Calls for entries: Upcoming graphic design competition and book submission deadlines

All of the following competition or book submission deadlines present great opportunities to showcase your design efforts, market your work on an international scale through the published books, and "toot!" your own horn to clients, peers and the media:

Print Hand Drawn Competition
(Print Magazine - USA)
Deadline Extended: 15 October 2010
Entry fees charged

Summit Emerging Media Awards
(Summit International Awards - USA)
Deadline Extended: 15 October 2010
Entry fees charged

TDC Annual Awards 2011
(Tokyo Type Directors Club - Japan)
Deadline: 16 October 2010
No entry fees charged for overseas submittors

Communication Arts Interactive Competition
(Communication Arts - USA)
Late Deadline: 22 October 2010 (with late fees)
Entry fees charged

Creative Quarterly 22
(Creative Quarterly - USA)
Deadline: 29 October 2010
Entry fees charged

Basic Promo
(Index Book - Spain)
Deadline: 30 October 2010
No entry fees charged

Hiiiband International Logo Award 2010
(New Graphic - China)
Deadline: 31 October 2010
No entry fees charged

HOW Poster Design Awards
(HOW Magazine - USA)
Late Deadline: 1 November 2010 (with late fees)
Entry fees charged

HOW Logo Design Awards
(HOW Magazine - USA)
Late Deadline: 1 November 2010 (with late fees)
Entry fees charged

Print Creativity + Commerce Competition
(Print Magazine - USA)
Extended Deadline: 1 November 2010
Entry fees charged

Web Font Awards
(Web Font Awards - USA)
Deadline: 7 November 2010
No entry fees charged

Great Logo Designs
(Ampixx Books - USA)
Deadline: 15 November 2010
Entry fees charged

Great Healthcare Advertising
(Ampixx Books - USA)
Deadline: 15 November 2010
Entry fees charged

Great Graphic Design Ideas
(Ampixx Books - USA)
Deadline: 15 November 2010
Entry fees charged

Inside the World of Board Graphics: Skate, Surf, Snow
(Rockport Publishers - USA)
Deadline Extended: 15 November 2010
No entry fees charged

Color in Design Competition
(Print Magazine and HOW Print - USA)
Deadline: 16 November 2010
Entry fees charged

Look What Good Design Can Do: The Best Before-and-After Redesigns From Around the World
(Crescent Hill Books - USA)
Deadline: 6 December 2010
No entry fees charged

American Package Design Awards
(Graphic Design USA - USA)
Deadline: 10 December 2010
Entry fees charged

Selected B: Graphic Design From Europe
(Index Book - Spain)
Deadline: 10 December 2010
Entry fees charged

TDC57
(Type Directors Club - USA)
Deadline: 17 December 2010
Entry fees charged

Logo Nest
(Logo Nest - International)
Deadline: 31 December 2010
No entry fees charged

Advertising Journal Americas 001
(Graphis - USA)
Deadline: 6 January 2011
Entry fees charged

Photography Journal Americas 001
(Graphis - USA)
Deadline: 6 January 2011
Entry fees charged

Summit Creative Awards
(Summit International Awards - USA)
Deadline: 24 January 2011
Entry fees charged

Great Layout Ideas
(Ampixx Books - USA)
Deadline: 15 February 2011
Entry fees charged

Great Brochure Ideas
(Ampixx Books - USA)
Deadline: 15 February 2011
Entry fees charged

Great Use of Color in Graphic Design
(Ampixx Books - USA)
Deadline: 15 February 2011
Entry fees charged

HOW Promotion Design Awards
(HOW Magazine - USA)
Deadline: 1 March 2011
Entry fees charged

HOW In-HOWse Design Awards
(HOW Magazine - USA)
Deadline: 1 April 2011
Entry fees charged

HOW Interactive Design Awards
(HOW Magazine - USA)
Deadline: 1 July 2011
Entry fees charged

iheartlogos
(iheartlogos.com - USA)
Season Two Deadline: 11 August 2011
Entry fees charged

HOW International Design Awards
(HOW Magazine - USA)
Deadline: 15 August 2011
Entry fees charged

Book of the Year, Volume 4
(Design & Design - France)
Deadline: 30 September 2011
No entry fees charged

PAPERWORKS Letterhead Contest
(Neenah Paper - USA)
Deadline: Ongoing - judged quarterly
No entry fees charged

PAPERWORKS Text And Cover Contest
(Neenah Paper - USA)
Deadline: Ongoing - judged quarterly
No entry fees charged

(To make sure you are reading the latest bLog-oMotives design competition update click here.)

You may want to read my article about participating in design industry competitions and calls for book submissions: A collection of design competition - and book submission request - tips, tricks and observations.

A design competition calendar is also available at Icograda. Lürzer's ARCHIVE has an impressive online list of competitions sponsored by international magazines and organizations. Dexinger posts competitions of great value to industry professionals - however designers need to be aware that some of the listings are for "spec" work as a requirement for submission. Requests for new, or speculative, work as a condition of entering a "contest" are much different than legitimate design competition "calls for entries," in which previously created works are judged for possible awards, exhibition, or publication in an annual or other book.

My own work appears in over 130 graphic design books. Many of those inclusions are the result of design competitions, or requests for submissions, like those listed above.

