UnBeige logo design by Angela Voulangas and Doug Clouse, as part of our regular <i>design our logo</i> feature
UnBeige logo by Angela Voulangas and Doug Clouse, as part of our regular design our logo feature

contests

What's That Cool Thing on Your Desk? Tell Us and Get Objectified

iTunes.Objectified.jpgHalloween has passed, which our local CVS emporium interprets as a signal to bust out the Santa hats and dreidel cookies, frosted in a most fetching shade of blue. We're getting into the holiday spirit with a contest. The prizes: fame and free iTunes downloads of the documentary we've been talking about since it was in pre-production: Gary Hustwit's Objectified (find it on iTunes here; we've posted the trailer after the jump). Entering is as easy as looking around your desk. Just complete this sentence:

The most interesting object on my desk at the moment is __________.

itunes.jpgThen snap a photo (a .jpeg, if you please) of the object and send it along with your one-sentence description to unbeige@mediabistro.com with "Contest" in the subject line. You have until industrial designer Dieter Rams' half-birthday—that would be Friday, November 20—to objectify yourself. We'll announce the three winners shortly thereafter. Remember that we're equally enamored with the beautiful (a pristine cup of Blackfeet Indian Pencils) and the odd (that ceramic doughnut your friend brought you back from Japan), so think creatively. The UnBeige legal team reminds us that because we're working with the iTunes (US) store, we can only award downloads to U.S. residents. International readers are also welcome to enter—we'll find something prizeworthy (read: a design book) to give you, too. Good luck!

continued...

Tiny Things Win Big in Nikon Photo Contest

(Heiti Paves).jpgThe votes are in, and the winner of Nikon's annual Small World Photomicrography Competition is...Arabidopsis thaliana! You know, the thale cress anther? OK, it's the male sex organ of a small flowering plant, and enterprising Estonian Heiti Paves, a scientist at the Tallinn University of Technology who is probably of no relation to celebrity hairstylist Ken, managed to photograph a bunch of them under 20 times magnification (resulting in the photomicrograph pictured above). "As part of my work as a research scientist, I have been taking photographs through the microscope for almost 30 years to observe the processes in living cells," said Paves, whose winning image reminds us of a painfully inflamed devil strawberry. "I have spent a lot of time to capture nice pictures worthy of submission to the Nikon Small World Competition." Way to put that pricey confocal microscope to good use!

nikonx2.jpg

Always on the hunt for art historical allusions (however unintentional they may be), we particularly enjoyed the above top finishers. James Hayden of Philadelphia's Wistar Institute captured fourth place for his ultra-closeup of a swirly anglerfish ovary (above, at left)—or is it a pseudocolored overhead shot of Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty"? Meanwhile, New Zealander Lloyd Donaldson won eighth place for his Brice Marden-esque skeins of color (at right), which are in fact cotton fibers daubed with berberine sulphate and magnified a couple hundred times. Go and project your own frame of reference on all of the winners and honorable mentions here.

Last Chance to Enter Guggenheim and Google Shelter Design Contest

gimme_shelter.jpg

Our summer-long case of Frank Lloyd Wright fever comes to an end Sunday, with the closing of the Guggenheim's stellar "Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward" exhibition. So time's a wasting to enter the global design contest sponsored by Guggenheim and Google (a match-up that we like to call "Googlenheim"). As you may recall, the Design It: Shelter Competition invites amateur and professional designers to use Google Earth and Google SketchUp to create and submit designs for virtual 3-D shelters for a location of their choice anywhere on Earth (anywhere? anywhere!). Two prize winners (one chosen by a jury that includes architect Neil Denari and Pentagram's Lisa Strausfeld, the other by public voting on ten finalists selected by students at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture) will be announced on October 21, the 50th anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum's opening. More than 200 participants from more than 40 different countries have already submitted entries. You've got until Sunday.

GOOD, Babelgum Team Up to Save World

globe pencil sharpener.jpgThe good people at GOOD have partnered with a web video outfit called Babelgum to save the world. Now comes the tricky part: figuring out how. That's where you come in! The two companies have launched a contest that seeks innovative answers to one simple question: If there weren't any pesky practical limitations, what world-changing device would you invent? [Pause for thinking.] Got your answer? Great, now tell it to a video camera, submit the video to GOOD before August 26, and wait patiently. One supercreative submission will be animated and featured on the GOOD and Babelgum websites, and the winner will get to program Babelgum's Our Earth channel ("where guerrilla meets gorilla") for the month of October. Here's a video fronted by a gun-wielding woodchuck to provide some inspiration:

Saving Detroit's Soul, One Funk Karaoke Contest at a Time

Soul Power.jpgThe Detroit Institute of Arts holds a special place in our hearts (we're not just saying that because it rhymes), and while there's trouble in Motor City, the DIA is moving ahead. In the wake of widespread cost cutting that included laying off 20 percent of its staff, the museum has just appointed a new chief curator (Kenneth J. Myers, the former curator of American art and head of the American art department), recently reinstalled its permanent galleries, and opened a new education wing. Now the DIA is really getting down to business (and just plain getting down) with a funk karaoke contest.

This Saturday night, between screenings of Jeffrey Levy-Hinte's documentary Soul Power (the story of the three-day music festival that accompanied the "Rumble in the Jungle" back in 1974), the museum will host the Soul Power Funk-Karaoke Contest. "Contestants are asked to perform soul or funk songs for a chance to win a season pass for two to the Detroit Film Theatre's fall season," notes the website, which also promises a Soul Power poster giveaway. We call dibs on the whole of George Clinton's T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M. album—either that or this (ahem) timeless masterpiece by DJ Kool...

continued...

UK Design Students Create Bold New Looks for The Secret History

(peter adlington).jpgThe United Kingdom division of Penguin Books recently challenged design students to "design a fresh and bold new look" for Donna Tartt's 1992 novel The Secret History. Their mission: to create a striking, imaginative cover design that would bring the cult classic to a new generation of readers. The esteemed panel of judges has picked a winner, our brother blog Galleycat reports, and it's Peter Adlington. The Stockport College student won for this abstract cover design (above), in which we detect a distinct Saul Bass vibe.

(ben cain).jpg"It's beautiful, and the infinite regress doorway tells the story, gives you the mystery in the simplest possible terms, and that's what graphic design at its best can do," said novelist (and design enthusiast) Hari Kunzru, one of the judges. "Just a few shapes and you have the whole concept." Alas, Adlington's design won't be produced—as far as we know—but he does get £1,000 (around $1,600) and a six-week internship at Penguin's London design studio. The list of shortlisted designs is worth a look. We particularly like Ben Cain's typographical approach (above). Inspired by ancient Greek tablets, he aimed to capture "the potential to lose control. As the structure of the type gets closer to the spine it becomes increasingly unstable, attempting to communicate the descent from order to chaos."

Ah, Summer, When a Young Designer's Fancy Turns to Snowboards

snowboard.jpgNow that summer has officially arrived, it's time for a good old-fashioned snowboard design contest! Allan Chochinov, the fearless leader of Core77, tells us that his fine organization has teamed up with a Swiss outfit called Nidecker Snowboards to launch an international design competition inviting designers to create custom snowboard graphics (think surfboard graphics but much colder, and with boots involved). The top five designs will be applied to Nidecker snowboards and displayed at a couple of giant winter sports tradeshows (so many colorful parkas, so little time) in Denver and Munich. The grand prize winner will receive $2,500 in cold cash, and his or her design will be included in the 2010-11 Nidecker line. Four runners-up will each be produced in a limited edition run, and all top five finalists will receive a Nidecker snowboard produced with their design. Learn more about the competition and register here. You've got until July 12 to come up with something cool.

Guggenheim Teams with Google on Shelter Design Contest

gimme shelter.jpg

Today is Frank Lloyd Wright's birthday, and while we've been busy transforming a tower of fondant and Heath bars into an elaborate Fallingwater-themed cake, New York's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is celebrating the 142nd anniversary of Wright's birth with a global design contest. The Guggenheim has teamed with Google (a match-up that we can't help but refer to as "Googlenheim") for today's launch of the Design It: Shelter Competition, which invites amateur and professional designers to use Google Earth and Google SketchUp application to create and submit designs for virtual 3-D shelters for a location of their choice anywhere on Earth (anywhere? anywhere!). Submissions will be accepted through August 23. Two prize winners (one will be chosen by a jury that includes architect Neil Denari and Pentagram's Lisa Strausfeld, the other by public voting on ten finalists selected by students at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture) will be announced on October 21, the 50th anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum's opening. Our advice? Get inspired by visiting the Guggenheim's stellar "Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward" exhibition and then head to the museum's Sackler Center for a companion exhibition of shelters designed, built, and lived in over the past seven decades by students of Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture in Arizona and Wisconsin.

