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The Centre for Excellence in Universal Design (CEUD) and TrinityHaus are hosting a 24 Hour Universal Design Challenge on the 6th & 7th of November in association with the Royal College of Art Helen Hamlyn Centre as part of Institute of Designers in Ireland Design Week 2009.

The 24 Hour Universal Design Challenge will invite design professionals in Ireland from a range of disciplines such as Architecture, Graphic Design, Landscape Architecture, Industrial Design, Product Design, Visual Communications & Design Engineering to take part on teams of approximately 8 people. The teams will be selected to ensure a range of disciplines and skill sets are covered plus each team will have as a member a person with a disability as an end user & Design Partner. This will provide designers with the opportunity to work with peers from a range of disciplines & to engage with a Design Partner. Each team will have as a Team Leader a Design Professional with at least 10 years working experience as well as a proven track record of running projects & design teams successfully. The Team Leaders will be selected by the organising committee.

For further information or to register your interest in participating, please contact Dr Antoinette Fennell at antoinette.fennel@tcd.ie

Biographies for Challenge Patron Michael Wolff and Challenge Adviser Julia Cassim

Michael Wolff: A career in one word?

When the Design Business Association(DBA)asked Michael Wolff to sum up his career in design in one word, he chose 'Rollercoaster'...

Recognised as one of the world’s most experienced practitioners in establishing the vision, purpose and consequent self –expression of a variety of organisations, Michael's body of work has spanned more than 30 years.

His career in design has included the creation of some of the most iconic and well known identities of the late 20th century…Starting in the 1970’s with the creative rise of Wolff Olins, Michael worked on the evolution of Bovis and the design of its humming bird as well as the re-creation of both Audi and VW identities.

The Eighties saw the creation of 3i’s name, identity, look and feel and the expansion of the idea of Renault and its brand identity. Rolling into the 1990s he lead the way in the creativity of the Addison experiment: creating the original stages of the ‘greening’ of BP while speeding ahead with creating the ‘Encouraging’, the design of the first high-speed train in Spain.

Approaching the Nineties saw Michael working as an independent consulting creative director where he worked on creating the Labour Party rose, as well as developing the strategic creation of the Citi identity for Citigroup.

Moving in to the Noughties, Michael has helped inspire various projects such as producing a gradual renaissance of creativity in Mothercare and being part of the evolution of a variety of brands for The Ministry of Sound.

Michael also likes opening new chapters in his life – like working with the Helen Hamlyn Centre and the DBA to bring about a revolution in inclusive design - or making new and unexpected friends.

He enjoys finding situations where he doesn’t know what to do or think. That’s when he finds that he needs and, so far, can count on, his creativity. Most of all, he enjoys old friends and new ideas.

Julia Cassim

Julia Cassim is a Research Fellow and co-ordinator of Inclusive Business RCA.

Her career as a writer, designer and researcher has focused on making museum collections of art and artefacts cognitively and physically accessible to people with sensory or learning disabilities.

Julia studied fine art and art history, first at Manchester College of Art and Design and then at Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music where she received a postgraduate sculpture scholarship.

Much of her career has been spent in Japan since the early 1970s. She worked as arts columnist of The Japan Times, and founded a non-profit organisation for visually impaired people to access museum collections. She also curated and designed award-winning exhibitions for audiences with visual impairments and learning disabilities. Into the Light - Museums and their Visually Impaired Visitors, her book published in Japan, draws on this experience.

Returning to the UK in 1998, Julia joined the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre the following year. She was awarded an MPhil from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 2002 for a study building on her work with visual impairment and the arts in Japan.