Logo Design Love Awards

+ The Logo Design Love Awards are now open for submission. The aim of the awards is to give some well deserved exposure to lesser-known graphic designers, and to uncover the most effective blog logos amongst todays popular blogs. It’s completely free to enter, or to submit an entry on behalf of a blog you think should win. The only requirement is that entrants must have their logo displayed on their blog header between February and April 2008. There’ll be 10 heats, each from a different blog category (shown below), and the 10 winners will advance into the final.

>> More information

American Design Awards : Call For Entries

+ The American Design Awards is inviting Graphic and web designers from around the world to participate in its 2008 Winter Semi-Annual Design Contest. To facilitate a broad range of disciplines and artists, the American Design Awards has established an ongoing Monthly Design Contest, two Semi-Annual Design Competitions, as well as the newly established Student Design Contest in hopes of reaching out to thousands of graphic and web designers with varying levels of experience. The Winter and Summer Semi-Annual Design Contests which are now in their sixth year, are the flagship of the American Design Awards which attract an average of five thousand participants annually. Deadline to submit entries for the 2008 Winter Semi-Annual Design Contest is February 15, 2008. Applications must be submitted online through the American Design Awards website.

The top three entries in each of the twenty-two design categories will be considered for the Award of Design Excellence – this award is presented to designers or design firms who display outstanding design and creative abilities, while maintaining high ethical standards. The American Design Awards mission is to provide a fair and ethical platform for all web and Graphic designers of varying experience levels and disciplines to compete on, while providing a worldwide audience to showcase to.With the ever-changing landscape of the design industry, the American Design Awards is also expanding its code of ethics by which designers are graded and judged. "Ethical standards have always been valued and exercised in our competitions; this is by far the most important qualification of any designer entering the awards program" said Kevin Javid, Vice President of the American Design Awards. For more information regarding the entry process, including the various design categories, entry fees, and timelines, please click here.

2008 Prix Ars Electronica Competition

+ Call for Entries has been announced for 2008 Prix Ars Electronica Competition and the deadline is March 7, 2008. Since 1987, the Prix Ars Electronica has served as an interdisciplinary platform for everyone who uses the computer as a universal medium for implementing and designing their creative projects at the interface of art, technology and society. The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important awards for creativity and pioneering spirit in the field of digital media. The event calls for entries in seven categories, including a youth competition. And since internationally renowned artists from over 70 countries also participate in the Prix Ars Electronica, it has established itself as a barometer for trends in contemporary media art. The Prix Ars Electronica calls for entries and awards prizes in the following seven categories:
- Computer Animation / Film / VFX
- Interactive Art
- Digital Musics
- Hybrid Art
- Digital Communities
- u19 – freestyle computing
- Media.Art.Research Award
The submissions are accepted up into March and International juries will select the winners for each category in April. Prizewinners in six categories will be honored with Golden Nicas. Beside Golden Nicas their are twelve Awards of Distinction, approximately 70 Honorary Mentions as well as the Media.Art.Research Award to be presented. For more information about categories, please - Click Here

Successful Freelancing Guide*

+ Our sister publication CGIndia.org has published a very interesting article by "Amit Dixit"; who shares some great tip about - How to be successful, working as “Freelancer” or a “Freelance studio” ?? The tips are useful for freelancers or small studio of 2-4 members team, working in field of graphics, design, 3d animation, architectural visualization and computer graphics in general.. Snippet from article: " First of all, “Going Freelance” is quite a tough decision to make; mainly because of financial insecurity. So, it’s very important to review your own current financial standing and support system. Its better you have ample amount in savings, as flow of money is not very regular. Also, discuss your decision..."

>> Read top10 tips

Graphex 2008 - Call for Entries

+ Call for Entries has been announced for Graphex 08; a national event open to all Canadian Graphic designers, typographers, photographers, illustrators, art directors, ad agencies, printers, writers or clients. Graphex 08 is an Icograda-endorsed National design competition celebrating The Best of Visual Communication in Canada since 1977. The primary goal of Graphex is to promote the value of design to the Canadian public and business community Good Design Is Good Business as well as creating an archive of Canadian design for future generations to study and reflect upon.

Every Two years Graphex invites passionate communication designers, web designers, typographers, photographers, illustrators, art directors, ad agencies, printers, writers and clients from across Canada to submit their very best published cultural, social and business communications in all mediums. The competition is broken into categories, with awards given for the best in each. Categories include: Advertising, Annual Reports, Editorial/Magazine, Books, Brochures, Calendars, Catalogues, Logos, Corporate Identity, Stationery, Invitations, Manuals, Multimedia, Websites, Packaging, Posters, Self Promotion, Signage, Environmental, Type Design, and Other. Designers are asked to submit their best work published in or for use in Canada between October 2005 and October 2007. The deadline for sending in your Entries is November 23, 2007.

>> Call for Entries - Graphex 08

ADI Design Award: Graphic Design Annual 2007

+ Art Design Institute of China Academy of Art has recently issued 'Call for Entries' for 2007 ADI Design Award. ADI Design Award is opened to all countries and no qualifications are needed to enter the competition. Entries must be produced from January 2007 to the deadline 30 November 2007. As entries made from foreign countries are exempt from entry fee, no more than five entries are accepted . Graphics Designers are asked to submit their best work under following categories;

Catalogue design / Book design

Type design

Mark & Logotype / Corporate stationery

Package design

Poster design

Newspaper / Magazine advertisement

Advertising Campaign

Experimental work

All Entries must be shipped along with any documentation in electronic form recorded on CD-ROM. File Technical Parameters: A4 size, 350dpi (CMYK images), TIFF format. Award winning and excellent works will appear in the ADI Annual and presumably in other various media.
>> Check more information

2008 D&AD Awards

"BUT IS IT A PENCIL?"
This is the question creative people all
over the world ask themselves every time they finish a piece of work. Is it good
enough to reach that pinnacle? Is it a Pencil?

