Born in London in 2001, Lowlife set out to conquer an untouched market that brought the waistline to the forefront of fashion. In Conquering the belt market with their range of edgy designs, they have been embraced by an ever-expanding family of musicians,tattooists, skateboarders, BMXers, artists and designers. By absorbing these influences, flirting with pop culture and encouraging creative independence, Lowlife continues to expand and evolve. Lowlife is distributed in 19 countries and is sold in over 700 stores worldwide.

How often do you get to design a belt for one of the leading names in alternative fashion? Not very often, that’s when! Don’t Panic wanted to do something really different this time, so they had a word with Lowlife. Best known for their wide collection of eye-catching belts, they have offered up a blank canvas (well, belt) for a Don’t Panic reader’s design. This will then be put into production (subject to Lowlife’s discretion) to be seen and sold throughout the land, and the winner will also get a bunch of Lowlife gear. With bands including The Subways, In Flames, Gallows and Fucked Up all sporting Lowlife wear, your designs could end up on stages around the world!

Competition closes 28 August 2008. Visit the site for the full brief and design template.

PhotoShelter Inc., the leading online destination where more than 37,000 photographers sell stock photography and access powerful solutions for e-commerce and image storage, today announced an estimated quarter million stock images were captured during its Shoot! The Day event, held July 20, 2008, many of which will be available to be licensed beginning this week. It is believed to be among the largest single-day contributions to the stock photo supply in history. Shoot! The Day also established a new connection between the image-buying community and thousands of talented photographers worldwide, launching a collaborative conversation designed to revitalize the pipeline of fresh new images in specific areas of greatest buyer demand.

Read the rest of this entry »

This competition addresses the ubiquitous and sustainable city life of the future. Seoul is changing and developing quite rapidly and the citizens of Seoul are realizing the advantages of this change through constructing new subway lines, repairing road systems, implementing a new bus line system, designing new contemporary buildings, and creating more green parks around the city. Korea’s capital is making a tremendous effort to change its landscape from one that’s plain and practical to one that is environmentally -friendly and is a convenient place to live. The objectives of the competition include: identifying new design opportunities for the sustainable city life, addressing the design discourse and exploration for the living design, that breathes with nature’s five elements: air, water, light, wind, and earth, and seeking creative design solutions to be applied to future city design projects. Categories include: urban environment, visual communication, industrial design, and other designs. Contact EunSook Kwon, Director General, Seoul Design Olympiad 2008, “designseoul AT seoul.go.kr”.

Deadline: 31 July 2008.

Via: Metropolis

London deserves a bus fit for the 21st century, and Mayor Boris Johnson wants as many people as possible to submit their ideas. Whether you’re a professional designer who can submit a detailed plan or you are someone who uses buses every day and has one great idea that would make your journey better, they have a category for you. You don’t need any technical knowledge to enter the “Imagine” category and it is open to everyone. The “Design” category is intended for professional design companies and people with the technical skills to give us detailed design documents. The winning entries in this category may see their designs taken forward to major bus manufacturers.

There is a 1st prize of £25,000, and many smaller awards for great ideas. The competition will run until mid September, and Mayor Johnson will announce the winners by the end of October. Visit the site to learn more.

Reel Venus Film Festival is a three-day event, which was created and launched in 2003 to showcase an eclectic body of current alternative and mainstream and established women directors, video and multimedia artists from the U.S. and abroad. The work should push traditional boundaries in storytelling methods that inspire, entertain, excite, inform and provoke its audiences with challenging topics, themes and images.

Reel Venus Film Festival is now accepting submissions for its 5th annual showcase which will feature the best work by emerging and established women directors/photographers/multimedia producers.

Final submission deadline is 30 August 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

Shift has been trying to offer artists many platforms to showcase their works online. The Shift calendar competition held from 2003 successively, pushes the boundaries between online and off line using a “calendar” as its medium. Entries are invited from all over the world and selected works will be distributed throughout the world in the format of a physical calendar.

This year, selected works will be exhibited and sold at PRINT’EM web site for a year with support by PRINT’EM, a graphic print center operated by Mitsubishi Paper MIlls Limited.

The deadline for this competition is 10 September 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

All photographers, amateur and professional, are invited to submit their work for the 2009 International Garden Photographer of the Year.

Building on the success of 2008, International Garden Photographer of the Year offers photographers the opportunity to win in excess of £20,000 cash and equipment as well as international exposure in an exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The Award is open to all photographers who are invited to submit works within seven categories: Wildlife in the Garden; Plant Portraits; Garden Views; People in the Garden; the Edible Garden; Trees and World Botanic Gardens. There is also an award for the Young Garden Photographer of the Year for budding photographers under 16 years old.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Blu-ray are changing the way you watch movies! Be part of the ultimate in high definition by creating your own poster, ad or video for Blu-ray. Sony encounrages you to design an original, exciting and passionate expression of why Blu-ray offers the best movie experience with its high definition, better-than-cable or satellite quality, better picture than DVD and pure hi-def audio. Come up with an incredible idea as well as the tagline, “Why Blu?” and you could win amaing Sony prizes including a Sony PlayStation 3 with built-in Blu-ray Disc Player and $250 cash or scholarship.

Deadline is 30 July 2008 at 11:30 pm PST. Visit the site to learn more.

Rethink the idea of what a conference is and should be while sharing the vision and insights of Webby Award Winners and Academy members. Come see what’s next in interactive media, entertainment and advertising, all at this exclusive event. WebbyConnect will take place from October 22 to 24 at The Ritz-Carlton in beautiful Laguna Niguel, California.

Today is the final day to save $400 on WebbyConnect. Register now for the all-access summit pass to take advantage of this amazing offer.

The street designs of the past are not adequate to meet 21st-century challenges. Therefore, Transportation Alternatives is looking for new conceptual and physical approaches to the planning of public streets by asking participants to redesign the intersection of 9th Street and 4th Avenue in Brooklyn, NY. The street will be re-imagined as a healthy, safe, and sustainable 21st-century street. The competition will conclude with an exhibit in a public place in December 2008. A publication will also be produced to highlight entries with significant merit that may not have been included in the exhibition and all submissions will be available for public review on this web site once awards have been announced.

The competition is open to the entire public: they hope that community members without any design training as well as design professionals and students will submit their ideas for street design improvements at this intersection. The registration deadline is July 18 (this week!), and all entries are due on August 18 by 5 PM. Visit the site to learn more.