The Fair Seas ‘Revitalising Our Seas Report’ and branding were designed by Brian Byrne of Lands Design agency.

Fair Seas and Wexford-based design agency Lands have been recognised at the

Institute of Designers in Ireland (IDI) 2023 Awards at the RDS. The annual awards

showcase the talents of designers and collaborators across Ireland as well as Irish

designers abroad.

Lands won the Design For Good award for its work with the coalition of leading

environmental non-governmental organisations and networks. Fair Seas started

working with Lands in early 2022 when it launched its campaign for strong and

ambitious Marine Protected Areas (MPA) legislation to protect, conserve and restore

Ireland’s marine environment.

The work included strategy, naming identity design and a range of communication

pieces; a scientific report presenting 16 Areas of Interest for MPA designation, a

series of infographic posters, a white paper on forthcoming legislation and a report

on sustainably financing Ireland’s MPA network, together with various printed and

digital promotional assets.

The judges described the campaign as; “A beautiful outcome with clear

consideration for the depth of information needed to be communicated and how to

achieve this in an accessible way.”

Aoife O’Mahony, Campaign Manager with Fair Seas said, “It is an honour for the Fair

Seas campaign to receive such a high calibre national design award. We set Brian

Byrne from Lands the challenge of capturing the energy of our campaign to build a

movement of ocean stewardship across Ireland. He was able to express our

scientific approach, expertise and collective spirit throughout, with a nod to Ireland’s

marine heritage. Our first major publication was ‘Revitalising Our Seas, identifying

areas of interest for Marine Protected Area designation’ and Brian succeeded in

turning a document with numerous maps, charts and graphs in each section into an

accessible report while maintaining its scientific integrity. This was the first of its kind

report highlighting where Marine Protected Areas could be located to conserve and

restore our ocean.”

Brian Bryne, owner of Lands Design Studio added, “Fair Seas do amazing work, and

I’m incredibly proud to have won the award working with them. It’s a huge team

effort, you can’t produce good design without great clients, and the team gave me

the space and freedom to create this type of work, which we can call award-winning

work now.”

Fair Seas is campaigning for strong and ambitious Marine Protected Areas (MPA)

legislation to be published as soon as possible. The group wants to see mandatory

targets committing to effectively protecting 30% of the seas around Ireland by 2030

with 10% strictly protected. Fair Seas is calling for stakeholder engagement at every

stage of the MPA designation with clear delivery timeframes as well as a robust

management framework which clearly defines the varying degrees of site protection

to ensure MPAs deliver for nature.

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