32 design contests & competitions

EDITOR’S PICKS

• MAXtopia T-shirt Design Contest — 29 August 2010
Mother nature meets motherboard in this amazing new challenge brought to us by the wonderful folks at Adobe. Your challenge is to design an awesome tee inspired by MAXtopia: the celebration of nature + technology! Winner gets Adobe CS5 Design Premium, Threadless voucher for $500, and $2K.

• Model Your Organic Designs in CAD — 15 September 2010
Your model can be a T-Splines, Rhino, SolidWorks, Pro/E, Spaceclaim or Inventor file. T-Splines must be used at some point in your model creation. Include a final rendering and explanation of your design. Winners get iPads and stuff from Rhino, ASGvis, and Shapeways. via Arch Tracker

• African Bicycle Design Contest — 30 September 2010
A bicycle can make the difference in this world. A bicycle can be a tool to reduce poverty in Africa, improve access to health care, education, potable water as well as being a catalyst is combating climate change. With this African Bicycle Design Contest 2010-2011 we aim to design bicycles tuned to needs of (potential) bicycle users in Africa. via Media Collective

• Chicken Coop Design Competition — 10 October 2010
ThePoultry Project 2010 Chicken Coop Design Competition is calling farmers, designers, thinkers, architects, artists, and locavores to design a chicken coop for use in urban or suburban backyards.  The ideal coop will integrate aesthetics with utility and make creative use of local materials. via DipNip

*= previous Editor’s Pick

DEADLINES

• Customized Bicycle Helmet — 28 August 2010
Fiat and Vogue are hosting a bike helmet design competition — oddly enough for the launch of Fiat’s new 500 TwinAir car at Vogue’s Fashion’s Night Out. But for € 2,000, who cares if it makes sense.

• Cosmetic Brush Design Contest — 30 August 2010
Anisa International invites US residents to design a cosmetic brush or brush set made of sustainable materials. via The Makeup Divas

• Undesign Wallpaper Design — 31 August 2010
UK designers are invited to submit wallpaper designs. Winners will receive 10% royalty rates. via Design-Milk

• T-Shirt for Modern Copywriter — 31 August 2010
Situation: They’re always running around with their shirts off, and gawd. Couldn’t be more unattractive. One Thing We Want To  Communicate: Awesomeness. Winner Gets: Free T-shirts (2) and as much publicity for you as I can muster.  I’ll feature your portfolio or site on MC, tweet you, facebook you, and generally talk you up like mad. Basically, everything but pay you.  via The Dog & Pony Show

* Robot Design Competition — 1 September 2010
Anyone is welcome to create a social robot for the year 2020, an age where intelligent social robots built with consilience will grey the boundaries of human and machine interaction. Submission can be conceptual or work-in-progress concepts/prototypes.

• Shapeways  & Despoke 100% Design — 1 September 2010
Submit your 3D designs to Shapeways for a chance at exposure on the 100% Design blog, Despoke, and $100 printing voucher.

* Moon Capital Competition — 3 September 2010
How would you design the capital of the MOON? You can go in two directions: 1) Take it seriously and design an actual LUNAR BASE. 2) Use your imagination and have fun designing a LUNAR CITY or completely new MOON CULTURE.

• Steampunk Form & Function — 5 September 2010
Steampuffin’s Annual Competition represents the best work across the world in creative Steampunk design for housing modern day technology and conveniences, as chosen by a distinguished jury of design peers. All Steampunk design projects will be exhibited at the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham MA from October 22, 2010 to May 10, 2011.

• Customize a Trench Coat Competition — 6 September 2010
Comptoir invites all women to reinvent the Comptoir des Cotonniers trench coat. Winner gets a gift voucher for 1000€. via Fashion-Incubator

* UNESCO Award of Excellence for Handicrafts Logo Design — 7 September 2010
Design a logo representing the UNESCO Award of Excellence for Handicrafts program. Through providing training and support services, the program aims to help strengthen sustainable livelihoods. Another guiding principle of the Award of Excellence program is to encourage the linking of traditional skills with innovation so that handicrafts remain relevant, valuable and marketable in today’s changing world.

• Seasons Greetings from Hawaii — 7 September 2010
USPS is crowdsourcing for a logo design to be printed on their Hawaii Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Boxes. “The beach, ocean, mountains, coconut trees and those types of elements unique to our island location are what we are looking for in this logo. Maybe Santa can be in there too.”

• (Un)Limited Design Contest — 9 September 2010
Check out Taylor’s post on the competition right here.

