Core77

Through March 26
Core77 & Braun present Design in the Wild: Find the Extra- in the Ordinary Photo Challenge
How do you know when a design shows real genius? Can you spot it the moment you see it, or is it something you become aware of over time? Is it ease-of-use, or beauty, or a marrying of the two that makes you smile with admiration? Maybe it's a smaller element in a larger piece, or a combination of parts that add up to a wondrous whole?

To celebrate this year's BraunPrize 2012, Braun and Core77 have collaborated to present "Design in the Wild," a global photo competition inviting participants to identify extraordinary design in our everyday lives.

This photo challenge runs in 5 phases. The first 4 rounds each have a specific theme, entry period, and voting period. The fifth phase brings the 8 Theme Winners together as Finalists, where a final round of voting will reveal a Runner-Up and a Grand Prize Winner.

• EAT - Deadline: Jan. 22; Vote: Jan. 23–25
• PLAY - Enter: Jan. 27 – Feb. 5; Voting: Feb. 6–8
• WORK - Enter: Feb. 10–19: Feb. 20–22
• RELAX - Enter: Feb. 24 – Mar. 4; Voting: Feb. 5–7
• Finalist Voting: March 12–19

Deadline: February 9, 2012
Connecting the Dots: Tuttobene at Milan Design Week 2012
Always wanted to go to Milan and make your designs known to the world? This is your chance! Participate in this years Tuttobene's presentation and show your products during the biggest and most important design fair.

For the ninth time Tuttobene will be present during the Milan Design Week from April 17–22, 2012. During this week, Milan becomes the place to be for everyone who is interested and involved in furniture and interior design. In this environment, Tuttobene provides a podium for new and upcoming designers who want to show their individual talent.

Deadline EXTENDED to February 10, 2012
Extreme Green Competition
Entering its second year, Extreme Green is a nation-wide competition designed to showcase the latest environmentally sustainable products and materials being developed in Australia. Run in a similar format to the ABC's New Inventors program, the Extreme Green session at Green Cities 2012 will see the best three submissions critiqued and commented upon by conference delegates and a panel of green building experts

Deadline: February 15, 2012
Freightliner Trucks Global Design Contest
Are you ready to design the future of commercial transportation? If so, you could win a $20,000 scholarship and a paid internship with one of the world's leading designers and manufacturers of commercial vehicles: Daimler Trucks North America.

Deadline for Registration: February 15, 2012
AC-CA Iconic Pedestrian Bridge Design Competition
The aim of this International competition is to design an Iconic Pedestrian Bridge in the Heart of Amsterdam. The architecture of this new structure should reflect contemporary design tendencies. The proposal must not only attend to the specific function but the design should also take into consideration the urban insertion and impact geared towards creating a new architectural symbol for an European capital city.

This is an open international competition hosted by [AC-CA] to generate progressive contemporary design ideas. There are no plans for the Iconic Pedestrian Bridge to be built.

Deadline: February 15, 2012
Prolly Is Not Probably × 44RN 144#47 Raidô Contest
In Elder Futhark, an Old Norwegian language, Raidô means ride or journey. This symbol, like all Nordic Runes may be inverted, rotated or Merkstave. Creating a Merkstave usually implies a negative meaning, not necessarily the opposite. The negative of ride or journey means struggle and we can all identify with that. These ups and downs are part of cycling.

44RN and PiNP are throwing a contest to give-away a limited edition 144#47 ring. I received three purple anodized track rings from Aaron and the winner of the contest will get their lucky hands on one.

Deadline: February 15, 2012
The :output Award
The :output award is the biggest competition for students in design and architecture worldwide. Every year more than 1,000 students from more than 30 different countries submit their best projects to the competition. A jury of international renowned designers and professors makes a selection which is published in :output.

Over the past 15 years, :output has become the most influential resource for design and architecture from universities and colleges around the world.

Deadline: February 17, 2012
IDSA International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) 2012
We live in a global community with unique challenges and opportunities in which great design is uniquely positioned to improve daily life and experiences. Design touches people every minute of every day. It shapes the world, experience and daily lives. Great design envisions reinvents and creates the future we want rather than the one we are handed.

