enthusiasm and support the project has received. Not only from everyone who has participated, but also the many people who have helped us establish the 100 Archive. The original founding members (who generously donated to what was then not a fully formed idea, enabling us to kick start the project) our Professional Panel, Curatorial panel, Archive Panel and Steering Committee and administrator have all generously given their time and expertise. Without you all we couldn’t have made to this stage. A sincere thank-you for making it an enormous success.
The feedback from the Archive panel after the review process was complete was really great. Their recognition of the high standard of work and the importance of the platform to promote, explore and share communication design in (and connected to) Ireland was very positive.
International interest in the 100 Archive model for creating and maintaining a "living archive" of design has come from the UK, Holland, Australia and Singapore. Ideas have been shared at home and abroad and these insights have contributed greatly to us developing upon our original proposition.
So where are we now
Once the initial submission date had passed and while the Archive Panel were working their way through the submissions a few things became very clear. The sheer scale of the review process as well how this was managed online needed additional support. The Archive Panel dedicated significant personal time to blindly assess and evaluate every project submission and we were obliged to listen, implement and improve the processes to ensure that this most important aspect of the process was robust and efficient. This lead to further development of parts of the website and vast improvements as to how it works and functions for the selection panels in the future.
So this additional work is almost complete and over the coming days we will be updating you with Archive panel reviews and opinion before we launch the first of the Past Archives.
Once again we have had to rely on the assistance and generosity of many dedicated people to get this far. We have lots of plans and further content in the pipeline. We will be putting out a specific call for official 100 Archive volunteers — writers, developers, photographers, illustrators and enthusiasts to help us keep moving forward and building the 100 Archive community.
Thank you all, congratulations and check in for further updates.