ABCing: Seeing the Alphabet Differently

Mark Batty Publisher announced a new kind of alphabet book, ABCing: Seeing the Alphabet Differently, a primer to seeing and understanding the visual world.

Not your average abecedary, ABCing is a crisp, stylish, colorful board book that will have a permanent home on the bookshelves and desks of creative minds, serving as an excellent point of entry for seasoned designers and students of all ages to learn how new perspectives can provide new meanings.

Author Colleen Ellis uses every letter of the Latin alphabet, pairing each one with design-inspired words like "dynamic," "imagination" and "scale" to create illustrations using only the negative shapes of a given letter.

The shapes are rotated and resized; they are not duplicated, mirrored or otherwise altered.

The shapes are then composed as a visual translation of the given word's meaning, resulting in visual and conceptual mixtures of philosophy, poetry and art.

"The intent is to spur new and alternative approaches to how viewers look at an image, shifting the focus from the subject - the letter - to the surrounding space," said Ellis.

"Using the fundamental principles of Gestalt theory, the book encourages the viewer to see and consider the 'white space' as much as they see and consider the letter within it.

It suggests how context can define or distort a subject, and that if one looks beyond a letter, or any form for that matter, one will find another story."

More: http://www.dexigner.com/jump/news/19739

London Barcelona 2010: Dual City Summer Sessions for Art and Design in Europe

Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London is collaborating with Elisava, Escola Superior de Disseny in Barcelona, to offer a fascinating European design journey over four weeks in Summer 2010.

Starting in the vibrant, sprawling metropolis of London with its wealth of sources of inspiration from the past to the present and ending in one of southern Europe's most desirable, design focused cities that continues to be at the vanguard of innovation.

The courses are for portfolio-builders, current students, new professionals and creative individuals in advertising, animation, architecture, art history, experience and retail design, furniture design, illustration, merchandising, photography and transport design.

No previous specialist knowledge is required to join these courses.

The Dual City Summer Sessions are a series of intensive international programmes specifically created to present world-class cities from different yet complimentary art and design perspectives.

Courses are offered in English.

More: http://www.dexigner.com/jump/news/19778

2010 UCDA Design Summit: Beyond Branding

In 140 characters or less, is your institution connecting with your audience?

In these tough economic times, creative communications professionals are vital to solving some of your institution's financial and global responsibilities by making your brand viral.

The UCDA Design Summit, with a focus on branding, is the single most relevant event tailored specifically for communicators in education.

Learn how to look at your communication plan and see how your brand can extend into a strong print portfolio and beyond, becoming integrated into the everyday lives of your audience and explore how to utilize social media and take our brands to the next level.

The UCDA Design Summit is scheduled for March 18-20, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Registration is now open with an early-bird registration discount through February 10, 2010.

More: http://www.dexigner.com/jump/news/19749

Mediabistro Logo Awards

Mediabistro announced the first annual Logo Awards Contest, designed to celebrate and promote the best in logo design.

All submissions must have been created between March 31, 2008 and March 31, 2010.

Deadline for entries is March 31, 2010.

More: http://www.dexigner.com/jump/news/19706

4th International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno 2010

The Brno Biennial showcases the very best of graphic design.

The Brno Biennial was established in 1963, and is thus the oldest exhibition of graphic design in the world.

It regularly alternates between two subjects.

The 24th year is dedicated to corporate, informational and advertising graphics and posters while the 2012 Biennial will focus on graphic design and type in books, magazines, newspapers and the digital media.

Apart from the main competition show, the Brno Biennial features a specialist symposium and a number of accompanying events, thanks to which Brno becomes a major centre of contemporary graphic design for four months.

More: http://www.dexigner.com/jump/news/19681

NYC Condom Package Design Competition

The New York City Health Department has distributed free condoms since 1971, but the effort was relatively low-key until a few years ago, when they have created the now-iconic NYC Condom.

The Health Department now distributes more than 41 million condoms every year in 2,200 venues ranging from hospitals and social service agencies to bars, clubs and coffee houses.

To keep the condom campaign fresh, and reinforce the importance of safer sex, the Health Department is now planning a special limited edition of the NYC Condom.

A panel of judges will evaluate the submissions and select several finalists from the entries.

The winning design will grace the wrapper of a special limited edition of the NYC Condom, which will be unveiled in the fall of 2010.

The competition is open to residents of New York City.

Deadline for entries is January 22, 2010.

More: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/condoms/contest.shtml