• Positive Posters — 10 September 2010
The theme is ‘A Glass Half Full’. Design a poster full of positivity. The winner will have 3,500 copies of their poster posted around Melbourne, Australia. Plus Adobe CS5, a Wacom tablet, and a bunch of other designer great stuff to have.

• Typography Competition — 10 September 2010
Communication Arts magazine is searching for the the best use of typography as the primary visual element in design and advertising, plus new typeface designs, calligraphy and handlettering. via dexigner

• Graphic Ideas to Protect Biodiversity — 10 September 2010
The call invites the participants to imagine a future scenario in which biodiversity will be a focal value of society. Rediscovering traditions, connected to family and country habits, to people’s common sense, to the value of sharing, and to the singularity of local areas (composed by human communities and environment) can be regarded as a tool for preserving biodiversity. via Contest Watchers

• Button Badge Design — 14 September 2010
Create and submit lovely, humorous and/or witty artworks for those cute little mobile canvases.

• Andreu World International Design Competition — 15 September 2010
Design a chair and/or a table using primarily Beech, Oak, or Walnut woods. Designs should be original, functional, and suitable for mass-production.

• The Concrete Classroom— register by 15 September 2010
Students in the field of architecture are invited to present conceptual designs for a new education and training facility for a state concrete association.

• Fash 2011 — register by 21 September 2010
What is beautiful? When do people really look good? What defines today’s fashion? Is the focus on profit, attention, or beauty? Are there any dreams and visions left? What drives us? Why do so many consider glamour beautiful? Is less still more? Are elegant simplicity and quiet splendor still significant? How can fashion embody cultural relevance, a beauty which challenges the mind? Why can beauty be a comfort?
Under the motto “Attention please!?” the European Fashion Award – FASH 2011 is looking for answers to these questions. via dexigner

• Tivoli Audio Graphic Design Competition — 30 September 2010
You are asked to prepare a poster to celebrate TIVOLI AUDIO’s 10th anniversary using the medium of your choice: illustration, photography, painted, hand drawn or computer aided etc.

* Your Curious Story — 30 September 2010
There are no boundaries to this call for creativity using paper from www.curiouscollection.com Your paper creation should tell a “curious story” and could win you a variety of technological delights including Macbook pros, iPads, Wacom tablets, Adobe products and more. Open to students and professionals.
via Design You Trust

HEADS UP

• Playable 2010 — 1 October 2010
Submit your designs for Playable Art / Playable Sites / Playable DIY Sites / Playable Kids. The competition will culminate in a conference on designing for play at Georgia Tech.

• REPEAT — 3 October 2010
REPEAT is an international competition established to foster the creative spirit in the burgeoning field of digital fabrication. We encourage the generation of cutting edge design proposals for a structure of your design with the only caveats being it must serve a purpose, be generated and conceived digitally, incorporate repetitive elements, be optimized for ‘flat-pack’ transportation and be produced through fabrication technologies available within Houston, Texas.  REGISTRATION OPENS 16 JUNE 2010 (Who knew the lone star state was so into digital fabrication?)

• Design a Stage Outfit for Florence + The Machine — 4 October 2010
Not only will the selected design be turned into Florence’s stage outfit, the selected designer will have a feature story run on LuckyMag.com that will include images of Florence wearing the outfit. The designer will also receive $500, air fare to New York, two night’s accommodation, and the opportunity to meet Florence… via Marketwire

• International Diamond Jewellery Competition — register by 15 October 2010
If any of you make one-of-a-kind diamond jewelry, here’s your chance to shine. The Antwerp World Diamond Centre is looking for “modern diamond jewel and avant-garde ideas.” And from the looks of previous years’ winners, they like drama.

• Loving Outdoors! Product Design Competition — 30 Novemeber 2010
Design a seat, table, and shading system for enjoying the outdoors. Winners get a good bit of cash and presentation space at the Sun&Shadow 2010 Expo. Only open to designers age 32 and under. via Contest Watchers

• Copper and the Home — 30 November 2010
Design a decorative object for the home using copper or copper alloys that exploit the intrinsic qualities of these metals. Separate categories for students and professionals under 40 years of age. (p.s. The site is pretty clunky. To read the competition details go to News>newsletter>#07)

• Living City Design Competition — 1 February 2011
The international living Building institute, in partnership with the national Trust for Historic Preservation, invites the world’s most talented and daring designers, planners, artists and animators to create a new global vision: a breathtaking, compelling model for the future of civilization.