It’s certainly no secret that we’re huge fans of GDC, the national design association in Canada, and the various events they produce. So, I’d like to encourage any and all creative professionals that work within the communication design industry in and around Vancouver (yes, that includes you graphic designers too) to attend the upcoming 2009 Salazar Awards featuring a special keynote presentationby the briliant Michael Osborne of MODSF at Emily Carr on May 8th. Last year’s event was a total sell out, so reserve your Salazar tickets before it’s too late.

For tickets to the Salazar Awards, click here.

That same weekend is GDC’s annual POGO Conference—which stands for Perspectives, Opportunities, Guidance, and Open-learning—including rare studio tour opportunities, creative workshops, and portfolio critiques by some of Vancouver’s leading design experts. This weekend of learning represents a unique and powerful opportunity for recent design grads, young designers looking for advice, or aging design wonks just looking for some fresh perspectives and networking opportunities. Last year a few attendees landing terrific jobs as a result of attending the portfolio reviews alone!

For tickets to POGO, click here.

Yup. You read that correctly. Rogue graphic design star Stefan Sagmeister will be giving a presentation in Vancouver as part of GDC’s Salazar Student Design Awards at 6 pm on Friday, May 9th at the Roundhouse Arts & Community Centre in Yaletown, Vancouver.

Information and tickets are available online at bc.gdc.net/sagmeister.

The GDC BC Chapter is hard at work with the final preparations for the 2007 edition of the Salazar Student Design Awards. Rumour has it that the entry deadline has been extended to June 6th, 2007, so if you’re a design student or recent design grad, get your best work and an entry form in now before it’s too late. Come on—it’s free to enter and you can win cash!

And for the rest of you design nerds, reserve your FREE seats now for the awards show on June 14th where Ian Grais of Rethink Advertising fame with be presenting his industry acclaimed talk “Ten things that haven’t changed in an ever changing world of communications” which examines effective ways of looking at design and communication problems while reminding attendees of the importance of inspiration and passion in the design profession. I saw Ian give a version of this presentation at the 2006 Design Thinkers Conference in Toronto last year and left inspired. And a little jealous. [note: the kick ass artwork for the Salazar posters this year was designed by non other than local design wunderkind Marian Bantjes]