We just received the Call For Entries for Graphex 2010—GDC’s biennial national design awards. The concept is “A Reflection Of The Best Designers In Canada”, so I photographed myself reflected in the shiny mirror postcard. Does this mean I’m now among the best designers in Canada? No, but maybe it’ll bring some luck as we get ready to submit a bunch of work from the past couple years. Fingers crossed!

I see GDC has created a public Graphex 2010 group on Flickr, so hopefully more designers across the country will post similar photos of themselves.

It’s that time of the year again; Obligatory “end of year” lists. Best of this, worst of that. Most fly by my eyes in a matter of minutes with little more then an “ohhh” or “ahhh” but The Big Picture assembled some of the most amazing pictures of 2008 that caught all of our attention at the office. Not only capturing some of the most iconic moments of 2008, but also some of the almost forgotten, be sure to stop by and check out the photos here here and here. (via DesignNotes on Delicious.)

In addition to ADCC and W3 awards we took home earlier in the year, we were recently very pleased to learn that our website for UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture was honoured with a Lotus Merit in the interactive category.

Props go out again to our team and clients!

The BC Chapter of GDC has been selected among a select few organizations to receive the 2008 Capilano University President’s Service Awards as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations. GDC/BC was honoured for its continued support and contributions to the university, its students and the design industry into which their graduates enter upon completing their studies.

To celebrate its 40th year since opening in 1968, Capilano University will be holding a special President’s Service Awards event on Saturday, November 15 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Birch building atrium at the North Vancouver campus.

Wolda ’08 Worldwide Logo Design Annual Winners Announced, though none from Canada or Mexico

We’ve kept our eye on this year’s inaugural Wolda ’08 Worldwide Logo Design Competition hosted by Italy’s Eulda Books. They recently announce the winners chosen by an international three-tier jury, including GDC’s own David Coates. 192 logos (174 professionals + 18 designed by students) were selected from almost 1100 entries submitted from 43 different countries around the world—though not a single winner were from either Mexico or Canada. All winning logos are showcased on their website and in the Wolda ’08 printed annual available for sale now.

Let’s hope we see a few Canadian examples of winning logo design in the 2009 competition.

The Winners of The 2008 W3 Awards have been announced by the The International Academy of the Visual Arts today and the team at Industrial Brand were awarded a Silver for the UBC School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture website. With over 3,000 entries, The W3 Awards’ honours outstanding Websites, Web Marketing, and Web Video created by some of the best interactive agencies, designers, and creators worldwide.

“We were amazed at the caliber and quality of work received this year. Our winners continue to push the envelope of internet creativity and web design, and it is gratifying to see such great work from the smallest agencies to the biggest firms” said Linda Day, the director of the IAVA. “On behalf of the The International Academy of the Visual Arts, we are honored to recognize our winners as they continue to set a high standard of excellence for Web development.”

Congratulations to everyone who worked on this multiple award-winning website.

The winners of the 12th annual Webby Awards were just announced and the Graphex 2008 website, designed and developed by Industrial Brand Creative, was chosen as an Honoree out of more than 8,000 entries in 70 categories. To be selected among the best is an honour and we’re very proud to be recognized.

The creative tournament ladder-inspired theme exploring the connections and possibilities of good design was thoughtfully developed by our friends at Rethink Communications, who are also producing the beautiful catalogue showcasing all the Graphex winners (available at GDC.net soon). The creation of a promotional website that paralleled their campaign in a clever way was a challenge our team devoured with vigor, so this award feels really great. Thanks to Ben, Kevin, Cameron, Amanda, Leigh and Haig for making it happen. And thanks to GDC for the opportunity to do what we do best.

Having served as a volunteer with Graphex this year, the memory of a sea of tables displaying 600 submissions is still fresh in my mind. The notion of organizing, categorizing, review and judging over 8,000 entries submitted to the Webby Awards this year makes me a little dizzy. No wonder they charge $275 for each entry. Wait a second: $275 x 8,000 = $2,200,000. Oh my goodness. Someone is making some huge money.

We recently learned our website for UBC’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture has been accepted into Directions 2008, The Advertising and Design Club of Canada’s (ADCC) annual awards show. Thought we should share the good news!

A key to the redesign of the SALA website was to present the UBC School of Architecture as a leader in the education of architecture, as well as to reflect a culture of design, research and community within the four recently merged departments. Additionally, the site required the delivery and management of a vast amount of program and admissions information in diverse graphic and textual forms in an easy to navigate format.

In contrast to the many brochure-style school websites, the SALA site presents the exemplary work that is produced on an ongoing day-to-day basis by its community. The design dynamically features content individually input by staff, faculty and students using a Drupal platform as a content management framework and an HTML and Flash presentation layer. Through the provision of individual blogs/conversations and the areas of the site provided to key groups, the site fosters interaction, exchange and exploration amongst the SALA community.

Congratulations to Mark, Ben, Haig, Amanda, Kevin, Cameron, Matthew, Sarah and everyone else who had a hand in bringing this terrific project to life.

The finalists for the Canadian New Media Awards have been announced and on the heels of Ben’s post on awards shows, I continue to have mixed feelings about awards shows. This one stands out from others because the awards go to the individual or firm, as opposed to celebrating good work.

With categories like Designer, Programmer, Educator and Company of the year, I wonder how the nomination, selection and award process works. The explanation on the site leaves a bit to be desired, and upon drilling down to the personal site of one of the nominees (who has been recognized in 2008, 2006, 2005 and 2001) I found out that they were also on the judging committee in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Hmmm…conflict of interest?

Easy to bitch I know, the bottom line is that there’s some high quality work being recognized worth of checking out.

Applied Arts Magazine announced its latest list of winners today, and Vacnouver’s Rethink Communications cleaned up. As usual. 44 of their submissions were chosen as winners—including the Graphex 2008 invitations they designed for GDC. Congratulations to all our friends at Rethink!