© 2010 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

Toot! Toot!*: Identity design efforts of 'Logolicious' judge Jeff Fisher featured in newly released volume

Logo designs by Jeff Fisher, the Engineer of Creative Identity for the Portland-based firm Jeff Fisher LogoMotives, are featured in the newly released book LogoLicious. The volume, compiled by designer/author Peleg Top, features over 1,000 logos from identity designers around the world. Fisher's work is highlighted in the book as the result of being a judge in the Logolicious selection process.

Author Peleg Top asked 13 identity design industry experts to assist in judging the more than 3,000 logos submitted through the Crescent Hill Books website.

In addition to Fisher, Jeff Barlow (Jelvetica), Darin Beaman (OIC), Joshua Chen (Chen Design Associates), Jonathan Cleveland (Cleveland Design) and Jean-Marc Durviaux (DISTINC) selected published logos. Kit Hinrichs (Studio Hinrichs), Debbie Millman (Sterling Brands), Steve Morris (MORRIS), Robynne Raye (Modern Dog Design Co.), Cheryl Savala (Menagerie Creative), Rochelle Seltzer (Seltzer) and Petrula Vrontikis (Vrontikis Design Office) were also judges of submissions.

Judges each reviewed hundreds of logos. Top also requested that each industry professional provide their definition of a "good logo" and representative examples of logos they, or their firm, had produced.

Jeff Fisher LogoMotives designs featured in the book include images for the triangle productions! theatrical production "2 Boys in a Bed on a Cold Winter's Night," hair salon Chameleon and Holocaust Remembrance Project - a nation-wide high school essay competition sponsored by the Holland and Knight Charitable Foundation, Inc. The logo for computer consultation firm DataDork and the Cat Adoption Team logo concept are also presented in the designer's two-page spread.

Fisher, a 30+ year design industry veteran, is the author of Identity Crisis!: 50 redesigns that transformed stale identities into successful brands and The Savvy Designer's Guide to Success: Ideas and tactics for a killer career. He is currently writing the book Logo Type: 200 Best Typographic Logos from Around the World Explained, about typography in identity design, with a scheduled 2011 release.

The designer has received over 600 design awards and his work has been published in more than 140 books on identity design, self-promotion and the marketing of small businesses.

More information about Jeff Fisher, and his design and writing efforts, may be found on the Jeff Fisher LogoMotives blogfolio.

(* If I don’t "toot!" my own horn, no one else will.)

© 2010 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

St. Johns banners finally see the light of day

I've always enjoyed creating designs for businesses, nonprofit organizations and events in my own North Portland neighborhood. Back in early 2002 I designed a series of banners for the volunteer organization Destination St. Johns. The banners were to be displayed on utility poles in the business district of St. Johns, less than a five minute drive from my home studio.

And then nothing happened with the designs and the banners never appeared in public.

In an October 2009 article in the late, great neighborhood newspaper The Sentinel (a past identity design client of mine), Meg Farra, one of the founders of Destination St. Johns, explained, “It was a group we put together to do some projects within St. Johns. For example, we planted native plants in the tree wells through downtown and organized some cleanups before the parade for a few years."

As reported in The Sentinel, "The group decided to create banners for downtown and applied for a grant from the North Portland Trust Fund [the Portland International Raceway noise mitigation funded.] They received $4000 along with support and in-kind donations from many businesses and other groups in St. Johns and North Portland."

I didn't realize that the banners had ever been produced - but instead of adding high-flying color over downtown St. Johns, the banners and all hardware were stored in the basement of the historic Kenton Firehouse.

According to The Sentinel: "...the set of 20 or so vinyl banners were never hung due to political squabbling and the high cost of insurance."

"When the banners were ready to hang, bureaucratic difficulties and a policy change at Portland General Electric entered the game. Partway through negotiations about the banners, PGE changed its insurance requirements. Instead of $1 million, groups now had to carry $2 million in insurance before PGE would allow them to use its poles. PGE also asked Destination St. Johns to coordinate with the St. Johns Boosters, who had a long-standing arrangement with PGE to use certain light poles at Christmastime. A rift developed between some of the leaders involved and for over a year the groups were unable to negotiate a compromise.

"At that point, according to Tom Griffin-Valade of the Office of Neighborhood Involvement, the banners were rolled up and stored in the basement of the Office of Neighborhood Involvement at the Kenton Firehouse. Seven years passed."

The mystery of the missing banners had always intrigued Sentinel publisher Cornelius Swart. With a little detective work, he learned that the banners were in the Kenton Firehouse all along. Swart presented the banners to members of the St. Johns Neighborhood Association in May 2009. At the time of the October 2009 Sentinel article, efforts to hang the banners were being driven by members of the St. Johns Boosters and the St Johns Main Street Coalition, which have representatives from both neighborhood associations, businesses, and individual residents.

I'm not sure what transpired over the past year in regards to insurance issues and neighborhood politics. However, My partner Ed and I recently decided to make a Saturday morning visit to the St. Johns Farmer's Market - and were very surprised to see the banners lining the streets and the farmer's market venue, St. Johns Plaza.

On a recent sunny afternoon, I went to St. Johns to photograph the banners in place (above). I popped into St. Johns Booksellers, the location of my 2007 book signing for Identity Crisis!, to say "hi" to co-owner Nena Rawdah and explain why I was wandering the business district with my camera. She told me that upon learning that the banners were actually going to be installed, she requested a red and yellow one for installation in front of her store (above center).

"I didn't know who was responsible for the design of the banners," added Nena, "but, I'm certainly not surprised."

© 2010 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives.