Show off your talent
If you use CorelDRAW or are a newcomer to this excellent program you have a chance of winning prizes by entering your best work in the CorelDRAW International design contest 2011.

The contest details
All entries must be submitted as a CorelDRAW® X5 or Corel® PHOTO-PAINT^TM X5 file.

For those who do not have access to these software programs, you may download the free trial version of CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite X5.
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Corel states that there are 6 categories in this competition:

* Advertising/Marketing: Flyers, brochures, logos and other designs related to advertising, ….marketing or point of purchase (POP)
* Signs/Awards/Personalization: Designs to be used in sign ….making, engraving, awards, dye sublimation and other ….related industries
* Vehicle Wraps: Designs to be used for car, truck, boat or ….other vehicle wraps
* Textile/Fashion Design: Designs for fashion, embroidery and ….direct-to-garment printing
* General Illustration & Fine Art: Artistic, creative and unique ….designs
* CorelDRAW Marketing Campaign: Create a design to be ….featured in a CorelDRAW marketing campaign. Entries can ….be of any style, and will be judged on creativity and overall ….theme

There will also be student winners selected for each of the categories.

Prizes
Each of the winners will receive various software and hardware packages from favorites such as Roland®, Wilcom®, Euro-Systems®, Digital Designware, Apple®, Digital Art Solutions, Wacom®, Canon®, HP, Seagate® and Corel®.

The total value of all prizes awarded is over $75,000 US.

One Grand Prize winner will be awarded a Roland VersaCAMM SP-300i printer valued at $13,450 USD.

General submission guidelines

* The maximum file size for each entry is 50MB
* You may submit only one entry per category (total six)
* Individuals from certain countries or regions in the U.S. are not eligible to ….participate. (See full contest rules for details)
* Your entries must be created using CorelDraw X5, Corel Photo-Paint XB or ….the trial versions of these products.
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Contest links and details
This contest has no entry fee and ends on June 30, 2011.The following links provide additional contest information:

Official Corel contest website
Complete contest rules and guidelines
Online submission form
Complete prize list
Free trial CorelDRAW Suite X5
CorelDraw gallery

Graphic design school and design software
Enrolling in graphic design school is a large step in preparing for a career in graphic design. You will learn essential skills in using the best design software and hardware in the industry.

If you are a graphic designer who wants to increase your skill level and become more proficient in design software such as CorelDraw Suite, Photoshop Suite, and other cutting edge programs, speak to a graphic design college representative to see what courses are available.

You look mahhhvelous dahling!
Prada, Christian Dior, Donatella Versace, and Ralph Lauren are some of the names and brands that are synonymous with fashion.

Fashion has a trickle-down effect in the industry. What you see on 5^th Avenue and Paris runways eventually influence what you may see on the clothes racks of your local department store or clothing outlets.
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Let the ads begin!
Fashion design ads are the mainstay for designers in getting the word out about new lines of clothing and coming trends. Fashion advertisements can sometimes run into bumps along the road if attention to detail is lacking in the design phase.

In this installment of Graphic design mistakes and blunders we’ll look closely at some fashion advertisements and see, literally, where things went off course.

Look and laugh but above all, learn from the missteps that can sometimes occur even to the best of us.

InStyle out of style?
InStyle magazine says that it provides ‘…the best of what’s in fashion’ plus glimpses of  ‘celebrity lifestyles.’

In this advertisement from InStyle, Amy Adams strikes a pose for the photographer and shows off her colorful gown. But there is something about this photo that seems odd.

Can you spot the error?

While the lighting for this photograph is good, the pose is not. Amy tries to give her best model pout pose but it turns into something comical because she looks as if she has the beginnings of a headache.

What also looks odd is her posing like a stork–if you look closely she only seems to be standing on just one leg.

We are guessing that Amy’s other leg is exiting out on the other side of the dress but the pose doesn’t indicate this at all.
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Elegant but wait…
In this ad for Calleija Jewelers we see the model in full wedding attire amidst muted pastel pinks. It works well on many levels.

The color palette for the set is nicely done, the pose is good, and the advertisement has an upscale feel to it.

However, there seems to be something a bit askew with the otherwise serene setting of the photograph.

Can you spot the error?

The movie ET, directed by Stephen Spielberg, was a blockbuster hit. The main character, ET (extraterrestrial) is stranded on Earth and longs to find a way back to his home planet.

The model in this ad seems to have taken a cue from ET–she also sports a rather long neck. Was this a Photoshop error or just a bad camera angle? We don’t know but this mistake could have been prevented before the ad was published.
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GQ or DQ?
GQ stands for Gentleman’s Quarterly and is a mainstay magazine for men who are into fashion and the good life. DQ stands for disqualification in sporting events. In this particular GQ ad, we believe it has been dq’ed for bad art direction.