And the Winning Google Doodle Is...

winning doodle.jpg

Michael Bierut, Steven Heller, Ellen Lupton, Clement Mok, and the rest of the esteemed judging panel have spoken, and Texas sixth grader Christin Engelberth's "A New Beginning" (pictured above) is the big winner in the annual Doodle 4 Google contest, which challenges kids from around the country to redesign the Google logo according to a designated theme (this year's: What I wish for the world). "My doodle expresses my wish that in the current crisis discoveries will be made," wrote Engleberth in her contest entry. "That in these discoveries solutions will be found to help the Earth prosper once more. That those solutions will help the world get back on its feet, and create a better place for everyone." Engleberth's winning doodle will adorn Google's U.S. homepage tomorrow (today, meanwhile, it sports a fun fossil theme to highlight the discovery of humanity's long lost lemur link), and she will receive a $15,000 college scholarship as well as a $25,000 technology grant for her San Antonio junior high school.

Between May 11 and 18, the public cast nearly 6 million online votes to select the National Finalist doodles: "Friendship Around the World" by five-year-old Miriam Elizabeth Lowery, "Stop to Smell the Flowers" by Blakely Linz, age 13, and "From the Ashes" by Emerald Lu, also 13, whose symbol-stuffed design includes a phoenix, lotus blossoms, wheat, a circling pair of koi fish, a clock, and a butterfly. All of the regional finalists' designs will go on view tomorrow at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, where the "Doodle 4 Google: What I Wish for the World" exhibition will be up through July 5 in the museum's design education center.

Previously on UnBeige:

  • Kids Nationwide Vie to Doodle for Google
  • Cooper-Hewitt Gets In on 'Doodle for Google' Contest Action
  • Sixth Grader Designs Google Homepage Logo

  • Kids Nationwide Vie to Doodle for Google

    By Britney Stine.jpg"What I Wish for the World" is the theme of this year's "Doodle 4 Google" contest, in which kids from around the country compete to have their Google logo redesign featured, for one glorious day, on the search giant's homepage. The judges selected 400 state finalists (100 in each of four grade-level groups) and then narrowed the field to 40 regional winners. Now it's up to you, the Google-going public, to vote for your favorites. The online voting is open through Monday, May 18.

    By Abigail Kois.jpgGiven the global wish theme, the doodles are heavy on world peace, endangered species (particularly polar bears), trees, and energy motifs (one 12-year-old West Virginian with the delightful name of Austin Gage Druid adorned the Google logo with colorful wind turbines). The entries from the students in grades 10-12 tend to be more abstract, including 17-year-old Antony Martinez's Google grafitti, created to represent his wish: "for public art to be more accepted." But we're suckers for simplicity and so are throwing our support behind 12-year-old Abigail Kois of Wolworth, New York, who put down her pencil and picked up some paperclips. "What I wish for the world is unity," wrote Kois in her entry (pictured above). "The theme is represented by connected paper clips in my doodle....Each clip is interconnected much the way people are."

    Previously on UnBeige:

  • Cooper-Hewitt Gets In on 'Doodle for Google' Contest Action
  • Sixth Grader Designs Google Homepage Logo

  • Previously

    Chuck Palahniuk Seeks 'Subversive and Slyly Promotional' Book Logo

    UnBeige Design Haiku Contest Winners

    Last Day to Haiku Your Way to 'New Frontiers in Graphic Design'

    Metropolitan Home To Reveal 'Met Home of the Year' Online

    Cooper-Hewitt Gets In on 'Doodle for Google' Design Contest Action

    Design 21 Announces Winners of Forest-Saving Design Competition

    Announcing the Winners of Our 'Fondest Domino Memories' Contest

    Digital Branding for Fun and Profit

    The UnBeige 'Thanks for the Memories' Domino Giveaway/Contest

    Champion Champions Hoodie Design Contest

    Time Is Running Out to Enter Cut&Paste's Digital Design Tournament

    Cut&Paste Expands Digital Design Tournament for 2009

    The New Yorker Relaunches Eustace Tilley Design Contest

    55DSL Challenges You to Remix Its Logo

    Strand Book Store Launches Photo Contest; Win an Afternoon with Mary Ellen Mark

    Making It Pink, Crafting for the Cure

    Name Game: Honorable Mentions

    Name Game Winner #3: Jami Drost

    Name Game Winner #2: Dean Meyers

    Name Game Winner #1: Renata Mupy

    UnBeige's Name Game: Enter Today

    Use Your Typeface Knowledge for Fun, Profit

    It's a Small World After All, Reminds Nikon

    White House Redux Competition Winner Turns Over New Leaf

    One World, One Wood: Design 21 Launches Contests to Save Forests

    Tech Travesty Alert: Win Big Bucks for Your Personal Travails

    Inaugural Aspen Design Challenge Seeks Solutions to World's Drinking Problem

    Photographers, Ready for Your Close-Up?

