SCION is a modern-thinking brand on the forefront of youth culture and innovation, known for engaging its consumers in an interactive quest for creative ideas. One of SCION’s trademarks is its support of organizations that also seek to connect with children and young adults in expressive, artistic ways.

In its mission to advocate community outreach and foster creativity in the younger generation, SCION now joins forces with Cut&Paste in the FRESHLY SQUEEZED WEB DESIGN CHALLENGE (”Contest”). The website design competition will benefit J.U.i.C.E., a non-profit weekly after-school program that allows the underprivileged youth of Los Angeles to express themselves artistically through dance, music, visual arts, and MC skills workshops.

As J.U.i.C.E. focuses its resources on programming and operations, they need your help: SCION’s new online competition, the FRESHLY SQUEEZED WEB DESIGN CHALLENGE summons all web designers, illustrators, graffiti connoisseurs, coding geniuses, hip-hop enthusiasts, and creatives all around to help J.U.i.C.E. refine their online presence with a brand new homepage design. Web designs submitted for the competition should embody J.U.i.C.E.’s urban aesthetic and youthful spirit, while adding to the site’s functionality as a user-friendly vehicle for communication.

So, help city kids, put $5K in your pocket, and get your work seen. Submit your designs for a new and improved Web site for J.U.i.C.E., a nonprofit hip-hop arts program for LA’s urban youth, and you’ll be entered to win five grand, courtesy of SCION. All entries must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on April 10, 2009. Visit the site to learn more.

In recognition and celebration of the many artistic mediums employed by Gordon Parks to critical acclaim, the Delaware Art Museum is partnering with the Christina Cultural Arts Center to launch the “Eye/I Witness Gordon Parks Art Competition.” The competition’s categories are Photography, Poetry, and Film.

Submissions should reflect the significant themes found in the works of Gordon Parks. “Eye/I Witness” is open to all interested participants, and no entry fee is required. Selected works will be recognized at an evening celebration at the Delaware Art Museum on Friday, November 7.

Submission period is September 1 through September 26, 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

It is not always the subject, but the Negative Space around the subject that makes a photograph truly stunning. This exhibition will highlight the compositional element that makes up the space not commonly seen.

This exhibition is open to all domestic and international, professional and amateur, photographers working with digital or traditional photography or combinations of both. The Center for Fine Art Photography invites photographers working in all mediums, styles and schools of thought to participate in its exhibitions. Traditional, contemporary, avant-garde, creative and experimental and mixed techniques are welcome.

Deadline is October 14, 2008. Visit the Center for Fine Art Photography to learn more.

New for 2009 is the ScreenBurn at SXSW Game Design Competition which provides a venue for emerging designers to pitch their concept to a jury of established professionals. Participants in this event are challenged to excite the imagination with a description of the game they want to build.

These proposals are entirely conceptual - but tight organization is a must as these entries cannot exceed 200 words in length. Semi-finalists for the ScreenBurn at SXSW Game Design Competition will be announced in mid January.

These semi-finalists will then construct a three-minute slideshow presentation that graphically illustrates their concept. Finalists will be chosen to present at the event after the jury reviews these slideshow presentations.

There is no fee to enter the Game Design Competition, however, each person may only submit two proposals. The entry process runs through Friday, December 5. Visit the site to learn more.

This is an open call to students around the world: Use your creative talent and strategic design skills to address the global water crisis. The Aspen Design Challenge is an annual call to students worldwide, inviting them to address an international problem that is not only crucial in today’s world, but critical to our survival and the world that we will one day inhabit.

The Challenge is a partnership between AIGA, the professional association for design, in the United States, and INDEX:, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to changing global mindsets by exploring and showing how design can improve life for people. This year’s challenge, “Designing Water’s Future,” is a collaboration between Circle of Blue - the international network of leading journalists, scientists and communications designers that reports and presents the information necessary to respond to the global freshwater crisis - and COLLINS:, a communication design and innovation firm based in New York City.

An online entry system will be available October 1, and December 15, 2008 is the deadline for entries. The guidelines are too extensive and too eloquent to cut, so I suggest you go to the site to learn more.

Nature is beauty, majestic and inspiring. The Art of Nature will illustrate all aspects of nature in it’s many tableaus: landscape, seascape, wildlife, floral, water, environment and weather.

This exhibition is open to all domestic and international, professional and amateur, photographers working with digital or traditional photography or combinations of both. The Center for Fine Art Photography invites photographers working in all mediums, styles and schools of thought to participate in its exhibitions. Traditional, contemporary, avant-garde, creative and experimental and mixed techniques are welcome.

Deadline is September 16, 2008. Visit the Center for Fine Art Photography to learn more.