Tate Art Galleries, with four locations in the United Kingdom, and cultureLabel.com–an unique culture store that offer items from over 70 museum shops, artists, galleries and institutions are announcing an open call to all graphic artists and designers to enter the 2010 Release Contest.

Contest Details
The sponsors of this contest are seeking, “…two outstanding product designs that will be produced and sold in Tate shops, through Tate Online and at CultureLabel.com.”

According to the contest guidelines, the winning product design could:

* Capture the experience of Tate visitors, be they young or old, from the UK or from across the …globe
* Capture the impact that Tate has had on the public’s experience of galleries and its influence on …the arts
* Be inspired by the architecture of the buildings, such as the iconic Tate Modern, which is 10 years …old in 2010
* Be inspired by any of Tate galleries, which include Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate St Ives, Tate …Liverpool and also Tate Online

There are two product design categories - products that fall into a retail price range of up to £10 (15 USD) and the second with a retail price of up to £100 (150 USD).

Product Design Guidelines
For a product that will be sold for up to £10 (15 USD) the sponsors state:

“This product will become a much-loved and widely recognized souvenir of any visit to a Tate gallery - the object that anyone visitor will want to take home.

“You might want to focus on London and Tate Modern or Tate Britain and seek to create an iconic tourist souvenir that rivals the ‘Mind the Gap T-shirt’. Or, perhaps you are more inspired by the idyllic coastal setting of Tate St Ives or the post-industrial gallery spaces of Tate Liverpool?

“We want to capture the experience of someone visiting Tate - whether the magic of the first visit or the allure that keeps people coming back. Alternatively, you might seek to capture the impact that Tate has had on the public’s experience of art - transforming galleries into experiential, interactive and lifestyle spaces attracting incredibly diverse audiences.”

For example, some ideas for the sub £10 class of products could be things such as key fobs, cups, posters, t-shirts, folios, pens or other small items.

For product designs that will be sold for up to £100 (150 USD) the guidelines state:

“This more premium product might be the collector’s item that captures the human experience held in Tate.

“We still want to capture the spirit of Tate described above but this product could be a much sought after limited edition, object or accessory and would have the creative flair, artistic and design values reflecting Tate brand and the higher price point.”

Ideas for products in this pricing tier could be, but not limited to, items such as special edition posters or prints, ceramic pieces, jewelry or lithography prints.

Prizes
The winner will receive a cash award of £500 (750 USD) plus royalty payments for the first 6 months of the sales of the design.

Other information
There is an entry fee of £5 (7.50 USD). For the complete rules and guidelines for this contest, click here. To submit your product design idea, click here. All questions regarding this contest should be sent to release [at] culturelabel.com.  The deadline for this contest is March 22, 2010.

The List Goes On
We continue our list of Top Characteristics of Creative Designers according to the opinions of those within the industry.

Not everyone has all of these traits, but we can all learn from the list to understand what design companies look for in their staff.

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Here are the rest of the traits that design firms would like to see in potential hires:

• Care about clients. If a design job is nothing more than a product to the graphic artist, it takes on an impersonal feeling and disconnect from the client. A recognition and understanding that the final creation is for people helps to provide added impetus to do a better job.

• Be able to multitask & juggle projects. In the perfect world, a graphic designer should be able to concentrate on one job without distractions or additional duties not directly related to project at hand. But this rarely, if ever, happens. Being able to intently focus is a good thing, but the ability to multitask is virtually indispensable for successful designers.

• Be deadline oriented. Imagine a graphic design firm where everyone could turn in their work whenever they felt like it. This would not only be a formula for instant failure for the business, it communicates a lack of professionalism. Design firms are driven by deadlines, and so should you.

• Find ways to “break through the clutter. In a design job, there are lots of things to do, but not everything has to be done. The ability to sift through the unnecessary or less important tasks is often the difference between meeting deadlines and missing them. A good designer knows what needs to be done and what needs to be put on the back burner.

• Keep an open mind about things. If the art world maintained that realism was the only way to paint, Picasso, Monet, Dali and many other artists could not have created their unique styles of work. Design is also like this–there is more than one way to approach a solution.

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Desirable Traits and the Real Job World
The attributes that professional designers feel should be inherent in people who work in the industry is varied but can be broken down into these categories: teamwork, professionalism, communication, and work ethics.

Graphic design schools educate graphic arts students on how to design, create, compose, and use various tools for illustration, graphic design, or other fields in design work. But the traits that set a successful graphic designer from a mediocre one sometimes boils down to the personal characteristics of the individual.

Design firms need to hire qualified people for their art departments, but as was stated in the Top Characteristics of Creative Designers articles, employers are looking beyond talent and towards potential hires that have many of the traits that make a designer truly successful.

IN VISION, a TOPTEN International Art Competition is for artists working within the genre of Visionary, Fantasy, Mystical, Sci_Fi, Surrealism or artists that feel their work stretches and pushes the parameters of our imagination. Artists working in these styles tend to express themselves through a creative process which transcends the physical world and portrays a wider vision of awareness.

“Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.” Discovering possibilities that others do not see is what visionaries do best. The IN VISION International Art Competition gives artists the opportunity to share hidden visions which have been portrayed and transformed into tangible objects; paintings, photographs, sculpture etc.

You can participate by sending in your best five images. The theme is open, and includes all media: painting, digital, photography, watercolor, installation, sculpture, video, mixed media collage, textile, etc. Entry fee is 30 Euro for five images. Deadline is looming: March 31st, 2009. Visit the site to learn more.

i-want-a-print announces the i-want-a-print Emerging Talent Award devoted to promoting the work of art students and/or recent graduates making the transition from the academic environment to professional careers. Finalists will have the opportunity to sell museum-quality limited edition prints of their works with the soon-to-be-launched i-want-a-student-print website, which will handle the production and sales of these editions.

Artists will enjoy profits of up to 9,600 Euros and a resulting exposure. One winner will receive a 1,000 Euros cash award as down payment on future sales. Application is free and easy to follow through with the online submission page. Results will be published mid-June, with the launch of the i-want-a-student-print website.

Deadline for submissions is 15 May 2009. The competition is open to students/emerging talents over 18 years old. Visit the site to learn more.

Textile Republic (www.TextileRepublic.com) is proud to announce their next contest entitled, “Little Logos, Little Designs - (think men’s ties).”

Textile Republic is a community-centered fashion brand that revolves around its ongoing design competitions. Winning textile designs are used to create a line of fabrics, clothing, wallpaper, stationary, and other merchandise. Winning designers receive $1,000 cash and a 5% royalty.

Designs must be submitted online by 1 June 2009. Preference will be given to submissions that tile (i.e. a seamless pattern when duplicated and placed next to itself). File must be a jpeg image no larger than 300kb. A hi-res Tiff, PSD, Illustrator or PDF file of your design is required if you win.