Prepare yourself: The next couple of weeks are jam-packed with design-related events and deadlines. Here's a list of what to mark on your calendar soon:

March 27: School of Visual Arts is presenting a design criticism reading night, where speakers will “look at design through the murky lens of evil”

March 27–29: AIGA San Diego Y Conference will be taking place and explore sustainable design

March 27–29: UCDA Design Summit (in Denver) looks at issues facing creatives, both in and out of educational institutions

March 28: Early Bird deadline to save $80 and register for the HOW Design Conference this year in Boston. (The Conference runs from May 18 to 21.) 

March 28: Graphex Awards Gala takes place in Vancouver to recognize outstanding Canadian design, hosted by Ze Frank

Through March 31: MoMA’s “50 Years of Helvetica” exhibition presents posters, signage and other graphic materials that showcase the use of Helvetica

March 31: Deadline to enter the Strathmore Letterhead Contest

April 1: Deadline for STEP magazine’s call for entries for Best of Web designs

April 1: X-Rite’s “Color Control Freak” seminar will travel to Chicago and Atlanta 

April 3: The Art Directors Club has invited past Young Guns winners to participate in “The Undiscovered Letter,” where they will create the 27th letter of the Latin alphabet. Come see the finalists at the “Disclosure” show’s kick off.

April 3–5: AIGA Jacksonville re:CHARGE 08 is dedicated to getting attendees inspired and recharged about design. Speakers include Debbie Millman, Ann Willoughby, Christopher Simmons and Stefan Bucher.

April 3–5: DSVC Student Show & Conference takes place in Dallas, specifically for students and includes a job fair, so students can show their stuff to hiring studios.

April 5-6: The 4th Annual Modern Phoenix Expo and Home Tour, through the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, features lectures on mid-century modern home design as well as self-guided walking tours through the area’s modernist tract homes and churches