The Rosicrucian Order is replacing the lawn areas at Rosicrucian Park, in San Jose, with California Native Plants and they invite you to participate. They are looking for a brilliant landscape design that complements their Egyptian architecture and gardens, using California native plants that require little to no water once they reach maturity.

There will be two 1st place prizes of $2,500, one prize for each area. Entrants who submit designs for both areas are eligible to win both 1st place prizes for a total of $5,000. Submission deadline - 15 September 2007. You can do it - especially if you know anything about Xeriscaping.

The winning designs will become the property of the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC and will be put out to bid for installation. Visit the site to learn more.

The prestigious Innovations Design and Engineering Awards program recognizes the most innovative consumer electronics (CE) products in the industry’s hottest product categories. Innovations has become a hallmark for the best designed products in consumer technology.

Featured in a special display at the 2008 International CES at Innovations Plus at the Sands, honorees receive recognition throughout the entire show and in a variety of events and press articles before and after the International CES.

Innovations 2008 Design and Engineering Awards are open to all, regardless of CES exhibitor status. Entries will be accepted through 28 September with the honorees being announced at CES Unveiled@NY on 13 November at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. Visit the site to learn more.

All right, web geeks. Don’t even bother to wash your hair. Or go digging for a shirt from this century. You want to really get noticed? Then enter your best work into Applied Arts Interactive Awards 2007.

Winners receive exceptional year-round recognition in:

• The glossy Interactive Issue, published in March 2008, is read by more than 65,000 clients, colleagues and competitors — many of whom are actual, real live girls.
• The year-round site, www.appliedartsmag.com, features the winners in the Awards Gallery, which attracts more than 200,000 unique visitors annually — many of whom might in fact be virtual girls.

Entries must have been active between September 2006 to September 2007.The awards are open internationally to all those involved in the process of developing Interactive Media for corporate or non-corporate organizations, companies, etc. Girls too.

Deadline for submission is 28 September 2007. Visit the site to learn more.

Manga publisher Go! Comi in association with the New York Anime Festival and TheOtaku.com today announced the first contest devoted to manga fan-comics, known in Japan as “doujinshi.”

The contest is based on Go! Comi’s best-selling manga series “Black Sun, Silver Moon,” by Tomo Maeda. The series is the story of the complex relationship between the enigmatic zombie-hunting priest Shikimi and his apprentice Taki, who is destined to kill him.
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At Right: Solar Panel Jiutepec, Morelos, Mexico - Designed by BaSiC Initiative

The international Berkeley Prize for Undergraduate Design Excellence launches on 1 November 2008. Each year the Berkeley Prize, whose primary goal is to foster a larger awareness and understanding of the social art of architecture, sponsors an essay competition and a travel fellowship competition open to undergraduates studying architecture throughout the world.

A total of $7,500 in prize money is awarded to the essay competition winners. The Travel Fellow is given round-trip airfare and a stipend to attend a major international architectural event in the summer of 2008.
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Create a short animation that’s 8 seconds long and that visually expresses “happy birthday.” Then, compete weekly to win Shapeshifter t-shirts and for the grand prize of the Wacom Intuos3 A5 Tablet Pen and Mouse USB Mac/Win.

Free to enter, but get crackin’ - you need to get your entry in by 6 September at the latest to be eligible for a t-shirt or for the grand prize that will be awarded 12 September. Visit the site to learn more.