    Calling All Interior Designers: Submit Your Sustainable Design Projects

    Hillary Campaign Refuses to Give Up...
    on T-Shirt Design Contest

    Smithsonian Picks Tribal Baby Photo as Contest Winner, Readers Prefer Little Leaguers

    Shutter Rugs: Karastan Challenges Students to Rug Photo Contest

    Which SVA Student's Hair Chair Is Shear Genius?

    Foster + Partners and Others to Enter 'Architectural Jelly Design Competition'

    Bombay Sapphire's Glass Design Winner Has Koonsian Flair

    Clinton's Cringe-Inducing Design Contest

    Canon Announces Nature Photo Contest, Prepares to Be Deluged by Pictures of Sunsets

    University of Kentucky to Use $6 Million Gift for International Design Contest

    Three Contests, One Cycling Theme

    The Search Is on for One Good Chair

    Lord & Taylor Needs Your Help Coming Up (with) Roses

    Shaking Up (Not Stirring) the Traditional Martini Glass

    Electrolux Design Lab Contest Scouts for Home Appliances for "iGeneration"

    WHAM-O: Hey Kids, Toys Are Even More Fun When You Design Them Yourself!

    See You in Elle: Announcing the Yours by Design Contest

    Think You Have What It Takes to Be a Cartoonist? Let Bob Mankoff Be the Judge

    Spot the '74 Celebs: Arch. Record Holds Glass House Contest

    Best Cubicle Contest Winner Makes Us Look Bad

    Ghost of Darwin Demands a New Ironic Fish

    Yo Historic Preservation Buffs: Find a Project Worthy of Honor

    Heads Up Project Runway Wannabee Contestants

    A Contest that Hot Doug's Could Really Love

    Virgin's Designs Make Everyone Want To Puke

    Make Your Champagne Dreams and Caviar Wishes Come True

    The Only Design Contest UnBeige Will Ever Demand You Participate In

    Right Now, Spencer Fruhling Is Our Highest Priority

    A Long-Winded Rant Concerning the New York/Speak Up Contest

    The Goodness That Janet Jackson Brought to Design

    The Other Side of a Bad Idea

    Vancouver: You Hated the First Round, Now Try Another

    Ciao For Now and Those Pesky Poll Results

    Design This Man's Helmet Or He'll Run You Over

    A Fan Contest Not A Costume Competition

    Ten Days in Cape Town, A Life in the History Books

    A Little Tin Box or the Impetus For Another Angry Round?

    The Kind That Won't Make You Hate Your New-To-The-Internet Family Members

    Fill My Wall, Win $4400 In the Process

    A Reminder That Our 'Design Our Logo' Contest Is Purely Just for Fun

    Putting the D In T-Shirts

    Do Not Destroy This Chain Letter!

    Notice Anything Different?

    Name...That...Chair!

    Call For Entries: Redesign UnBeige's Banner (For Real)

    Get Your Kicks...And Be Recognized by an International Jury of Designers

    A Rough Concept, But You Should Probably Still Enter

    Shelter in a Cart

    Our Logo Still Needs To Be Changed, And Believe Us, We Haven't Forgotten

    We Take Things Very Seriously Around Here

    Late-Breaking Entry!

    One And A Half Hours To Go On Our Contest Of The Month!

    Last Day For Outright Awesome!

    Here's Something Else For You Kids To Chew On

    Logo Contest: It's A Really Good Thing Smart People Are Entering

    This Is Exactly What We Wanted To Wake Up To After A Weekend Without Blog

    And With That, We're Back To Some Seriousness

    Is It Possible That We're Starting To See A Trend?

    We Should Probably Make A Special Prize Just For Enthusiasm

    If It's This Exhausting Just To Keep Up With All The Logos, We Have Renewed Sympathy For The Entrants

    Looks Like Someone Else Decided To Get All Textual, As Well

    Looks Like Someone Decided To Get All Textual Or Something

    Man, Are We Still Psyched!!!

    More More More!!!

    We Can't Tell If We're Getting Dissed Here But Even If We Are, The Joke Is Worth It

    We Hope You Haven't Forgotten Our Logo Contest Because We Certainly Haven't

    Monday Morning Eye Candy

    Logos 4-Eva. That's Double Entendre.

    More Logos Than You Can Shake A Stick At

    Yeah, Our Logo Contest Is Gonna Pretty Much Rock

    Redesign Us!

