Call For Entries: Core77's 2012 Design Awards

Full disclosure: 3rd Ward's Perrin Drumm also writes for Core77, which just means she knows first hand how important their annual Design Awards are. Not only is it a chance for young designers to have their work seen by an impressive jury of local and international experts, but just being nominated means major exposure in an internationally respected design forum. Before I get to the first six jury teams that were just announced, write down this date: March 13, as in next week. That's the deadline for early bird entries, which gets you 20% off the entry fee.

There are 17 categories in all, and so far the Jury Captains for Consumer Products, Visual Communication, Writing & Commentary, Educational Initiatives, Food Design, and DIY have made their team selections. "Each jury team consists of highly regarded industry leaders representing a wide range of design expertise, who will gather in the JuryCaptain's home city to judge the submissions. Their results will be broadcast live in July to reveal their choices "in person" via an online video announcement."

Head over here to check out past winners, the dedicated student fields and essentially everything else you need to know about the awards.

So let's go, design gurus of the future, we know you want this.

-- Perrin Drumm

Brooklyn's Hyperakt: Making Infographics Look Easy

It's no secret we at 3rd Ward are self-proclaimed infographics geeks. Though last week, I was lucky enough to visit Deroy Peraza and Julia Vakser Zeltser at Hyperakt, their lovely studio in Carroll Gardens. They've created some pretty exciting projects, one being Teach, which you might have heard them live pitch to Kurt Anderson on Studio 360. In just one week they developed a comprehensive strategy to rebrand the teaching profession, replacing the traditional "apple crapple" with a sophisticated brand ID that educators can be proud of. 

As students of illustration in college, Peraza and Zeltser's current work comes packaged with a strong visual sense. Nowhere is this clearer than in the information graphics they've created for GOOD Magazine and The New York Times--not to mention Thomson Reuters Foundation, ClimateWorks Foundation, Acumen Fund, Ford Foundation and Google. Hyperakt makes presenting statistics in an engaging way look simple, though the amount of work that goes into each one is painfully evident. Hit the jump now to see what we mean.

And after perusing the infographics down below, check out the rest of their work--and learn infographics 101 with 3rd Ward's classes in InDesign, Illustrator and Processing: an Introduction to Interactive Media. Oh right, we even offer a course in Branding. We know the next Peraza and Zeltser are reading this...

-- Perrin Drumm