Keeseh Studio invites students and design enthusiasts to celebrate the pursuit of ecodesign through an international competition to utilize waste material.

A given manufacturing facility creates many copies of a product; therefore they create many copies of their waste material as well. Waste material can be used as raw material for other products or processes; this concept is known as upcycling.

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It’s that time again - time for the reddot design award. Participation extends to all designers, design studios, companies, research laboratories, inventors, design professionals and students from anywhere in the world are eligible to enter.

All kinds of inventions, novelty designs and aesthetic designs that are not in the market, and not produced for sale before 1 December 2008 can be entered. Award decisions are taken on the concept presentations directly by the jury during the adjudication process.

Registration deadline is 11 July 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

Spark is the exciting new competition created to promote great design and designers. They invite everyone to participate - designers, art directors, architects, design firms, manufacturers, institutions, ad agencies, students and novices may enter and enjoy the Spark Design Awards.

Graphics, product, transportation and architecture are just a few of the many design categories accepted. If you or your company create great designs, don’t miss the opportunity to compete in this important event.

To accommodate the greatest possible range of designs and designers, and to lower the initial cost of entry, the SparkAwards are now configured as a “two-phase” competition, just like a sports playoff series. In Phase I, the entrant will upload an image of their work and short description to the Spark website. The Phase I fee is US$125.

The first phase (virtual jury) final deadline is August 1. An international jury will carefully review the entries in early August. Phase I entrants chosen by the Jury will then have the option to participate in Phase II, as a Spark “Challenger “candidate, with payment of a second fee of $250. Phase II deadline is September 1, 2008. Jurists will judge the actual, physical works of design, so you’ll need to ship your design to the Jury site by September 5. Visit the site to learn more.

Join the metacycle community by helping to increase product longevity through design and rapid prototyping technologies. In the design lab, they present the following design challenge: Choose one of 10 selected objects and transform it into a new, functional and eco-responsible product. For example, take a flip phone and turn it into a makeup case.

The winning idea will be developed by the professional designers of the Metacycle team and all commercial rights will remain with the originator of the idea. A physical model will be created and shipped to the winner.

Deadline is 30 June 2008. Winner will be chosen by 15 July. Visit the site to learn more.

Create a Concept Car which is designed to evolve within the cities of the future, whilst retaining the key values of the 21st century. The projects should bear Peugeot’s stylistic codes and must contain the following four aspects included in this design competition: environmental awareness, social harmony, interactive mobility and economic efficiency. The theme this year is “IMAGINE THE PEUGEOT IN THE WORLDWIDE MEGALOPOLIS OF TOMORROW.”

Together with the design, entrants must include a text explaining the concept of the vehicle. During selection, particular consideration will be given to the following: the originality of the concept and the clarity of explanations, faithfulness to the values of the Peugeot brand, creativity regarding style and the quality of the final product. At the end of the competition, PEUGEOT will build a full size model of the winning vehicle, which will be exhibited at the Shanghai Motor Show in April 2009.

Any net users who wish to enter should connect to the Internet site http://www.peugeot.com under the heading “Design” before 20 July 2008. Correspondence is by e-mail only. Follow the instructions on the website.

In the Crystal vision competition, you will come up with new products and ideas to fill the new Swarovski concept. You should explore the properties of this unique material and challenge people’s perception of how crystal can be used in the near future. What role could crystal play in an urban lifestyle and make you feel better? How feminine and sensual can crystal pieces be and make you more beautiful? They are looking for innovative product concepts that might be based on pure crystal or that fuse with crystal with new materials or functions. Don’t think about crystal cities, furniture or cars, however, as the product must be ‘packageable’ and should be able to be sold over the counter.

Deadline is 12 June 2008. Participation is open to applicants from every country in the world, to professionals, students, and design-enthusiasts. Free registration required. Visit designboom to learn more.

The BraunPrize is an internationally recognised design competition open to young industrial designers who are still studying or who have graduated within the last two years. This year, the BraunPrize 2009’s theme is, “Envision conscious design.” Current industrial design students as well as recent graduates have until January 31, 2009 to submit their product concepts to Braun (the participation is free of charge).

The total prize money amounts to EUR 36,000. The winner of the BraunPrize will receive EUR 12,000 in prize money and a (paid) six-month internship in the Design Department at Braun. The other finalists will each receive a prize of EUR 5,000. The remaining prize money will be distributed in the form of special recognition awards at the discretion of the jury. Visit the site to learn more.

The 20th annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair will be held 17-20 May this year at New York’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. North America’s singular showcase for contemporary design, this Fair draws the most intrepid seekers of design truth and design trends to an extraordinary exhibition of the most inspired models of design on the forefront as well as thought-provoking programs and a schedule of supplementary exhibits and features.

View and draw inspiration from displays of furniture, seating, carpet and flooring, lighting, outdoor furniture, materials, images, accessories, textiles and kitchen and bath. For more information, visit the ICFF site.

For the fourth consecutive year, the James Dyson Foundation is hosting its highly regarded student design competition. Eye for Why is a tremendous opportunity for students at any of the NASAD-accredited degree programs or individual student members of IDSA to demonstrate new and alternative design solutions that simply work better.

This year, Dyson is introducing an exciting new way to share your entry and allow you to interact and connect with your peers. After all, you are now part of the design community, and community is an essential part of the design world. So think of the Eye for Why entry portal, powered by introNetworks, as the next evolution in social networking. Once you’ve created your profile, you can upload your design to share with the community or limit access to those in your network. You can also post videos, blog about your Eye for Why experience, and connect with other design students to share ideas and network.

Entries are due on 9 February 2008, and the contest is open to students at any of the National Association of Schools of Art & Design-accredited degree programs or individual student members of IDSA. Visit the site to learn more.

Via: Dexigner

If you think you can predict Apple’s “Next Big Thing,” as in an “i” product (iPhone, iPod, etc.), then you might want to enter the “Next Big Thing” contest. Mac|Life, Maxon, and the Academy of Art University are co sponsoring a contest to find the best fictional product prototypes (aka “fauxtotypes”) laced with Apple design DNA. They don’t care if your ideas are visionary or absurd. They want to see how you interpret the future of Apple product design.

According to the contest site, “The best submissions will appear in Mac|Life magazine and on Maclife.com. Our grand prize winner will receive a scholarship for the Academy of Art University, and a boxed copy of Maxon Cinema 4D. Four runners-up, plus our grand prize winner, will each receive $100 gift cards for Newegg.com.”

So, if you’re an industrial designer, a 2D artist, or a 3D illustrator (or all three), decide if you want to win any of these items before you jump into the contest. Remember - Apple isn’t involved in the contest at all. Hence, the “fauxtotypes” deal. Deadline is 31 January, 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

Via: Core77