Sometimes Less Is More
The great composer, Beethoven, is often noted for his rich orchestral compositions. But as gifted and talented as Beethoven was, he understood while every musical instrument was available for use, he didn’t have to write parts for all of them all of the time; he also wrote relatively simple piano solos and pieces for smaller ensembles.

Composing Music and Composing Websites
A parallel can be drawn for web designing–you may have at your disposal flash animations, frames, multiple links, bright graphics, hundreds of fonts and background images, but that doesn’t mean you have to use all of them while “composing” your website. Web design is more than the whole of its parts; successful web design means understanding what is appropriate and fitting for any particular project.

Functionality, Appeal, Simplicity, Texture (F.A.S.T)
Have you visited websites that were difficult or extremely hard to navigate? Most likely, you left that site in under a minute. To design an effective website, it must function properly, be simple enough for anyone to navigate, have aesthetic appeal for visitors, and offer interesting textures in the form of color palettes, fonts, graphics, and images.

Match the Mood of the Website With the Content
As a web designer, you are an artist commissioned to produce a piece that your client is happy with. If your client runs a business, take into account what sort of business it is. If it is a children’s clothes outlet, design the site accordingly. Be sensitive to what the website should represent. You and your client will be happier.

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.

Attention advertisers, designers and in-house corporate marketing departments! The 39th Creativity Annual Awards opens June 1, 2009. At this time you may pre-register for the competition and be put on the mailing list receive a Call for Entries. If you have entered in the past, you may update contact information. Starting in June you can submit your best work from 2008-2009 and see how it stacks up against international competition. Creativity is Courage…now prove it!

Categories include print, publications, packaging, alternative media, new media and Web design, illustration, photography, typography, commercials in TV and radio, film and video, green marketing and political. Each category supports numerous subcategories. Ad agencies, publishers, graphic designers, photographers, freelancers, illustrators, producers, directors, web designers, and corporate art departments from any nation or U.S. state or territory may submit original advertisements and designs that have appeared in print between June 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009. Anyone associated with the entry may make submissions.

Student work must have been created during the 2008-2009 school year. Instructors and professors may submit work on behalf of a student. Non-English entries must include an English translation. Non-English video or audio entries must be dubbed or subtitled in English.

Deadline is midnight EDT July 15, 2009. Visit the site to learn more.

The Adobe Design Achievement Awards (ADAA) celebrate student achievement reflecting the powerful convergence of technology and the creative arts. The competition - which showcases individual and group projects created with industry-leading Adobe creative software - honors the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers, and computer artists from the world’s top institutions of higher education.

Contest is open to all individuals age 18 years or older who are full-time matriculated students in an accredited institution of higher education in the 50 U.S. states, Washington D.C., Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Republic of China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, Malaysia, Brazil, Russian Federation, Poland and Turkey, who hold citizenship status or have official work or student visas for the above countries. For group entries, everyone who worked on the entry must be listed on the entry form and must meet these eligibility requirements.

All entries must be received by Adobe no later than 5 p.m. Pacific time on 5 June 2009. Visit the site to learn more.

To facilitate a broad range of disciplines and artists, the American Design Awards has established an ongoing Monthly Design Contest, two Semi-Annual Design Competitions, as well as the newly established Student Design Contest in hopes of reaching out to thousands of graphic and web designers with varying levels of experience.

The monthly competitions center on Web site designs, and you can enter free of charge to see how you fare against the competition. The semi-annual design contest is geared toward other design categories, twenty-two in all from annual report design to Web design. The semi-annual design competitions have a six-step registration process that you might want to start now, even if you don’t have designs to submit right away.

Deadlines for the monthly competitions are open year-round. The summer and winter semi-annual design competition deadlines are 15 August and 15 February. Visit the site to learn more, especially with their new student design award category.

The Interactive Media Awards recognize the highest standards of excellence in Web site design and development and honor individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievement.

Created by the Interactive Media Council, Inc. (IMC), a nonprofit organization of leading Web designers, developers, programmers, advertisers and other Web-related professionals, the competition is designed to elevate the standards of excellence on the Internet and offer winners a boost in marketing and exposure. IMC serves as the primary sponsor and governing body of the Interactive Media Awards, establishes the judging system and provides the judges for the competition.

It is not easy to win a Web award from the IMA, but for those who survive the comprehensive judging process, a series of powerful tools await to help broadcast your success. In addition to the IMA Digital Award Icon linking your site to a unique and marketable award page on the IMA site, winners also have access to our winner tools, which allow winners to customize online awards, notify clients and colleagues and draft press releases.

The 2008 Call for Entries Q4 deadline has been extended through 15 January, so you still have a chance to enter. Visit the site to learn more about the list of categories and to read the competition rules for site eligibility requirements, international entry information and other details.