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A Competition Proposition | M.AD Monday Newsletter

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We’re almost through January, and things are starting to look up. Check out what’s happening in the creative conversation.

What Our Art Direction Grads Have To Say

Before you lose that sweet new-year enthusiasm, take a big step for your career. Enter one of these 3 big-name competitions for junior talent.
1. The Society of Publication Designers (SPD) 2021 Student Competition

You can win $1200 and a chance for a summer mentorship. In addition, the top 3 winners in each category will have their work featured online at spd.org.

The Society of Publication Designers (SPD) is all about visual storytelling. Each year they hold this competition to celebrate the best in editorial design. And the net they cast is very wide. As the organizers put it, “SPD includes anyone contributing to the creation of visual stories, from art directors to coders, from major publications to independent zines, from seasoned professionals to students.”

2. The One Club for Creativity, Type Directors Club (TDC)
TDC67 and 24TDC, some of the most widely respected awards for type design and typography, are now open for entries.
The communication design competition honors the beauty of type and lettering. No matter the media, this competition is about the little details and serious skill involved in making exemplary typography. Whether the subject is a billboard, a film, an ad, a book…the heart is the same. The jury will judge all with the same eye.
This 2021 competition will focus on letterform: how they’re crafted and drawn. Good luck!

3. The 13th Plaktivat competition (on the topic of “Solidarity”) is open now.

The competition is dedicated to creating a common living environment in Slovenia. The winning poster will be printed and published on 500 TAM-TAM city posters across Slovenia. It will be automatically entered in the competitions of the Slovenian Advertising Festival SOF and the Brumen Biennial of Slovenian Design. The winner receives Plaktivat’s MEGAFON and a winning plaque.

Deadline 9 February 2021.
Results Announcement Expected 2021

Deadline 9 February 2021.
Results Announcement Expected 2021

Happiness in January?

January has been called the most depressing month of the year. Lo and behold, we’re almost through it.

With that in mind, maybe there’s no better time to revisit The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin’s magnum opus dedicated to exploring happiness in our time.

In that spirit, here’s another, similarly titled exploration of happiness: GQ’s interviews with 12 leading creatives from around the world, all dedicated to understanding what makes for satisfaction and happiness.

A Pink Seesaw on the Border

What you create can change everything. Good design creates a better life everyday, and for many people, probably 90% of the world, often it is a mere moment promised only by hope.

No better example of Good design, than the awarding of highly prized, Beazley Design of the Year 2020 awarding, given by The Design Museum in London, for Teeter-Totters, which allows kids of both sides of the border in Mexico and the U.S. to play and realize how important connecting with one another is within our lives.

Bernie The Meme

You’ve seen it by now: Mr Mittens himself at Biden’s inauguration, in a classically stubborn Bernie pose.

But as with any meme in 2021, there’s plenty more going on behind the story. Esquire met with the photographer responsible for the original image, to discuss his process and his mindset. Meanwhile, Wired thinks the reaction showcases a fundamental shift in tone online.

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