The International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) is searching worldwide for the best of the best: exceptional design that epitomizes quality across design mediums and platforms. Over 32 consecutive years, IDEA—also known as the "Oscars of Design"—has maintained and honed its reputation for being the preeminent international design competition.

Check out new entry categories including: Digital Design; Service Design; Social Impact Design; Bathrooms, Spas and Wellness; Gardens & Outdoor; Kitchens; and Living Room and Bedroom. Enter your exceptional design and help IDEA 2012 share the best examples of design insight, talent, passion, innovation and design excellence with media, business, consumers and end users the world over.

Deadline: February 28, 2012
Design Impact Fellowship Program
Design Impact is looking for self-motivated, multi-skilled designers who genuinely want to work full-time in Indian communities affected by poverty. But, we aren't just looking for great designers; we are looking for great organizers, communicators, and relationship builders. We need individuals that can quickly adapt to new environments, demonstrate the value of design in the social sector, lead diverse teams, and constantly improve their own process.

Read more here.

Deadline: February 29, 2012
Drop by Drop
In conjunction with the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Drop by Drop are asking Europeans to create a newspaper ad that inspires others to preserve water now and for future generations. The European ad competition is part of The Future We Want, the United Nations global campaign leading up to the Rio+20 Conference in June 2012.

The competition calls on professionals and non-professionals in 48 European countries to design a newspaper advertisement to raise awareness of the importance of water preservation.

Deadline: February 29, 2012
Convertible Sofa Design Competition [PDF]
Participants are required to submit a design of a multi-position convertible sofa furniture that would feature at least both seating and sleeping positions for the global market. The design of the furniture is open across all segments and categories of sofa design (i.e. three-seater, loveseat, chaise, chair, sectional, etc.) and should have a minimum sleeping surface dimensions of approximately 78” x 46”.

Deadline: February 29, 2012
Infiniti Design De-Contest 2012, "Living Everywhere"
Aimed at young designers of any nationality, it will award projects that best represent one of the five continents, taking inspiration from how they have been portrayed in some internationally renowned movies.

Taking as a starting point the idea that the history of design should be seen as a process of evolution which draws inspiration from all the different parts and arts of the world, designers are asked to design innovative furnishings which represent their continent of origin, interpreting this continent according to how it is portrayed in the world of cinema... In other words, when creating their design, designers must use a film which is set entirely in the continent where they live as their inspiration.

Deadline: March 1, 2012
Beyond Granite: A Design Competition for a New Temporary Commemorative Work in Washington, D.C.
The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), in cooperation with the General Services Administration (GSA), is sponsoring a design competition for a new temporary outdoor commemorative installation in Washington, D.C. with the goal of enhancing a prominent but underutilized public space in the city's monumental core while fostering a public dialogue regarding the nature of commemoration in the nation's capital.

Deadline: March 2, 2012
Objeto Brasil presents IDEA/Brasil
The IDEA/Brasil is the Brazilian version of the American IDEA award, promoted for over 30 years by the IDSA&—Industrial Designers Society of America, and that makes almost $1 million in spontaneous media to all winners. Over the years, the IDEA awards have been a platform of promotion and certificate of excellence for giants, such as Apple and Samsung, that elected the IDEA as the most important award to register its products, and they compete year after year for the position of the company with the most number of winner's products.

Deadline March 31, 2012
graniph Design Award 2012
After a two year hiatus graniph's design award is back for 2012—a global t-shirt design competition with a strong history of introducing up-and-coming and established design talent to Japan and the world. With total past entries of over 30,000, we're looking forward to seeing a whole lot more this year.

Deadline: March 31, 2012
Braun Prize 2012
Braun is pleased to announce the details of the 18th edition of their preeminent design awards program, a competition that they've held every three years since 1968. This year sees a couple of notable developments since last time around: for the first time in the history of the BraunPrize, they're opening the field to "design professionals and enthusiasts"—i.e. the general public—instead of just students, who will be judged in a separate category. To this end, the total prize money comes in at $100,000 and they've added a new Sustainability Award.

More details here.

Deadline: March 31, 2012
Bathroom Vanity Design Challenge
If you are a student, design enthusiast, amateur or professional designer and you are 18 years of age or older, then the Foremost Vanity Design Challenge is a great opportunity to express your enthusiasm for furniture design and a chance to win a $5000.00 grand prize.

Deadline: April 2, 2012
The Dieline Package Design Awards 2012
The Dieline Package Design Awards presented by Inwork is a worldwide competition devoted exclusively to the art of brand packaging. Launched in 2009, The Dieline Package Design Awards presented by Inwork quickly rose to be the nation's leading package design competition, with over 800 entries submitted from all over the world in its first year.

38 winners across 12 different categories will be awarded a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place Dieline Award, and one special winner will receive a one-of-a-kind Best of Show award. An Editor's Choice award will also be given out, handpicked by Andrew Gibbs, Editor-in-Chief of TheDieline.com.

The Dieline Package Design Awards presented by Inwork are judged by a highly esteemed panel of 10 industry experts, and awarded based on quality of Creativity, Marketability, and Innovation. Debbie Millman, President Emeritus of AIGA and President of Design at Sterling Brands, serves as the chairman of the judges.

Deadline: April 15, 2012
3D Design Competition 'Free Form Challenge'
RAPIMAN network is launching a design competition 'Free Form Challenge.' We are inviting creators from all over the world with design and CAD skills to submit their work. We challenge you to release your creative imagination and design as much as you like complex products, which means that they can be unrestricted by technological limitations.

The selected authors will present their products at the 'Free Form Challenge' exhibition, which will be held in September 2012 in Maribor, Slovenia—the 2012 European Capital of Culture.

Deadline: May 31, 2012
IDSA Gianninoto Graduate Scholarship
IDSA's Gianninoto Graduate Scholarship was originally established with a $25,000 contribution by the late Francesco Gianninoto, FIDSA, a US package designer who was a founder of the Package Design Council and president of Gianninoto Associates from 1932 to 1983.

This year IDSA will offer one Gianninoto Graduate Scholarship in 2012. The recipient will receive a $1,500 award to be used in the completion of degree work. Awards are based solely on the excellence of the work students have submitted.

Deadline: May 31, 2012
IDSA Design Foundation Undergraduate Scholarship
IDSA, through the Design Foundation, a public charity supporting design education, grants an undergraduate scholarship that recognizes excellence in student studies and work. The recipient will receive a $1,500 award to be used in the completion of industrial design degree work in the 2012–2013 school year. Awards will be based solely on the excellence of the work students have submitted.

Deadline: May 31, 2012
Mohawk Show 12 - Call for Entries
We talk with each other. We make our marks. We print our ideas, desires, inspirations and words.

Mohawk Fine Papers celebrates the designers who make concrete the complex communications of our culture, who go beyond the expected and make visuals extraordinary.

Mohawk invites you to submit your work to Mohawk Show 12. Four best of show winners will receive $5000 each. $2,500 will be paid to the winning design team in each of these three special categories: Sustainable Design, Strathmore Showcase and Digital Print. And fifteen honorable mentions will be awarded $500 each. Entries are being accepted from now until May 31, 2011. Enter as many projects as you like. There are no entry fees.

February 18 – March 10, 2012
DesignLab, a Design Thinking Workshop
—Shah Alam, Malaysia
Over the course of four Saturday mornings, DesignLab will introduce professionals from multisiciplinary industries to work as a collective to create solutions using design process. Participants will be able to adopt a system and use it repetitively in solving the most complex challenges by understanding the processes behind them.

February 29 – March 4, 2012
Design Indaba Conference 2012
—Cape Town, South Africa
Since 1995, the Design Indaba Conference has invited the world's top creative minds to address professionals from the creative, corporate and educational sectors alike. Championing creativity that enhances every aspect of the world around us, Design Indaba recognises graphic design, advertising, film, music, fashion design, industrial design, architecture, craft, visual art, new media, publishing, broadcasting and performing arts shoulder-to-shoulder.

March 2, 2012
APDF Talent Exchange: Get (and Keep!) the Right People
—The Mansion on Peachtree, Atlanta, Georgia
At the APDF Talent Exchange in Atlanta, our focus is on building a creative culture ideal for success in today's business environment, learning ways to increase employee engagement and creating a culture of trust. We will spend the morning learning from Patty Kubus of Right Management, and then break into groups in the afternoon to discuss, debate and develop actionable steps for your to bring back to your firm on Monday!

March 5 – 7, 2012
Greener Cities 2012
—Sydney Convention & Exhibition Center, Sydney, Australia
Green Cities, the largest green building conference in Asia-Pacific, comes to Sydney in 2012 and will showcase the best and brightest green building professionals, industry experts and manufacturers for three days of green building conversation, innovation and collaboration.

March 8 – 9, 2012
Team Dynamics: Resourcing for Success
—Chicago, Illinois
Today, highly-sophisticated interaction concepts, digital user interfaces, brand guidelines, and global markets add complexity to the development of products and services which no longer can be addressed by individuals. We have to do more with less, produce better quality and come to market ever-faster. The complex just became even more complex.

Register now for the DMI seminar, Team Dynamics: Resourcing for Success, to be held March 8-9 in Chicago. You'll learn to better leverage the creativity and talent of your employees, harness their collective mind, build agile and smart teams, optimize project outcomes, and increase profitability.

April 2 – 3, 2012
Inspiring Matter Conference: Innovative Encounters Between Science, Art and Design
—Royal College of Art, London, UK
Hosted by the RCA's Materials for Living Hub and the Materials and Design Exchange of the Materials KTN, the conference aims to bring together designers, scientists, artists and humanities people working with materials research and innovation to talk about how they work cross- or trans-disciplinarily, the challenges and tools they've found for working collaboratively, and the ways they find inspiration in their work with materials.

April 10 – 14, 2012
Ambiente Fair
—Frankfurt, Germany
The best ideas, the most creative impulses, the most exciting new products. As the world’s most important event for the consumer-goods sector, Ambiente puts new life into the market – and gives your business an unparalleled boost. Only there, in the Dining, Giving and Living segments,can you be sure of finding so many international exhibitors with all the latest products and trends.

April 18 – 20, 2012
FUSE 2012
—JW Marriott Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
FUSE explores the intersection of design and brand strategy. Join us in 2012 as we celebrate the role of graphic, industrial and interactive design in building better brands, more profitable relationships with consumers and more magical brand experiences. Uniting brand strategists, designers, packaging leaders, trendhunters and marketers, the FUSE experience is an eclectic mix of vision, enlightenment and ties that bond.

May 1 – 2, 2012
GRAVITY FREE 2012 Multidisciplinary Design Conference 2012
—Venue SIX10, Chicago, Illinois
GRAVITY FREE is a two-day conversation with the world's most inspiring design thinkers and doers. This world-class event is designed to break attendees out of their daily routine of familiar ideas, and instead connect them with the most diverse and fearless designers who are changing the way we see the world.

This year's theme—"Outlaws and Icons"—is a riveting program of twenty of the world's most fearless designers whose passion and personal vision takes them outside convention—where breaking the rules often produces breathtaking results. No surprise: Outlaws often become icons.

May 5 – 10, 2012
ACM SIGCHI Conference 2012
—Austin Convention Center, Austin, Texas
The ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems is the premier international conference on human-computer interaction. CHI 2012 focus on the centrality of experience—from the models, theories and practical insights we need to understand and design for user experience to the irreplaceable value of experiencing innovation in our field through hands-on interactivity.

May 9 – 10, 2012
IIT Institute of Design Strategy Conference 2012
—Venue SIX10, Chicago, Illinois
The IIT Institute of Design Strategy Conference is an international executive forum addressing how businesses can use design to explore emerging opportunities, solve complex problems, and achieve lasting strategic advantage.

Design, with its ability to understand users, redefine problems and create systemic, human-centered solutions, can help companies better understand their customer's daily lives, and lead directly to valuable (and valued) offerings that are effectively tailored to their market.

May 17 – 20, 2012
APDF Leadership Exchange + Annual Meeting
—Eventi, New York, New York
Complexity, Diversity, Systems + Organizational Success: The APDF Leadership Exchange is your opportunity to share your most pressing business challenges, learn from our nationally-recognized experts and connect with peers of other creative services firms. And this year, we're doing things a bit different!

May 22 – 25, 2012
RAPID 2012
—Hyatt Regency, Atlanta, Georgia
Known worldwide as a must-attend event, RAPID 2012 and 3D IMAGING is the place to learn the basics as well as explore the newest technologies and materials in additive manufacturing in combination with 3D imaging. This is the largest industry forum for the presentation and discussion of the latest developments, trends and techniques specific to additive manufacturing, rapid technologies, 3D printing and 3D imaging.

May 29 – 30, 2012
Product Design+Innovation Conference 2012
—London ExCel, United Kingodm
Product Design + Innovation is a unique conference for senior professionals working in product design consultancies and in-house teams. The conference brings together members of the industrial design industry who produce for a variety of end markets with one common goal: driving design, growth and innovation. Chaired by Kevin McCullagh, Core 77 Columnist, the conference features speakers from McLaren Automotive, Cisco IBSG, Bowers & Wilkins, Magmatic, Marks & Spencer, Bang & Olufsen, Samsung Design Europe, Morphy Richards amongst a host of others.

For the full program visit: www.pdesigni.com

June 22, 2012
The Dieline Package Design Awards 2012
—Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts
The Dieline Package Design Awards is a worldwide competition devoted exclusively to the art of brand packaging. Launched in 2009, The Dieline Package Design Awards quickly rose to be the nation's leading package design competition, with over 800 entries submitted from all over the world in its first year.

38 winners across 12 different categories will be awarded a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place Dieline Award, and one special winner will receive a one-of-a-kind Best of Show award. An Editor's Choice award will also be given out, handpicked by Andrew Gibbs, Editor-in-Chief of TheDieline.com.

February 9, 2012
Design Summit
—Knoll Inc., New York, New York
Join IDSANYC and partner Yeh IDeology in a thorough panel discussion, looking at 2011 and forward into 2012. Followed by a Community Connectivity Workshop. The evening will begin with a panel discussing the key factors impacting the current state of design industries, sharing their unique perspectives on what will make for success in 2012, each representing a different facet of the design business area.

February 9, 2012
Design Icons: Exhibition Launch Party
—Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK
Design Icons: Cambridge Innovation Festival is a celebration of Cambridge design talent taking place throughout February 2012, packing in a high profile exhibition and stacks of design-related events. Join us at the launch party to recognise a collection of important products designed in Cambridgeshire over the last 40 years.

February 10 – 12, 2012
Cool Japan - "Future Tradition WAO" Exhibition
—Capsule Studio, New York, New York
"Future Tradition WAO," produced by Fashion Journalist Yoshiko Ikoma, is pleased to announce the very first installation in the United States, an exhibition signifying the merging of New World and Old World methods towards "future tradition" products created through collaboration with well-known designers, producers and leading brands. The project represents a new world of Japanese craftsmanship and a movement to introduce the arts and crafts of the 21st century.

February 14 – June 10, 2012
Glasstress New York: New Art from the Venice Biennales
—Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York
Glasstress, The Museum of Arts and Design is proud to present Glasstress New York: New Art from the Venice Biennales an extraordinary international gathering of glass sculpture created in Murano at the studio of entrepreneur and mentor Adriano Berengo. Berengo, the founder of Venice Projects, has engaged artists, architects and designers from such diverse countries as the United States, China, Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, and Spain. The resulting works were originally commissioned for and presented at the Venice Biennials of 2009 and 2011. The pieces are dramatic and often provocative, ranging from independent sculptures to installations incorporating sounds and light to prototypes for production. The spirit of innovation and experimentation pervades the works in this exhibition; many of the artists and designers were given their first opportunity to work with this challenging medium, and in collaboration with the brilliantly capable master glass artisans assembled by Adriano Berengo.

February 17 – April 21, 2012
Christophe Côme - Alchemies
—Hedge Gallery, San Francisco, California
Hedge is delighted to present the first San Francisco exhibition of work by Christophe Côme, a furniture and lighting designer based in Paris. Working primarily in cast iron and glass, Côme evokes the legacy of early modern design—particularly the work of Pierre Chareau, Jean Royère, and Frank Lloyd Wright—with objects that are unmistakably contemporary and exquisitely crafted.

Through February 19, 2012
Lost in Lace
—Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK
The Birmingham Museum invites you to step into a world of lace as you've never seen it before: see how the symbolic language, patterns and techniques of lace are represented through radical new approaches by UK and international artists. Featuring large scale, theatrical and visually spectacular work, this exhibition challenges perceptions of what lace can be, involving the visitor in an environment where spaces become fluid and thread creates entirely new boundaries.

Read our take on Nils Völker's "Forty Eight" and preview the work here.

Through February 19, 2012
Korean Eye: Energy and Matter
—Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York
Korean Eye: Energy and Matter reflects a new era of diversity in Korean life, politics, and culture, and offers a unique opportunity for education and appreciation of Korea's rapidly developing art scene, which until recently has seen little global exposure. Korean Eye: Energy and Matter extends MAD's focus on materials and process in contemporary art and design by showcasing works of art in an astonishing range of materials, reflecting the ways in which Korean artists today are exploring techniques both traditional and innovative. Korean Eye: Energy and Matter offers an illuminating commentary on the philosophical and aesthetic conditions of modern Korean culture, from virtual reality and the pervasive influence of fantasy and pop culture to the dehumanization inherent in a post-industrial society.

Through February 23, 2012
50 Books/50 Covers of 2010 Exhibition
—AIGA Gallery, New York, New York
Since 1923, AIGA's "50 Books/50 Covers" competition has recognized excellence in book design and production. This exhibition showcases the best-designed books and book covers published in 2010, selected in the 2011 competition by a distinguished jury chaired by Chip Kidd (designer, author and associate art director, Knopf, New York), which included Arthur Cherry (designer, Design by AAD, Kansas City), Barbara Glauber (principal, Heavy Meta, New York), Kimberly Glyder (designer, Kimberly Glyder Design, Philadelphia) and Joseph Sullivan (founder, The Book Design Review blog, Chicago).

AIGA is committed to using selections from its annual competitions to demonstrate the process of design, the role of the designer, and the value of design to business, culture and society at large. This exhibition at the AIGA National Design Center features all of the year's "50 Books/50 Covers" competition selections, and is free and open to the public.

March 1, 2012
Commitment Required: The Social Design Job Market
—SVA Amphitheater, New York, New York
There has been an unprecedented surge of interest in the field of design for social impact, or as it has become known - social design. Designers are looking for ways in which to incorporate more meaningful social change work into their practices. From social innovation and entrepreneurship to in-house and client based service design, a panel of professionals working in the field will identify areas in which they have had success. This event will explore how designers can create opportunities for themselves to expand into this emerging field.

Through March 1, 2012
Fiskars: 45 Days of Celebration
—Finland, since 1649
First introduced in 1967 as a quality fabric scissors, our Original Orange-Handled Scissors™ redefined the standard for cutting precision. Not only was it much lighter and more comfortable than forged scissors, the cutting performance was so good it forced many a home seamstress to declare the scissors off limits. To help us celebrate the 45th anniversary of our iconic Orange-Handled Scissors, check out our page on facebook . Our celebration begins on January 17 with a fun-filled 45-day countdown leading up to the first day of National Craft Month on March 1. Like us on Facebook to join the celebration and check out all the contests, prizes, fun facts, artist features and more.

Through April 30, 2012
Born Digital: Exploring Digital Culture and Interactivity
—CAM Raleigh, Raleigh, North Carolina
CAM Raleigh's newest feature exhibition, Born Digital, invites visitors to physically explore digital culture and movement-driven artwork—to exercise their creativity and act on their curiosity. Most of the featured artworks in the exhibition employ computer vision technologies, more commonly known as interactive video. The combined use of digital video cameras and custom computer software allows each artwork to "see," and respond to, bodies, colors, and/or motion in the space of the museum. The few works not using cameras in this fashion employ similar technologies towards the same end; they are reflections of our digital culture.

Opening January 28, 2012, the exhibition showcases the contemporary, visitor-dependent art of 12 national and international pioneers of digital and new media art.

Through June 3, 2012
Beauty in All Things: Japanese Art and Design
—Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York
In Japan, beauty can be found in objects from the most refined to the most humble, often with standards very different from those in the Western world. Drawn largely from the MAD collection, Beauty in All Things features contemporary Japanese artists and designers who create innovative works within these ideals of beauty. Some push traditional techniques and materials in new directions, and others experiment with new technologies and materials within the context of historical practice.

Through August 12, 2012
Swept Away: Dust, Ashes and Dirt in Contemporary Art and Design
—Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York
The next investigation into unusual mediums features an international group of artists whose major materials are dust, ashes, dirt, and sand. Swept Away: Dust, Ashes, and Dirt in Contemporary Art and Design will highlight works that deal with issues such as the ephemeral nature of art and life, the quality and content of memory, issues of loss and disintegration, and the detritus of human existence.

Ongoing
Department of Architecture at PSU Presents "Firsts" Lecture Series
—Shattuck Hall Annex, Portland, Oregon
The Department of Architecture, Portland State University, is proud to host its inaugural lecture series, titled "Firsts." The series spans the 2011–2012 academic year with presentations by six notable academics, artists and professionals in architectural practice worldwide.

The concepts of origins and beginnings, long a subject of interest among architects, will be explored throughout the series of lectures. As the Greek word Arche (meaning "first cause") is at the root of the word architecture, the guest lecturers will discuss their own "first causes"—the spark that led them to follow their career path—as part of their presentations.

• February 23: Gilles Saucier
• April 19: Jeremy Till
• April 20: Sarah Wigglesworth
• May 17: Paul Pfeiffer

Ongoing
SVA MFA Design Criticism Lecture Series
—136 West 21st St, 2nd Fl, New York, New York
On Tuesday evenings at D-Crit we present lectures by the most interesting and provocative writers, editors, designers, thinkers, and curators practicing today. The Spring series is curated and hosted by D-Crit first-year students. Come for the lectures and stay for a chance to mingle with the speakers, D-Crit faculty members, and students.

• January 31: Aaron Betsky, "Architecture Beyond Building"
• February 7: Jonathan Olivares, "Working with Jonathan Olivares"
• February 14: Lunchtime Q&A with Michael Kimmelman
• February 21: Starlee Kline, "How to Capture the Cultural Zeitgeist: What Phil Collins and Zombies Have in Common"
• February 28: Jimenez Lai, "Cartoonish Architecture"
• March 13: Meredith TenHoor, "The Infrastructure of Mass Consumption"
• March 27: Witold Rybczynski, "The Biography of a Building"
• April 3: Cintra Wilson, "Fear and Clothing"
• April 10: Michael Meredith, "Playful Experimentation and Criticism"
• April 17: Damon Rich, "Working the System"

Ongoing
Design 4: Event Series
—Cambridge, United Kingdom
This four-part lecture series will address the mash-up of history, design, and technology. At some point we stop seeing and experiencing what we live with, becoming blind to the familiar—things, systems, even problems in our surroundings. Design thinking can shift our vision, literally making what is straight in front of us visible again.

• February 1: Enterprise & Start-Ups - Do you have the right people to grow your enterprise
• February 8: Success - Good design is good for business, as famously said by IBM's Thomas Watson 1956
• February 15: Manufacture - Embracing design, innovation and technology for efficient product management
• February 22: Communication - Design plays a pivotal role in how your business is presented and understood
• February 29: Masterclass Communicating the Value of Design

Ongoing
Visibly Invisible Lecture Series
—Hamilton Hall, the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
This four-part lecture series will address the mash-up of history, design, and technology. At some point we stop seeing and experiencing what we live with, becoming blind to the familiar—things, systems, even problems in our surroundings. Design thinking can shift our vision, literally making what is straight in front of us visible again.

• February 7: Regina Lee Blaszczyk - From Parlor to iPhone: Our Gadgets, Our Identities
• February 21: Thaddeus Squire - Hide and Seek
• March 20: Dan Marcolina - Revealing the Obvious
• April 3: Cynthia E. Smith - Design with the Other 90%: Cities

Ongoing
The Home Front: American Design Now
—Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York
Returning for its second year, "The Home Front: American Design Now" brings together a variety of respected voices to examine the current state of object design in the United States. Last year's program surveyed the challenges facing the contemporary furniture scene from a variety of angles—from architecture and retail to education and small business. This year's programming further explores the ideas, developments, and talents that are moving native design forward.

Presented in three sections: a series of monthly lectures, a designer residency in MAD's Open Studios, and a free publication containing interviews with over 35 leaders in the field, this year's "The Home Front" seeks to lay the groundwork for American designers to gather, respond, and construct new possibilities for the success of American native design on a global stage.

• February 16: Product Placement at MAD: Design for Kids
• March 1: In the Open Studios: The AmDC presents "THREAT: Objects for Defense and Protection"
• March 8: Show Time: Raising the Curtain on Design Events
• April 12: Local Behavior: What Makes an American Designer?

See more details here.