NOTE: see comment below this post for information about the March event! Or, go straight to this Arts for Progress event.

Fashion designers, filmmakers and visual artists - gear up for the 2007 Clash of the Artists competition sponsored by Art for Progress. The Clash of the Artists 2007 event will be attended by a bevy of media, press and other industry interested parties. Visual arts finalists will be displayed in a static gallery exhibition, the live music finalists will perform at a live music venue, the fashion design finalist’s work will be showcased at a live runway show, while the DJ finalists will perform at a live party event.

Submissions will be reviewed by a Peer Jury consisting of current Art For Progress artist members. Jury selections will then appear on the Art For Progress website, at which point online open-to-the-public voting will ensue. Finalists will be determined by the outcome of the online voting. The Jury reviews the submissions without knowing who the artist is so that each entry is judged just on the merits of just the submitted works. All finalists will participate in the Clash of the Artists 2007 multi-day event that will take place in New York City, late February 2007. (NOTE: all finalists will be responsible for their own transportation to the event). Submissions accepted until 7 January 2007. Visit the site for details.

Northeastern University is pleased to announce a call for work for the 2007 Visual Music Marathon, to be held on 28 April 2007 as part of the Boston Cyberarts Festival. The 10-hour event will include screenings of new and historic works that reflect the Marathon’s theme and an exciting live video component. Approximately thirty minutes of programming will be selected for national cablecast on the Harmony Channel’s Mood Zones, available to subscribers of digital cable on the Comcast network. (The Harmony Channel will negotiate individual fees with selected artists.)

Works submitted for screening should illustrate in some form the concept or use of visual music. Abstract/non-representational (”fine art” or “experimental”) works with original music are especially encouraged. Works must be postmarked by 22 January 2007 to be considered. There is no entry fee. Visit the site for complete details and submission form.

Until December 31, 2006, CameraArts Magazine will be accepting entries for its very first photography contest at The CameraArts Blog. The theme for December will be “People & Portraits.� Only low res jpegs will be accepted, in color or black and white, digital or traditional. Every week during December they will post the best submissions at http://cameraarts.blogspot.com.

…and that’s not all. For the first week of the New Year, CameraArts readers will have a chance to vote on their favorite entries. Three winners will be announced soon afterwards, and each will receive a FREE one-year subscription (or 6-issue renewal) to CameraArts magazine. Photographers will retain all rights to each image and CameraArts will be able to use images for publicity and promotion. One image per person, please! Read the rest of this entry »

The Tag Media In-store Television Network has invited all Advertising Agencies, Design firms, and students to submit Public Service announcements for any cause that they strongly support. The top three causes will be aired on the Network for a period of one month starting from 23rd December 2006. The creative teams involved in the creation of the top three Public Service Announcements will be interviewed and broadcast on the network as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Many of you know that I write articles for DMXzone.com. And, probably just as many of you know that I’ve fallen into the habit of developing seventeen articles on a given topic, and that these articles are eventually bound into an E-book that’s made available solely through DMX. The Photoshop series was finalized this past week (no clue as to when the book will be available, but I imagine something before the end of January). The next series was approved today - a series on portfolio projects that you can use to illustrate the breadth of your graphic design capabilities. The first article will begin next week, and it’s one of amny modified projects that I developed as an undergraduate visual communications major with a focus on Information Architecture (IA).

If you’re interested in this upcoming series, you might also be interested in IA - or, rather, in its demise. Or, perhaps, you might be curious about the notion that the inherent structure of information simply needs to be renamed or restructured to consider relationships. If you want to learn more about the substance behind IA and its current course, I suggest that you head to Bokardo’s post, “Thoughts on the Impending Death of Information Architecture,” and then follow the links found there and so on. Or, try Scott Weisbrod’s thoughts about, “Information Architecture Is Not Dead… But It Might Be Stuck.”

Have a great weekend. I’m going to wrap my dog around my neck to protect myself against the chill and go shopping, shopping, shopping.

My daughter loves this scarf, which - to me - just looks like a compilation of a variety of yarn textures strung from a number of skein weights (and it is!). But - the monochromatic and textural simplicity behind this scarf is its appeal. You can see the scarf in its available sizes (small, thin, big) and colors, along with illustrations by Valentina Landi at Aforest-Design. Aforest is an experimental fashion design studio located in Lisbon, Portugal.