March 28, 2006
Interaction design students work the park
TORONTO—On Thursday afternoon, first-year interaction design students from the Ontario College of Art and Design will be "activating" Butterfield park located underneath the OCAD “tabletop” building designed by architect Will Alsop. Challenged with creating an interactive space to encourage people to linger in the urban park instead of pass through, the students have created a number of projects designed to engage passersby with public space, including interactive graffiti walls. Interaction design studies a user’s experience with a designed medium and examines the role of behaviours and intelligence in physical and virtual spaces. Contact: www.ocad.ca
March 23, 2006
Another new logo for Quark
DENVER, C.O.—Six months after Quark Inc. unveiled a new corporate identity in an effort to signal its major overhaul as a more consumer-focused company, Quark has rebranded once again. Its previous iteration, designed by SicolaMartin, a division of Young & Rubicam Brands, received criticism from many in the design community for its close resemblance to the Scottish Arts Council logo, designed in 2001 by Glasgow-based Graven Images. “We want our logo to stand out as a unique symbol for Quark,” says Glen Turpin, Quark’s director of communications. “As a global software company, Quark takes intellectual property rights very seriously. Since the visual identity of the company represents our renewed commitment and focus on our customers, changing the mark to avoid any perception of similarity enables us to further define our unique identity.” Contact: www.quark.com
March 21, 2006
Graphic design work to increase through 2014
WASHINGTON, D.C.—According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook 2006-07 edition, published by The Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, the future looks rosy for graphic designers. Of the five design occupations measured (graphic, industrial, interior, fashion and floral), graphic designers are expected to have the most new jobs through 2014. Over the next eight years, employment is expected to increase nine to 17% as the demand for graphic design work from advertisers, publishers and computer design firms continues to grow. And due to a rapidly expanding market for web-based information and interactive media, designers with website design and animation experience will be in particularly high demand. While these statistics measure growth in the U.S. economy, Canadian designers can take comfort in the fact that these trends will most likely be mirrored north of the border. Contact: www.bls.gov/oco/ocos090.htm
March 16, 2006
Peeved designers blog in protest against spec work
INTERNATIONAL—On Tuesday, U.K. and Southeast Asian-based designer Catherine Morley of Katz-i Design and Designers Who Blog formed a committee of international designers to launch No!Spec. The site aims to educate graphic designers, students, educators and potential clients about the detrimental effects caused by spec work and spec-based design 
contests. “With legitimate design opportunities turning into calls for spec work at an alarming rate, it is our goal to arm designers with the tools they need to take a stand against this trend, as well as provide businesses with resources and information on why spec work harms our industry, and provide alternative solutions to their design needs that do not involve working on spec,” says the site. Designers are encouraged to visit the site, share their thoughts, sign the petition and download No!Spec posters and icons for their own websites. For the rest of the month, Morley will be featuring bloggers on Designers Who Blog who take up the No!Spec crusade. Contact: www.no-spec.com
March 14, 2006
Controversial Canadian seal hunt subject of spec design competition
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Fur Free Alliance (FFA), a coalition of over 35 animal rights organizations worldwide, has chosen Newfoundland’s notorious seal hunt as the theme for its fourth annual poster design and advertising contest, Design Against Fur. Students and teachers from around the world are invited to create a poster that delivers the message: “Pro
tect Seals,” which may be used in national and international campaigns against the fur trade. Targeting governments, opinion leaders and consumers, the objective of the contest is to “provide compelling public materials that will help convince governments to ban the trade in all sealskins and convince consumers not to buy sealskins,” says the FFA website. The posters will be judged regionally to select the top three winners from each area who will compete in the international competition. The grand prize winner will be awarded US$5,000 and a trip to Stella McCartney’s fall fashion show in Paris. US competition judges include Milton Glaser, David Carson and Canada’s Karim Rashid; judges for Canada have yet to be announced. (Last year’s Canadian judges were Montreal-based Bob Beck of Dialect Design, George Fok of Amen–Epoxy and Louis Gagnon of Paprika.) The registration and submission deadline for Canada is April 14 and 28, respectively. Contact: www.infurmation.com
March 10, 2006
Stock photography company joins QuarkAlliance
DENVER, Colo.— Quark Inc. based here, announced on Tuesday that Image Source Ltd., an independent producer of royalty-free stock photography based in London, England, has joined its global QuarkAlliance program. According to Cyndie Shafstall, director of QuarkAlliance, the program offers Quark partners and customers special benefits, discounts and support based on their membership level and usage of Quark products. This new relationship with Image Source will provide QuarkAlliance program members access to purchase Image Source photography directly from its website. One month before releasing new images through its global distribution network, Image Source offers its material exclusively through www.imagesource.com. Contact: www.quark.com
March 7, 2006
Aquent acquires design, web and content creation company
BOSTON, Mass.—Creative services company Aquent, based here, acquired content design and development firm Sakson & Taylor on Feb. 24. As a global professional services firm that provides staffing, consulting, and outsourcing solutions for marketing, creative and IT services, Aquent’s purchase of Sakson & Taylor will give it greater access to talent and expertise to meet the needs of technology companies“Increasingly, companies are recognizing the power of content,” says Aquent CEO John Chuang, in a released statement. “By combining the services and the customer bases of both organizations, we can now provide even greater proficiency in content design and development staffing, projects, and managed services. Sakson & Taylor’s thought leadership in this area, combined with their strong relationships with leading technology companies, makes them a great addition for Aquent’s current network of technology customers.” Now known as Sakson & Taylor, an Aquent company, the 21-year-old firm will remain headquartered in Seattle, Wash., with offfices in Boise, Idaho; Fort Collins, Colo.; and Portland, Ore. Contact: www.aquent.com; www.sakson.com
March 2, 2006
Graphic design’s great one comes to Vancouver
VANCOUVER—According to Newsweek, “he changed the public face of graphic design.” Now the graphic design and typography icon David Carson is facing the public, at a speaking engagement tonight at the Art Institute of Vancouver. The former professional surfer is internationally renowned for his unconventional use of type and experimental layouts, some of which have been showcased in over 180 magazine and newspaper articles worldwide. With a list of past clients including MTV, Meg Ryan and Giorgio Armani, Carson currently serves as art director of clothing label Quicksilver, art director for the Marshall McLuhan Estate, and as creative director of the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, S.C. Two of Carson’s most recent accomplishments are his latest books, TREK and The Book of Probes. His first tome, The End of Print, sold more than 200,000 copies in five different languages to become the best-selling graphic design book ever published. For more information on tonight’s free event visit www.aiv.aii.edu
