WONDR has continued its winning streak with 2 more prestigious prizes at the 2022 Annual Digital Media Awards.

From over 400 entrants, WONDR were finalists in 3 categories for Best Small Agency, Best Website and Best in Financial Services.

On the night we took home one of the top prizes, a GOLD award for Best Small Agency, whilst we also collected a Silver Award for Best Website.

The Digital Media Awards are now in their 19th year and are one of the most well-established and well-known award programmes in Ireland.

The awards recognise creativity and innovation across digital media, including digital content creation, advertising and marketing, mobile media, social networking, app development, web design and development.

Continuous Recognition for Ireland’s No.1

These awards follow on our recent wins at the Global Digital Vega Awards where we also collected 3 awards.

Previous to these recent award wins, WONDR also collected 22 awards in 12-months from some of the world’s most prestigious design programmes, including the Webbys (USA), UX Design Awards (Germany) & the Lau Awards (Spain).

Held in the unique Drury Buildings, we hosted our first of a series of events called the Get-Together with WONDR.

The Get-together was an opportunity for our client partners, the WONDR team and friends of the business to ditch the zoom calls for an afternoon and meet face-to-face over drinks & canapés.

It was a welcome opportunity to get to know ‘the faces’ behind the screen and celebrate our recent award wins together.

It’s been a very successful year as we’ve collected 22 awards from some of the world’s most prestigious design award programmes.

Thank you to everyone who attended, the room was full of smiles and the conversations were flowing throughout.

Our next get-together will be better than ever so if you missed this one, make sure to mark your calendar for the next one.

Here are a collection of shots from the event 👇🏾

Over the years WONDR and IDI have crossed paths on multiple occasions, not only in an award capacity but also on a collaborative level.

At WONDR, we are always keen to get involved in events and contribute to promoting Irish design talent across the globe. This year marks the 50th year anniversary of the Institute of Designers of Ireland and we’re pleased to announce that our Founder, Dermot O’Shea, will join their panel of expert judges for the IDI Awards 2022.

After 2 years of online ceremonies, the IDI Awards will be held in person this year. An occasion of JOY to meet peers, colleagues and friends to celebrate the best of Irish design across fashion, brand, architecture, comms & digital.

A Global Panel of Experts

Dermot joins a talented Digital Judging panel fro around the world which includes Lucia Orlandi, Ciaran Bonass, Kristian Lember, Sarah Kennelly, Niall O’Kelly & Bienvenido Cruz.

WONDR have collected 22 awards over the last 12 months from some of the world’s most prestigious programmes, making Dermot an optimal candidate for judging at this year’s IDI Awards.

WONDR is proud to announce that it is now a member of ADG-FAD (Asociación de diseñadores gráficos y directores de arte)

The ADG-FAD (Associació de dissenyadors gràfics i directors d’art) are based in Barcelona, Spain and for more than 50 years, its goal has been to promote design and visual communication in Spain’s cultural and economic life.

11Onze  x  WONDR  x  Barcelona

WONDR’s collaboration with 11Onze, to foster and grow a fintech community, shares similar values with ADG-FAD of empowering the community with insightful knowledge to enable them to develop further.

The WONDR team plan on sharing our knowledge and expertise with the design community in Spain, especially insights on how we collaborated with 11Onze to create ‘First-ever Fintech Private Social Network‘ in Barcelona.

We’re always looking to bring innovation to every collaboration we do through our LAB+ model. Sometimes we use this model to look at emerging technologies or existing ones that need a transformation and imagine what is possible.

We highlighted the ‘Music Industry’ as an example of a sector that has been digitalised to a point where ‘the soul‘ has been lost.

Recently our founder purchased a U2 hoodie as part of the ‘All that you can’t leave behind’ 20th anniversary. The customer journey didn’t deliver an exciting end-to-end fan experience. It followed the usual expected e-Commerce journey, no different to purchasing books or electronics online. It got us thinking that there is a huge opportunity to transform this by creating an immersive experience for bands, teams and sportspeople who have a huge cult following like U2 do.

Out of our internal workshops came the idea ‘U2 By You‘.

We understand the great reach and flexibility digital apps like Spotify bring, however some things have been lost. Our proposition has been designed to bring fans together as a digital community to share experiences, memories, experience exclusive band material and allow them the chance to contribute to a vast neural network of U2 memories from across the globe.

The results of this is an idea that helps to bring a richer experience for loyal fans where they can also watch concerts, listen to the back catalogue, merchandise and tours in a new manner that has never been done before.

We will shortly be sharing the work on our site. You can sign up below to be the first to see this.

Please note that by hitting confirm you are accepting our terms & conditions.

Prior to joining WONDR, Sinéad was Head of Customer Operational Excellence in CarTrawler. There, she led multiple teams responsible for customer experience, project management and business process improvement.

Sinéad’s industry background began in design and technology, before moving into the project and operational management side of things.

Why WONDR? 

Sinéad’s main passion always remained with her foundations in design and technology, which is what brought her to WONDR. “I was at a crossroads in my career. I knew Operations and Project management were still in my future, but I really missed working with creative people, especially with designers and developers”.

“It was also important to me to move to a company that made a difference to the community. While WONDR is an extremely ambitious practice, there is a strong sense of community and social responsibility. Our values are Clarity and Bravery.

