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 »

It’s Friday! And this Friday is the door to Halloween, or Samhein, or the beginning of the Celtic New Year. This weekend is represented by the Crone Goddesses (among other deities), so I’m in a place of power for the next few days. Don’t mess with me!

Sébastien Théraulaz is coming into his power as well, with new typefaces and illustrations that have been noticed by HOW magazine, Debut publications, and Grafika. The Halloween illustration at right is one example from Subtitude, a site that showcases this company’s talents. Check out their studio work at sub communication for their perspectives on film, animation graphics, and print.

Be careful this weekend, mon cher!