The Design Directory is a portal of design-related links…hundreds of them…that range from design inspiration to creatives for hire to tips and techniques. The site is deep and pretty thoughtfully curated…worth a look and maybe even a bookmark.

Entry forms are now available for the 2007 American Inhouse Design Awards, the premier showcase for inhouse design excellence. The competition encompasses inhouse designers and teams within corporations, media companies, non-profits, educational and government institutions. The purpose: to provide much deserved recognition for inhouse designers to colleagues, clients and upper management.

Winners of the competition will receive an embossed Certificate of Excellence for each winning piece selected, and their managements will be notified of the award, it’s meaning and what it reflects about the winning designer or team. Winning entries are also eligible to be reproduced in our Inhouse Design Awards Annual which will be published in July 2007. This 300-page edition is expected to be seen by more than 100,000 at ad agencies, graphic design firms, inhouse departments and more during the course of the year. Corporate Sponsors for the Inhouse Design Awards are Agfa and The Creative Group.

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Homemade YouTube video ads will soon be de rigeur in advertising designers’ portfolios, if Google’s trendsetting moves are any indication. You may recall when Google launched first its Gmail feature, it generated buzz by eschewing advertising for the old “secret club” tactic—you had to be invited by another gmail user in order to create an account. Now Google seems to have dropped the veneer of exclusivity and has put out a Gmail commercial, using the low-fi aesthetic popularized on their recent acquisition, YouTube.

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The Art Interview - 8th International Online Artist Competition is a quarterly, international, juried exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculptures in any medium. It is open to all living artists worldwide aged 16 and up. A European gallery exhibition and a total of € 17,000 in cash may be awarded each quarter to the first, second and third place winners. First place winners receive up to € 10,000 plus a featured interview in Art Interview Online Magazine. The competition is run completely over the Internet, which eliminates the need for you to send slides or arrange for physical transportation of your artworks. Gain international recognition for your artwork and be interviewed along with the world’s top artists, curators and gallery owners in Art Interview Online Magazine.

More Information on the competition and how to enter.

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DEADLINE MARCH 31, 2007

I’ve recently become a fan of Silja Goetz, a freelance illustrator living in Madrid. Born in Germany, Silja studied comunication design in Nürnberg and worked 2 years as a graphic designer for Allegra Magazine in Hamburg. Her work has appeared in:
Nylon Magazine (USA), Neon (Germany), Rosebud Magazine (Germany), New York Magazine, Yo Dona (Spain), Stern GL (Germany), Emotion (Germany)…just to name a few. I had a really hard time picking just one illustration…but this one definitely caught my eye.

See more of Silja’s wonderful ink drawings, splendid illustrations and some great collage pieces.

The online generation may still want their MTV, but they want it online, not on the boob tube. That’s the message sent by MTV’s recent layoffs of 250 TV employees and their plan to redirect those funds towards building their interactive media offerings. MTV head Judy McGrath issued a statement affirming their push towards digital media, saying “these moves are necessary to best align us for the future.” Online delivery of the MTV products, and the advertising that those products bring in, is being prioritized over the TV platform.

MTV has a young, demanding, new-media savvy demographic, so they have to be first on the bandwagon, but other networks are facing the same challenge, and moving in the same direction to offer viewers the user experience they demand. As a news-producer friend said to me last night, “fewer and fewer people want to sit down for the 6 O’clock news.” Digital designers and developers can rejoice about this, but those schooled in the pre-internet methods of production and delivery are scrambling to retool their skill-sets for the digital age.

The truth is global warming is a fact. Beyond driving less, recycling, etc can web design and its designers do more to be green?

BlueFur.com says yes. Rising Phoenix Design has a lot of information on how dark web colors optimize computer screen power usage. Altiustutasarim.com has some tips on how web designers can be more green. Eirbyte in Ireland goes so far as to use wind and solar power to juice their design studio, which is pretty neat. And renourish is a site dedicated to providing designers with information on sustainable and more environmentally conscious design craft.

The fourth Annual Pcom Creative Awards honors excellence in Illustration, Photography, Graphic Design, Web Design and Advertising throughout the world and is currently accepting entries for the 2007 competition. Professionals and students are welcome to enter. Entries must have been conceived between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2006. Winners will receive Gold, Silver, Bronze or Merit Awards and have their award-winning work published on Portfolios.com in the winners circle.

Deadline: March 15, 2007

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Just in time for Valentine’s Day here’s a groovy retro-style font containing 70 heart illustrations. Each illustration is ready to use for printing on Greeting Cards, T-Shirts and other Valentine’s Day gifts. Use this font in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or your favorite graphics program that uses vectors and the pen tool to modify curves. (Convert to outlines, then apply modifications for literally millions of possible combinations).

Why we like this font? The quality is 100% better than most of the free fonts you’ll find for download, but the bigger reason is because it’s delivered to you as an OpenType font, meaning it’s cross platform and you can use it on both your Mac and your PC!

via graphic-design.com

At some point in every creative person’s career, the question of taking on spec work is contemplated. Creative industries from photography to design all seem to agree that generally it’s not a great idea. For most students “real world experience” is the hook used to lure folks towards it along with a (usually hallow) carrot of “I’ve got more work that I’ll pay you for later, this is just a trial”, and other such fluff.

NO!SPEC aims to unite those who support the notion that spec work devalues the potential of design and ultimately does a disservice to the client. They have great articles and a useful 10 reasons spec is a problem and Why Speculation Hurts. (more…)