These are ever-present in the team’s approach and are visible in the span of clients we have. It’s how we collaborate with and support them to deliver successful products and projects”

Operations in a Creative Environment…

The role of Director of Operations in WONDR is to oversee the day to day operational running of the business and contribute to the development and future growth through Strategy and Vision. Sinéad works closely with each team member but particularly with the Project, Product and Creative Directors in the business.

Over the last 12 months, WONDR has experienced high growth levels which are set to continue, meaning the team is expanding.

Working with the team we have systemised all parts of the WONDR business; set in place scalable processes to respond to our growth while maintaining the delivery of creative and innovative solutions for our clients.”

Cultural Changes of moving to WONDR…

“WONDR is Ireland’s top digital product practice. It has a very unique mix of culture, passion and talent, making it a really exciting place to work. No day is the same for the Director of Operations here!  Since I joined in January, we have launched a new banking social network in Barcelona, called 11Onze, the new ESB International website and an award winning website for Likha Aesthetic Clinic.” One of the biggest changes for Sinéad when joining WONDR was the move from corporate to agency.

“The difference? Pretty much everything. The pace, culture and the day-to-day tasks. Things happen slowly on the corporate side. WONDR is a fun, fast-paced environment, with plenty of opportunities to collaborate and continuously learn. Decisions come quickly which can be really rewarding.”

“Also being part of a small business, everyone has a role to play and you can see immediately what you contribute and what your value is.”

What’s next for WONDR?

“We have some really exciting projects in the pipeline that we look forward to sharing. For now the next big challenge for WONDR operations as with many businesses, is the return to the office. The pandemic has changed the way people work, perhaps forever.”

A lot can happen in seven years. Although we might count time in minutes, days and years, we measure their value in moments. Here are some of our favourites:

📸 Flashbacks from the ‘gram 😁

Foreword by Oisín Hurst – Director of Brand Strategy.

I never stop to ‘smell the roses’ (as some people say). I’m not entirely sure as to why. Usually, by the time a product or project has been completed, my mind needs to quickly pivot towards the next challenge. In truth ‘needs to’ isn’t quite accurate. It’s more of a habit than a need. But after seven years, maybe it’s time, as a team, to pick out a few favourites. So here they are.

Laura’s Pick

ESB Networks
(Launching Soon)

Every person in Ireland visits ESB Networks at some point in their lives, so it feels like we’re making a really important contribution to people across Ireland who depend on info from networks during storm season.

Pete’s Pick

WONDR.io  (Original Website)

When you hit the space bar it played a dialup modem sound – as I’m getting old, it brings back memories of the old internet.

View Old Website

Personal finance is evolving (and not before time, many would say). WONDR has worked with 11Onze Banc, the first Catalan bank in over 100 years, to help them create the next evolution in banking.

In Spain as in many European markets, Revolut and N26 dominate the younger and more tech-savvy end of the market. However many users treat fintech as little more than apps to move their cash around.

This behaviour shouldn’t surprise anyone. N26, Revolut and others have built their appeal upon three factors; technology, utility and purposefully homogenised identities that are designed for digital nomads. Although these brands provide a stark counterpoint to the tradition (and somewhat distrusted) financial institutions, this ultimately leaves the public to choose between two extremes.

But where does community fit in all of this? What about cultural understanding and the duty-bound responsibilities that financial institutions are meant to provide neighbourhoods? They are supposed to be part of (and work for) their local community. They are meant to support (and inherently understand) local culture. The traditional institutions may have betrayed their communities’ trust, but as a counterpoint, fintechs have simply removed the notion of community from their equations.

A Better Balance

11Onze believe that the next generation of personal finance will use technology and innovation to embrace and empower local communities to build cultural pride and enable financial sovereignty for their society. To achieve this future they are starting from scratch, building a physical network in parallel with an innovative digital experience. Working closely with the 11Onze leadership team, we have created the customer experience for this across app and web.

What 11Onze are attempting to do is create a fintech offering with community at its very heart. In the same way that FC Barcelona is more than just a football club, 11Onze want to be more than just an app. To realise this they have opened up their funding model for regular everyday people to be early round investors.

The vision for 11Onze is an extremely egalitarian one for fintech. Local florists, butchers, carpenters, engineers and so on, can be as invested in the ethos and the fabric of the brand as Lionel Messi or Gerard Piqué.

Over the last seven years WONDR has grown into a healthy mix of international talent, jackeens and culchies. There’s even a few expats among us. Those who decided to return home but were eager to experience the same cultural diversity that they had enjoyed in London, Amsterdam and New York. 

All of these talented people found a home in WONDR because over the last seven years what has helped us to thrive is our relentless belief in collaboration. A little cheesy? Yes. A lot true? Definitely. 

Four middle-aged white guys sitting around a table isn’t collaboration. It’s an echo chamber with pastries. True collaboration is an electric, eclectic mix of cultures, accents and opinions. It’s thoughtful logic knocking against instinctive creativity. It’s opinions, neither right or wrong, but different. It’s the moment when a room goes silent as someone presents a unique perspective that nobody else could have possibly considered. Because they’ve lived a different life. They come from a different culture and in turn, they have a different experience of Ireland. 

Culture is at its heart, creative. The more cultures, the more unique experiences, the more creativity. But for all that makes us different, the thing that binds us together is a common belief; design is a profoundly worthwhile endeavour.

–

If you’re interesting in joining WONDR visit our careers page.