Rethink Communications and Langara College are once again offering an $18,000 scholarship to Langara College’s two-year full-time Communication and Ideation (CID) program to aspiring art directors and designers. The CID program focuses on developing creative thinking to produce big ideas. The program is a modern holistic educational approach to the graphic design, art direction, advertising and creative industries. We’ll be judging the winner based on one thing: a sketchbook. The sketchbook can be any size in terms of width and height, but it must have a hard black cover. Also, the number of pages in the book might vary depending on where you get it, though it should not exceed 250.

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Project Never is a free awards competition created by graphic designers for graphic designers. Thousands of effective designs die each day – often for good reason. At the same time, successful designers and agencies generate many worthy ideas for each project or campaign, only one of which gets chosen for wider audiences. Project Never honors the most creative design concept that never reached production. For all the disagreements. For all the hassles. For every time your best concept got slapped away with a casual, “we’re not going in that direction.” For every time you heard “no.” ObjectiveGraphic designers – upload your best rejected project. For the first time, there’s an award that could give it the fame it deserves.

Read more about Project Never – Rejection Never Felt This Good 2009 – 2010 on Contest Watchers.

MADFAB is a new design competition in which students design a piece of furniture that becomes a permanent part of the campus. This year’s challenge: design a digitally fabricated low table or bench for the MIT Student Center. Registration is free. MADFAB is open to any MIT graduate or undergraduate student, as individuals or in teams. ObjectiveDesign a digitally fabricated low table or bench for the MIT Student Center.

Read more about MADFAB – MIT’s Annual Design + Fabrication Competition on Contest Watchers.

Nikon Singapore is organizing a “Capture the Moment” Photography Contest in conjunction with the Men’s Health Urbanathlon 2010 on the 31 January 2010, Sunday. Solely sponsored by Nikon Singapore, this photography contest is open to all members of the public. Participants are required to submit images taken solely from the Men’s Health Urbanathlon 2010 event. Prizes will be awarded to top 3 winners and 2 consolation prizes. Entries submission starts from 31 January 2010 and ends on 13 February 2010, Saturday.

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The duepercinque competition was created to make the public opinion more aware of the public space as a context for projects, to offer everyone – Italians and foreigners alike – the opportunity to express their creativity in a festival which talks about public space and enjoy a prestigious showcase, such as Milan’s Salone del Mobile and other important events in Milan and to establish in time a tradition of projects in the public space. Participants shall design an intervention in a urban (2m x 5m) parking space. ObjectiveYou may submit different kinds of projects, such as installations, communication projects, services for the city, actions, urban furniture items, or performances.

Read more about Duepercinque competition – Public Design Festival on Contest Watchers.

In dense urban settings, community gardens are an invaluable public resource – they not only provide the opportunity for city dwellers to grow their own food, but they may also educate the wider community about organics, food security, and sustainability. Pandora Park Community Garden Society invites student and professional architects, landscape architects, builders, engineers, gardeners and designers of all kinds to take part in Green Shed: Pandora Park Community Garden Design Competition. The goal of this international competition is to generate buildable designs for a storage shed and outdoor common space for a new community garden that will showcase sustainable building strategies and materials. The winning design will be built by a team of volunteers over the summer of 2010. IntroductionPandora Park Community Garden is currently under development as part of the City of Vancouver’s 2010 in 2010 initiative – a project to create 2010 new community garden plots across the city. The competition encompasses the northwest corner of the garden, an area that has been reserved for public amenities including picnic facilities, storage for garden tools, a beehive, and a small fruit tree orchard. With stunning views of the north shore mountains and surrounding park and garden, the site offers the possibility to design a space for contemplation and congregation, in addition to serving the gardens needs for seating and storage.

Read more about Green Shed: Pandora Park Community Garden Design Competition on Contest Watchers.

The Photocrati Fund offers $5,000 grants to non-professional photographers to undertake important humanitarian and environmental photography projects. The goal is to identify outstanding, up-and-coming photographers and give them the resources necessary to pursue projects that will have a tangible and positive effect on the world. One grant is offered in 2010. The application deadline is 15 March 2010, and the award will be announced in June 2010. Awardees become Photocrati Fellows for the calendar year from the announcement of their award until the announcement of the following year’s award. ObjectiveThe goal is to identify outstanding, up-and-coming photographers and give them the resources necessary to pursue projects that will have a tangible and positive effect on the world.

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USGBC’s Natural Talent Design Competition provides applied learning experience in the principles of integrated design, sustainability, and innovation, all of which are components of the LEED® Green Building Rating System™. Participants compete in local competitions, and the top winner of each moves on to compete for a national award at USGBC’s annual Greenbuild International Conference & Expo. Awards include green building scholarships, as well as travel and registration to Greenbuild, where finalists’ entries are displayed and final judging occurs. The 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition focuses on a single design challenge for all entrants: to design a compact, affordable home for elderly occupants that will meet LEED for Homes Platinum certification requirements.For the first time, the competition will be split into student and emerging professional categories, allowing entrants to be evaluated with their peers. The most exciting new feature of the competition is that the national winners will see their designs actually built in New Orleans’ Broadmoor neighborhood. Located in the heart of the city, Broadmoor is characterized by low and middle-income residents living in shotgun and raised basement houses. The neighborhood flooded badly in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and was almost reverted to uninhabitable green space as a catch basin for floodwaters. Residents strongly objected this suggestion and have been rebuilding their neighborhood since 2006. The new facets of this year’s competition will help level the playing field for entrants, streamline the local judging process and bring displaced residents home to New Orleans. IntroductionThe Salvation Army joins the U.S. Green Building Council this year in hosting USGBC‘s 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition. Entrants will design an affordable, 800 square foot green home for an elderly client in the Broadmoor, New Orleans neighborhood. Winners will be announced after the top four entries have been constructed, inhabited and evaluated.

Read more about USGBC 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition: Small, Green, Affordable on Contest Watchers.

With its second annual competition, SMIBE continues to bring together a growing body of moving image stories about the built environment. We hope the competition will become a forum for the exchange and discussion of persuasive issues about the built world. For this competition, SMIBE welcomes moving image stories that investigate, explore, and entertain our communities about social, environmental, political, technological, and economic issues that designers of the built world should be discussing. The challenge is open to all professionals, college and university students worldwide, 18 years or older. ObjectiveWhat are issues that we should be addressing in our built world?To answer this question, SMIBE turns to our talented community of professionals, college and university students from architecture, landscape, art, industrial design, interior design, motion graphics and film to offer a challenge: produce a three minute, engaging and entertaining moving image story about “Personal Infrastructures”. We are looking for stories about memorable characters and the infrastructures in their lives. Enlighten and entertain us with stories about infrastructure, either on a personal scale, public scale or somewhere in between.

Read more about Personal Infrastructures – 2010 SMIBE Short Film Competition on Contest Watchers.

What do you get when you combine forward-thinking designers and architects with the leading manufacturers of tile? Why don’t you show us? The Italian Trade Commission and Confindustria Ceramica, the Association of Italian Ceramics, are proud to announce the 2010 Ceramic Tiles of Italy Design Competition Call for Entries. The competition, now in its 17th year, recognizes the exceptional work of North American architects and designers who feature Italian ceramic tiles in their institutional, residential or commercial/hospitality spaces. ObjectiveCommercial, Residential or Institutional new construction or renovation projects completed within the past 5 years are eligible. Projects can be domestic or international. Available categories:

Read more about Ceramic Tiles of Italy Design Competition 2010 on Contest Watchers.