An invitation is extended to all people interested in the design and development of better, more integrated, healthier and more innovative forms of privately developed residential communities to participate in an internationally open design competition for a site located north of Johannesburg, South Africa.

The competition will be open to local, national and international designers, and will not be restricted to qualified professionals, but to individuals or teams who feel they can contribute to the debate around the way people live in Joburg.

The winner will be chosen this year and the project will be completed in 2009 when the complex is officially opened. Registration for the competition closes on 30 April at midday. Information on eligibility, deliverables, site information and judging criteria will be available on the Jozi Style website.

The Fort Lauderdale Anime & Animation Convention will hold three events this year. The first event - Anime Supercon - is already moving along and will be held at the Inverarry Hotel on 13-15 April. Second event is the South Florida Comic Book, Sci-Fi, Animation & Anime Convention on 22-24 June. The final event, Florida Supercon 3, will be held on 7-9 December.

Each event has screenings or applications for various levels of participation. Visit the Anime Supercon site first, and then sign up for emails so that you can received updates on all events.

I want to give a shout out to folks in who have clicked in here from Adobe News Aggregator at http://weblogs.macromedia.com/. The couple above thinks that you all are the cat’s meow.

The top viewing numbers this past month come from: 1) New York; 2) Los Angeles (who held the #1 spot until yesterday); 3) London; 4) Chicago, and; 5) San Francisco. Toronto held a steady #5 all month, but they’ve dropped off the top ten stat list entirely. Instead, Calgary has climbed from out of nowhere to #6.

It will be interesting to see the top five cities at the end of March now, won’t it? Tell your friends about GDB and boost your city’s ratings…While you do that, you might note the following:

• Adobe has released their Photoshop Lightroom 1.0.
• It was a record year for entries to the Webby - go to the site to sign up for the next Webby announcements.
• The Ukraine Anti-AIDS poster competition deadline has been extended to 31 March. It appears that anyone can enter, but you might want to hurry to account for postal time frames.

Now excuse me while I pull the cat off the dog so I can finish reading the paper. Have a great weekend!

Juried by a nationally representative jury of distinguished designers, art directors and photographers, each year’s Communication Arts (CA) Photography Annual features the best photography used for advertising, design, editorial and any other area of the communication arts. The judges of the photography annual are only judging the images, not the typography, design or art direction (entrants who want the design or art direction of their pieces to be considered should enter them in the CA Advertising and Design competitions). Each photograph is a single entry. Therefore, a piece with several images must be considered a series. There is a maximum of five images in each series; if a piece is entered and there are more than five images on it, the five that are to be judged must be marked in some way. Visit Communication Arts for details.

Juried by a nationally representative jury of distinguished designers, art directors and illustrators, each year’s Communication Arts (CA) Illustration Annual features the best work in drawing, painting, collage, electronic and three-dimensional illustration. The judges of the illustration annuals are only judging the images, not the typography, design or art direction (entrants who want the design or art direction of their pieces to be considered should enter them in the CA Advertising and Design competitions) Each illustration is a single entry. Therefore, a piece with several images must be considered a series. There is a maximum of five images in each series; if a piece is entered and there are more than five images on it, the five that are to be judged must be marked in some way. Many more directions are available at the site.

The 2007 Women’s Jewelry Association (WJA) DIVA design competition has gone platinum with help from Platinum Guild International. This year’s theme, “2 People, 3 Platinum Rings,” challenges women jewelry designers to depict one engagement ring and two wedding bands in platinum. In addition to a cash prize of $2,000 from WJA, the winning design will be manufactured by Lieberfarb, Inc., and displayed at the Platinum Pavilion during the JCK Show ~ Las Vegas 2007.

PGI is providing a packet of platinum benefits valued at $15,000. It includes a private two-hour consultation with Jurgen Maerz, PGI director of Technical Education and copies of all platinum technical materials produced by PGI. In addition, the winning design will be displayed on the PreciousPlatinum.com and on EngagementGuide.com. Read the rest of this entry »