    The Best Contest We Have Ever Invented

    Read more on UnBeige >

    Where Designers Read Design
    UnBeige in Your Inbox
    Mobile Version
    RSS Feed
    Interested in advertising on UnBeige?
    Our Blog Network

    BayNewser

    WebNewser

    PRNewser

    TVNewser

    MediaJobsDaily

    FishbowlNY

    FishbowlDC

    FishbowlLA

    AgencySpy

    GalleyCat

    MobileContentToday

    UnBeige

    UnBeige Editors
    Steve Delahoyde

    Stephanie Murg

    Email UnBeige

    About UnBeige


    • Check out UnBeige
    in The New York Times

      UnBeige twitter feed loading...

    View twitter directly

    Follow UnBeige on Twitter
    Anonymous Tips
    Topics

    7 Questions

    about

    About Us - Logo Module

    About Us - Modules

    About Us - Subheader Module

    ads/mktg

    AIGA NEXT

    animation

    architecture

    art

    art basel design miami

    aspen design summit

    awards + competitions

    beta

    blogs

    books

    branding + identity

    business

    collaboration

    compostmodern

    conferences

    consume

    contests

    crafty

    dwell on design

    education

    events

    exhibitions

    fashion

    feedback

    field trip

    film + video

    friday photo

    funny

    furniture

    gaming

    general

    graphic design

    HOW 2006

    icff

    ideas

    illustration

    interiors

    jobs

    lexicon

    magazines

    mark your calendar

    museums

    music

    news

    off topic

    parks + public spaces

    parties

    people

    photo

    popularity contest

    preservation + restoration

    print

    product design

    professional associations

    quote of note

    radical craft

    rumors

    stimulation

    sxsw

    technique

    teevee

    The Revolving Door

    tools

    typography

    urbanity

    web

    y conference

    Archives

    November 2009

    October 2009

    September 2009

    August 2009

    more...

    Links

    Sites of Interest

    A Brief Message

    Adaptive Path

    Adrants

    Ads of the World

    Airbag Industries

    A List Apart

    Andy Rutledge

    Apartment Therapy

    Archinect

    ArchNewsNow

    Be A Design Group

    BLDGBLOG

    Bluelines

    Boxes and Arrows

    Core77

    Cool Hunting

    Coudal

    CR Blog

    Creative Bits

    CRIT

    The Curated Object

    Curbed

    Daily Heller

    Design Addict

    Designboom

    Design Is Kinky

    Design Matters

    Design Observer

    DesignSessions

    design*sponge

    Design Your Life

    Design Writing Research

    The Designers' Lunchbox

    Dexinger

    Good Experience

    Graphic Design Forum

    Graphics.com

    Homebodies

    ideasonideas

    IDFuel

    Inhabitat

    Jason Kottke

    Land+Living

    Liquid Treat

    LVHRD

    MoCoLoCO

    murketing

    NOTCOT

    Poynter (Design & Graphics)

    Reluct

    Remodelista

    Signal vs. Noise

    Speedbird

    Subtraction

    SwissMiss

    The Moment

    Things Magazine

    Typographica

    Speak Up

    Viewers Like You

    Voice AIGA

    W Editors' Blog


    Magazines

    The Architect's Newspaper

    Architecture Week

    BusinessWeek

    Communication Arts

    Creative Review

    Dwell

    Dynamic Graphics

    Eye

    ID

    Interview

    HOW

    Metropolis

    Ping

    Print

    ReadyMade

    STEP Inside Design

    W

    Job Listings

    Featured Listings

    Graphic Designer
    TouchTunes Interactive Networks
    New York, NY

    Administrative Assistant to Photo Director
    Book/Calendar Publisher
    New York, NY

    Junior Art Director
    Revolution Prep
    Santa Monica, CA

    Design Intern (4307)
    Readers Digest
    New York, NY

    ADVERTISEMENT


    mediabistro.com l Member Benefits l Jobs l Freelance Marketplace l Courses l Events l Forums l Content
    mediabistro Blogs: Media News l TVNewser l GalleyCat l UnBeige l FishbowlNY l FishbowlLA l FishbowlDC l PRNewser l AgencySpy
    MobileContentToday l WebNewser l BayNewser l MediaJobsDaily l mbToolbox
    Site Map l Advertising/Sponsorships l Partners l About Us l Contact Us/Help

    internet.commediabistro.comJusttechjobs.comGraphics.com

    Search:

    WebMediaBrands Corporate Info

    Legal Notices, Licensing, Reprints, Permissions, Privacy Policy.
    Advertise | Newsletters | Shopping | E-mail Offers