The image shown at right is “Spiral with opaque lines” by winner Andreas Lober

Every four years the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) meets to discuss mathematics and to present Fields medals. For the 2006 ICM, which was held in Madrid in August, new events were added, including a fractal art exhibit. The purpose of the ICM 2006 Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest was to select some of the artwork for display in this exhibit. They named this contest and exhibition in honor of Professor Benoit B. Mandelbrot, as without his work establishing fractal geometry there would be no fractal art. Prof. Mandelbrot was a plenary speaker at ICM 2006. Read the rest of this entry »

Noxzema is calling all fashion-design hopefuls or fashion lovers to design an outfit for one of the Noxzema girls for a chance to win VIP treatment at New York Fashion Week and other prizes. You are asked to submit an original drawing, sketch, or illustration of your proposed design along with a statement of 50 words or fewer that describes the look. Entries accepted online up to 5 January 2007. For more information, visit the Noxzema site and click the link for “promotions” under “Beauty Bonuses” in the top menu. Entrants must be over age 18.

New Masters of Poster Design: Poster Design for the Next Century - by John Foster, 2006

After adding a few contests to this site, I know that the majority of the competitions are focused on poster design. This type of design incorporates illustration more often than photography, and usually always includes typography. While you could browse through older books about posters, why not take this one on - it’s a new and scrumptious look into poster designs for the “next century,” even though it looks at posters from the immediate past in a definitive collection. What makes this book different is that writing is involved, and Foster’s take on the work contained within this book is definitely insightful. Read the rest of this entry »

BetterPhoto.com Offers “The Nikon D80 Camera” and “Eye to Eye: Capturing the Face”

BetterPhoto.com, the worldwide leader in online photography education, today announced the addition of two new 4-Week classes to the November course schedule. Like all BetterPhoto courses, these will be taught by published, professional photographers. Photo assignments are personally critiqued by the instructor, giving students immediate feedback on their photographic work. Classes begin November 1st. Read the rest of this entry »

MUSCAT — The Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUQ) announced the launch of the Fifth Annual Design Competition. The competition, open to all students in their senior year of high school, is being launched in Qatar, the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Turkey and this year in Pakistan. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since its establishment, the EMAF has been one of the most influential Media Art forums. As an international meeting point for artists, curators, gallery owners and an audience of specialists, the festival has had a great impact on topics and aesthetics of Media Art. Every year the festival offers a current overview of experimental films, installations, performances, digital formats and hybrid forms, ranging from popular subjects and formal experiments to provocative statements.

At the festival an international jury will present the EMAF Award for a trend-setting work in Media Art and the ›Dialogpreis‹ of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the promotion of intercultural exchanges. Also the jury of the German Federal Association of Film Journalists will be awarding the prize for the best German experimental film. Read the rest of this entry »

Vormator is the ultimate challenge of your creativity: the aim of the book is to give each artist the chance to show his abilities to create a stunning piece with limited means. The contributing artists each get the exact same set of 8 shapes, the Elements. With these shapes they are challenged to create their own unique page for the book, within the limitations provided in the Rulebook. Designers are thus challenged to create a unique piece within a strict set of rules. It all comes down to pure skills and creativity in this competition.

The aim for this challenge is to establish an international collaboration of artists where the contrast between the art and the means has been maximized: each artist starts with the same set of forms but will have to end with a different, individual piece. Do you think you’re up for the challenge? Then please go read the Briefing. NOTE: The deadline for submitting a preview of your artwork is December 1st. Note that if your submission is selected by the editors, you will need to send an original VECTOR file before December 15th (we’re talking Illustrator here).

U.S., International, Professional and Amateur Photographers - working in black and white or color, using traditional or digital methods or elements of both processes - you’re all invited to enter THREE different calls for entry to the Center for Fine Art Photography located in Fort Collins, Colorado. Entries are submitted via the Center’s easy to use on-line system. Submitted work is juried by internationally recognized individuals matched to the theme of the exhibition. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t know how many of my readers know about Illustration Friday, but it’s a great little site that provides inspiration through new ideas through that are posted as weekly challenges. A topic is posted every Friday and then participants have all week to come up with their own interpretation. Then, one image is chosen randomly from the previous week to be displayed.

Another helpful part of Illustration Friday is the art forum. The art forum is meant to build a creative community. A safe place to discuss creative issues, ask questions or just get feedback on your work. If you’re anything like me, you’ll spend hours looking through the great talent shown on this site…

by Gerry McGovern

Practical and functional websites rarely win prizes for design but they do win sales and make profits.

Recently, I did a masterclass on web sales with about 50 Danish web managers. I gave them a list of issues and asked them to choose the most important ones for them. The top 5 issues for these managers were: Increase sales, Customer-focused, Usability, Completing the sale, Serving customers better. Read the rest of this entry »