+ Call for Entries for 2008 D&AD Global Awards has been announced, in 30 different categories encompassing all aspects of creative communications from writing and art direction to architecture, Graphic design and photography. The D&AD Awards, which is also popularly known as the "Yellow Pencils", are one of the most prestigious creative awards for the design and advertising industry. D&AD Awards has been rewarding creative excellence since 1962.
The D&AD Global Awards offer the creative community the opportunity to be judged by its harshest critics - its peers. Over 270 eminent creative practitioners selected for their expertise in their field, looking for great ideas that are well executed and appropriate to their mediums. So, now its your chance to hold well respected and popular "Yellow Pencil," and do remember to submit your entry before 14 November 2007, to avail a discount of 10% on entry fee. The regular online Entry Deadline is Wednesday 16 January 2008 and all postal entries must arrive at D&AD by Monday 4 February 2008.

>> D&AD 2008 Awards/Competition

MetalMan Project | Graphic illustrations

+ More inspirational stuff coming your way. From the imagination of 5th grade young one, too a full grown project; MetalMan is quite an interesting project created by New York based illustrator Joseph lucchese; where other Graphic artists can submit there interpretation of Metal Man in the form of digital art on the same lines of Joe’s character 'Metal Man', which he drawn some 20 years back. Now illustrator Joseph lucchese is coming up with version 2 of the Metal Man Project some time in near future. Have a Look!!

100 odd Sources for Web Design Inspiration

+ designvitality has complied a long list of 100 most Unconventional Sources for Web Design Inspiration. Snippet; "Most web designers look to the usual resources for inspiration: web design portfolios, social media sites and CSS galleries. But what happens when you do that? You get a site that looks just like everyone else’s. Check out these resources that inspire you to build a website that separates itself from the pack". Have a look, you might find something interesting and quite inspirational.

>> 100 odd Source

International Journal of Design - Issue #2

+ The International Journal of Design Issue #2 is now available online on ijdesign.org. The International Journal of Design is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal devoted to publishing research papers in all fields of design, including industrial design, visual communication design, interface design, animation and game design, architectural design, urban design, and other design related fields. It aims to provide an international forum for the exchange of ideas and findings from researchers across different cultures and encourages research on the impact of cultural factors on design theory and practice. It also seeks to promote the transfer of knowledge between professionals in academia and industry by emphasizing research in which results are of interest or applicable to design practices.

>> International Journal of Design #2

drawer Geek

+ Ok lets roll baby with graphics.....For a shipload of awesome and inspirational graphic illustration, head towards drawergeek.com which features illustrations by top professional artists. Snippet from site: "DrawerGeeks is a fun thing we do every other Friday, where professional artists (mostly from the animation, illustration and design fields) all draw their own version of chosen fictional characters."...Participation is by invite only. This usually comes by word of mouth from the currently participating artists.........have a look!!

About Design Slate

+ DesignSlate is an online Design Magazine and design specific Search engine. Design Slate Search engine is human edited custom search engine and powered by Google search.

Design Slate currently features 500+ top Creame of design related websites and continue to add more resource full websites as they come to our notice. Design slate will like to establish itself as a extremely focused Design Specific Search engine dusting web for valuable source of information and resource useful for the Designers and artists, working in the Field of design, Architecture, product & Industrial design, Graphics, Web and fashion design. Beside delivering our users the first design focused search engine, we will be adding portfolios of designers and Artists as well as the design Studios to our search database and Magazine section to bring new talent in spotlight. We look forward for your participation and suggestion;.. You may send your suggestion and ideas at mailtdf[@]gmail.com.

Design Slate - How To ?

Below are some frequently asked questions and their answers:

# How i can submit my design related website?
+ Designers, Studio's and webmasters can suggest their website for inclusion in Design Slate Search engine by email at mailtdf@@gmail.com . Do remember that your submission wont grantees inclusion of your website, we only add the best websites. Although its not compulsory to add a reciprocal link, we do recommend you to add our text or banner link to your website.

# How to add DesignSlate's Design Search to my website?
+ Paste this code in the page where you'd like your search box to appear. The search results will be shown on a Google-hosted page.

<br /><!-- Google CSE Search Box Begins --><br /><br /> <form id="searchbox_006804613271315388460:qwzbifobkns" action="http://www.google.com/cse"><br /><br /> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="006804613271315388460:qwzbifobkns"><br /><br /> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:1"><br /><br /> <input name="q" type="text" size="40"><br /><br /> <input type="submit" name="sa" value="Search"><br /><br /> </form><br /><br /> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/coop/cse/brand?form=searchbox_006804613271315388460%3Aqwzbifobkns"></script><br /><br /><!-- Google CSE Search Box Ends --><br /><br />

# Can i show search results on my website?
+ Yes you can show search result on your own website. For this you can send
a request along with the URL of the page where you want to show Design Slate's design search box. You can send your request at mailtdf@@gmail.com, we will send you the code in a text file via email.

# How can i add design search to my Google homepage (iGoogle)?
+ Just click on the "add to Google" button.

# How can i submit my design related news or article?

+ You can send your News, Tips, portfolio link and design related article via email only at mailtdf@@gmail.com. Use "designslate - news sub" in subject of email.