Stencil Graffiti Capital: Melbourne by Jake Smallman, Carl Nyman. What has happened to turn Melbourne into a stencilled graffiti capital? When did this happen and who is responsible? Furthermore, why stencils? Isn’t the use of stencils a bit of a cheat? Stencil Graffiti Capital answers all these questions and more with a visual celebration for several artists and the themes which dominate their work. Interviews with the likes of Civilian, Dlux, and Ha-Ha illustrate how and why these artists live in, moved to, or visit Melbourne to practice their street art. Full-page and double-spread visual treatments within the book illustrate the artists’ basic themes, which focus on politics, symbols, love/sex and war/death. Read the rest of this entry »

Each year you have the opportunity to change the photograph which appears on the cover of COMPUTER GRAPHICS forum, Journal of Eurographics, the European Association for Computer Graphics. This is your opportunity to show the world what you can do, a competition for the photograph for the 2007 volume. Electronic submissions may be in all image formats. For production on the cover of “forum”, you are asked to provide a CMYK-separated eps file, saved at 300 dpi, sized at 152 mm x 128 mm. The contest officials would also appreciate a PNG or JPEG image for use on the website. In return, the winner receives 200 Euro and tons of recognition. Entries must be sent by 20 August. See site for more information.

Hey folks - I’m going to play a bit with this site this afternoon, as I add Feedburner and a contact page. So if you see some strange goings-on, hang tough.

More: I’ve just changed the RSS/Atom feeds for this site to Feedburner, and hopefully you’ll be redirected if you’ve already subscribed. If you have any trouble reading the site through your feed reader, please let me know. Otherwise, I think it’s all good.

If you don’t want to use feeds, you can register to receive posts by email. You can register at Feedblitz, and your information will remain confidential.

It took some whinging from the Guardian Unlimited about their loss in Design Museum’s Designer of the Year award to alert me to the fact that Jamie Hewlett has knocked down some major design wins in 2006. I noticed his first achievement in the 2006 Webby Awards “Special Achievement Honorees” with the Webby Artist of the Year award for Gorillaz. This month he won the Designer of the Year award from the Design Museum, London, over the likes of The Guardian Unlimited newspaper, Tom Dixon (the wire chair, among other great designs), and Cameron Sinclair (Architecture for Humanity). Read the rest of this entry »

I didn’t know that when I would mention “that book,” or “that recently released movie” starring Tom Hanks, that so many advertisements would appear on this site against that book and that movie. Even though the article has cycled off the homepage, the ads still appear and - I thought at first - that they seemed to appear inappropriate for this site since nothing about “that book” and “that movie” are on this homepage other than their ads. Although I spent a few moments banning a few advertisers a few days ago, I realized that I would spend two minutes a day for the rest of my life banning someone from advertising here unless I removed that article. Since I feel that a removal of that article because of the ads is a form of censorship by those advertisers, then I’m not going to remove it. Nor am I going to remove the ads, because it seems that I’m making some money from their foolishness. But, should I mention those keywords again and perpetuate the advertisements and make money from these certain groups even though I don’t support their efforts? See point #2 in the Morel Dilemma. I’m clueless.

The National Organization for Women Foundation is hosting a poster contest to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Love Your Body Campaign. The grand prize winning poster will be used as part of a national campaign to challenge the violent, drug-addicted, starved, surgically-enhanced images of women and to fight against industries that profit from women’s dissatisfaction with their bodies. Deadline: Postmarked 1 October, 2006. To see past winners, read the rules, and learn more about NOW Foundation, visit their site.

Smithsonian Magazine editors spent many hours carefully reviewing 7,500 photographs from around the world, and they selected 10 finalists in each of their five categories: Americana; The Natural World; People; Altered Images, and; Travel. This is the Smithsonians 3rd annual photography contest, and they plan to reveal the Grand Prize Winner and the five Category Winners in the August 2006 issue of Smithsonian. Likewise, they will reveal the winners on their Website on August. You can check out the finalists in the five categories online.

An edgy, one-day, annual event involving multiple disciplines, Semi-Permanent is the only event if its type in Australasia, described by organisers, “The Church,” as a gathering of fresh talent, raw ideas, conversation and visual splendour. “Unlike other design conferences that focus on technology, Semi-Permanent is about the inspiration and passion that creative people have for their work,â€? says The Church’s Peter Dixon. Last year’s Auckland event attracted nearly 700 designers, creatives and graphic artists with international speakers including dixonbaxi, RESN and Vice magazine. Organisers hope this year’s event will attract 800 with new venue, the Aotea Centre, able to cater for larger crowds. EVENT: Saturday 19 August. See press release for details.

Design a poster for the 25th New Haven (CT) Jazz Festival, deadline date 9 June. They state, “We’re not talking about Rembrandt, Sargent or Monet. Instead, think Andy Warhol goes underground. Urban art is first and foremost derived from its context. And for the inaugural year of the Commemorative Poster Contest—the context is the past 25 years of the New Haven Jazz Festival.” They’re especially hot on graffiti art. Visit their site for contest rules and regulations (PDF file).

Create a cover for any size UniKeep View Case Binderâ„¢- students, professionals, hobbyists - any art you are willing to share. Post your cover on your site or at UniKeeep - enter online; All entries will be available for download in the “UniKeep Gallery.” First 50 entries each month receive free UniKeep Binder, but you can win $100 monthly cash prizes and an overall $500 grand prize in each of these categories: Arts & Entertainment; Business & Professional; Education; Hobbies & Recreation; Sports. $1,500 for “Best of Show.” Entries will be accepted online January 1 through December 31, 2006, but you must be age 13 and up. Unikeep, BTW, is an organizing system that consists of folders, envelopes, etc. But, they’re not boring. Check out their 2004 and 2005 galleries before you begin. See site for details.