We like the concept in the Ralph Lauren ad but unfortunately the execution of the idea has crashed due to the way the shadow on the wall is depicted.

Yes, it could have been on purpose, but to what purpose we are at a loss to explain. In any event, the otherwise classy advertisement comes off as funny and a bit disturbing.

Graphic design school and advertising
If you are interested in advertising, enrolling in a graphic design college is a good first step in the right direction. You’ll learn about design principles, proper layout, computer graphics, and many other topics that can help you in your design career.

Make an appointment with a graphic design school representative to see how an education in design can help you to qualify for jobs in the advertising industry.

Mistakes on Purpose?
The principles you learn in graphic design school are meant to teach you the basics of design, composition and artistic technique.

Once you know the rules you can sometimes break them for effect.

In this article, we’ll go over a few errors. Can you tell if they were done on purpose or are they real mistakes? (Click on the images to see the larger versions.)

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What’s wrong with this picture?
Nicki Minaj is a successful hip hop singer who likes to reveal her personal experiences in the song lyrics she writes. Her most recent album, Pink Friday, has her posing as a Barbie doll.

Upon the release of the album many fans and non-fans remarked that the doll’s legs were highly disproportional to the rest of its body and that the arms seemed to be missing as well.

Question: Is this design by mistake or on purpose? (Make your decision before looking at the answer.)

Answer: On purpose

According to GL Wood, the photographer who shot the image, the effect of distortion was used to make a statement about the “perfect” Barbie image and lifestyle.

“[Nicki] wanted to rip [the doll's] arms off to really do the whole Barbie theme; [it's] like when little girls trash their dolls. She wanted to look like one of those broken Barbies.

“There [are] people who are going to get it and not get it, but that’s the point. There [are] few if any female artists now who are pushing the envelope. And that’s far from a bad thing.”
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The image is shocking and attention grabbing and many fans say that they expected no less from Nicki Minaj.

Prada goes negative
Prada is a well-known brand among fashionistas. But just how do you publicize the latest fashion line produced by this company? Do you use bright colors or do you use close-ups of the models?

In this ad, Prada decides to go starkly minimalist.

Question: Is this a design mistake or done on purpose?

Answer: On purpose

As a photographer, art director or graphic designer the very idea of not filling in blank space is hard to overcome. However, the concept of negative space can be very effective in emphasizing an idea or product.

In this Prada advertisement the design draws you to the two biggest ideas of the image: Prada and the clothes. Nothing distracts you from these two points.

But one thing does seem to surface as a mistake; the model could have been angled slightly more to the right in order to show her arm instead of an empty shoulder sleeve.

We know — picky, picky, picky.

Graphic design school and the principles of graphic design
Beethoven produced some of the most beautiful classical music ever composed. But music students frequently point out “mistakes” in his harmony such as recurring parallel fifths.

But as one music teacher said, “You need to know the rules before you break them. He knew he was breaking the rules.”

Graphic design college helps you to be proficient in proper layout, design and technique. You’ll also understand that sometimes breaking the rules can be of benefit in designing your graphics.

Speak to a graphic design school representative to see what courses can help you in your design skills.

Next Time…
We’ll take a close look at fashion advertisements and see how too much or too little Photoshopping can hurt a design.

Learn from the mistakes
Graphic design schools can teach you the proper design principles needed to become a proficient graphic designer, but sometimes mistakes are the defining things that help you to learn what works and what doesn’t.

In the next few articles we will show you the mistakes of others. The comforting part is they are not your mistakes.

The “funny” side is these errors were made by the professionals, which gives us all comfort that even the best of us can make mistakes.

In the following graphics we’ll provide a short commentary on what went wrong and what we can learn from these missteps.

We want to give a big thanks to all the members of the website psdisasters.com for providing all of the leads.

Size really does matter
A good rule of thumb when assembling composite images is to be aware of the proper size perspectives of different objects as they relate to one another. In the case of this Onkyo sound system ad, something has gone awry.
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There are lots of interesting elements in the background of this ad: musicians, singers and a miniature elephant.

It is understood that the various people and animals represent the clarity of the sound system, but the tiny elephant and other disproportional elements makes the ad look cheap.
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Physiology 101
If you took biology, anatomy or physiology classes in high school or college, you’ll remember a great many graphics and illustrations of the human body and how it works.

When it comes to human anatomy, the structure and “rightness” of what a typical body looks like is second nature to most of us. In this ad, the model strikes an elegant pose. But something is wrong…
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The dress the model is wearing is draped a certain way so that her legs appear to be disjointed from her body. Is it a bad camera angle or a Photoshop mistake? Only the art director knows.
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One, two, three, four…
Although graphic design is primarily about images, graphics and layout, the need to be accurate in numbers is also very important. In this poster for a fighting exhibition, the contenders look ready and willing to fight.

