Competition

Our congratulations to creativebits member Luc Desaulniers, who took home the first place prize in the October 123RF.com Design Challenge on Graphics.com. Each month participants are invited to submit entries for a mythical design brief, in this case for Bio Wine Enthusiast magazine. Luc's winning entry, shown at right, was a standout for best meeting the design criteria, which included using at least one of the supplied stock images.

This month the brief is for the creation of letterhead and a business card for the Fantastic Forgotten Fish company, a provider of fresh fish to the upscale restaurant trade in the San Francisco Bay area. As always, the first place prize package includes a year of access to the Mediabistro On Demand video library, a one-month 123RF.com stock photo subscription and a shiny new Apple 8GB iPod Touch.

Visit the 123RF.com Design Challenge

Eulda was launched in 2006 as a graphic design award scheme to reward the best logos and trademarks designed in Europe. The competition was subsequently expanded to have an international scope and is known now as Wolda, the Worldwide Logo Design Annual. The competition now includes categories for students and young designers, as well as the ability to submit not just individual logos but logo systems. Giving the awards scheme considerable weight is its endorsement by more than 100 design associations and schools, as well as a broad range of media partners.

Wolda recently announced the winners of its 2009 edition, which includes 92 logos selected from nearly 2,000 entries from all over the world. They're posted on the organization's site but I've included a few of my favorites here. You might recognize the one above, Circus of Magazines, designed by Olivier Courbet, since it not only took home Wolda's Best of the World, Best of Americas and Best of United States awards, but was also an Overall winner in the recent Mediabistro Logo Awards.

Entries are currently being accepted for the Wolda 2010 edition, with this time the winning logos being selected by all participating designers and with winning entries being displayed just on the web site and not in a printed annual, both moves resulting in a lower entry fee of 21 euros.

4tomorrow is an independent, non-profit organisation based in Paris, with its activities focused on Poster for Tomorrow, an international project to promote active citizenship through the medium of design. It works to encourage people, both those in and outside the design community, to make posters to stimulate debate in the local and international communities on issues that affect us all. This began with last year's competition drawing attention to the repression of freedom of expression. I've included a few of my picks below and you can browse a gallery of the best 100 entries.

This year the theme is the death penalty, with the brief stating in part that, "We want universal abolition of the death penalty in 2010. It’s simple. The death penalty is a violation of human rights. Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: 'No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.' How does that fit with beheading, stoning, hanging, lethally injecting or shooting someone?" Hard to argue with that.

Participants are invited to make a poster with the potential to be exhibited around the world on October 10, 2010, the World and European Day Against the Death Penalty. That day Poster for Tomorrow will ambitiously hold 100 exhibitions in 100 cities of submitted posters calling for universal abolition of the death penalty. The organization is working with Amnesty International, the Council of Europe, Reporters Without Borders and the World Coalition Against The Death Penalty, to raise awareness of this cause. The final posters will be chosen by a jury of 12 graphic designers from around the world, including Michel Bouvet, Kiko Farkas, Ahn Sang Soo and Lucille Tenazas. The deadline for submissions is July 18, 2010, with more information available on the Poster for Tomorrow site.

My picks after the jump.

The competition provides you the opportunity to design carpets. The winning designs will be produced in a limited edition and sold exclusively on CarpetVista.com. You and your art will be marketed on Europe’s largest trading place for textile art.