But does one competitor have an unfair advantage in the scheduled bout?
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If you look closely at the opponent on the left, he is striking a pose with his fists. But the odd thing about the pose is the number of knuckles showing through his boxing glove. It appears this man has six fingers!

In reality, this is just an example where a little Photoshop magic could have helped. The extra “knuckle” showing is actually his palm appearing through an opening in the glove.

The other fighter also shows the opening, but it doesn’t appear like a finger as in the case of the fighter, Bonnar.
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Graphic design school and principles of design
Layout, perspective, color and design are some of the important elements you’ll learn at graphic design college. These graphic design principles will help you to create and produce images of professional quality.

The attention to detail, making sure all the graphics are presented properly, and ensuring that your piece is free of mistakes is up to you.

Next time…
In part two of “Photoshop mistakes and blunders” we’ll show you more examples of how little details can make the difference between a great design and an unintentionally funny one.

Design a great t-shirt for Firefox
If you can read this you may be one of the many who use Firefox as the preferred browser for surfing the Internet. You now have a chance to help celebrate the coming release of Firefox 4.0 by creating a cool t-shirt.

Mozilla, the developers of this free browser states:

“Create a unique t-shirt design that captures the essence of the upcoming release of Firefox 4. You’ll be designing for the front only, as the back will already have the Firefox word-mark printed.”

Things to consider before designing the t-shirt
Mozilla strongly recommends designers to familiarize themselves with several aspects of the Firefox brand and what should be considered when creating their images:

“* Mozilla has given the browser a completely fresh new look, and loaded it with cutting edge new features….

* At its core, Firefox is about people and is powered by an amazing global community of individuals working together to make the web a better place for everyone.

* You’re highly encouraged to interpret the above themes in creative, abstract and interesting ways. Please don’t be literal. For example, note how the Firefox 3 t-shirt design embodies the concept of community in a creative way.

* It’s not a requirement to use the Firefox logo in your design.”

General contest rules

* The best placement for the design is a 10-by-10 inch square on the front of the t-shirt
* Be sure to describe what colored t-shirt your design will be on
* Do not submit t-shirts with designs on them. Send in only images
* Your images should be in hi-res (300 dpi)
* Graphic files should be saved in either PNG or JPG (keep your original)
* Your originals should be created in a SVG format (Illustrator, Inkscape, etc.)

The winning design will be used for the printing of the official Firefox 4 Launch t-shirt. The t-shirt design will be listed in the Mozilla store and will be distributed to Firefox fans and contributors.

The winner will have bragging rights as the sole winner of this contest.

Other information and contest links
The deadline for this contest is March 13, 2011. This contest is free to enter. The following links provide more contest information.

Official contest site
Previous contest design examples
Registration site

Some tips of the trade on graphic design school scholarships
Everyone has received tips on how to do something faster or better.

In this two-part series we’ll present some advice on the topic of scholarships and grants for graphic design college and how to avoid some of the red tape and pitfalls associated with scholarship applications.

1. Apply locally
There are literally millions of dollars in scholarship money available to those who are diligent, talented or in need of financial assistance. But keep in mind that national scholarship contests or grants are highly competitive.

You can still apply but expect a wide field of other applicants vying for the same resources.

However, another way to approach this situation is to apply for local scholarships at graphic design schools or various other organizations in your city or state.

While there will still be competition for local scholarships, the number of applicants to these programs will be substantially smaller and will give you better odds of being noticed.

2. Avoid paying for scholarship or grant information services
Scholarship information is always free. But there are new companies cropping up on the Internet that promise to fill out all the paperwork out for you.

Several companies offer assistance (for a fee) in applying for FAFSA (Free Application for Student Aid) from the government or other scholarship programs; steer clear of these scams.

Are these companies legitimate? Would you pay another person to go to the library to find certain books for you? Probably not, and neither should you pay companies to do the legwork for you in seeking out scholarships and filling out applications.

Applying for a scholarship is serious business and leaving your future to a company where there is no oversight on what it is doing for you is wasted money, and most likely a confidence swindle.

Graphic design school scholarships and financial aid
Getting the education you need to qualify for jobs in graphic design may be an important door opener for your career. Many entry level positions require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree and proper training in graphic design principles is a must.

Graphic design college expenses can be offset in part by scholarships or grants. These are provided by government agencies, colleges, and private firms. Be sure to look into these for possible assistance.

Next time…
We’ll tell you about an industrious and persistent student who was able to pay for his entire college education through scholarships. We’ll also cover some of the things you should avoid when applying for scholarship money and grants.

Until next time, keep on designing!