Some of the can't-miss events that are taking place all over the country in the next couple weeks that you should know about:

March 11: Deadline for entering Communication Art’s annual photography and illustration competitions

March 11th, 13th, 18th: X-Rite’s “Color Control Freak” seminar will travel to Indianapolis, Houston, Nashville, Kansas City, Minneapolis and Miami 

March 13: AIGA Minnesota’s Design Show of Excellence highlights the region’s top works

March 14: Deadline to enter any projects integrating experimental typography for a new book coming out from publisher PageOne this fall, “TYPOMOFO”

March 21: Deadline to enter HOW’s Promotion Design Awards, where you can submit your best promotional efforts for a chance to win a trip to the 2009 HOW Design Conference.

There's no magic button to push to generate a new logo (despite what your clients may think), but Mohawk has developed a tongue-in-cheek widget guaranteed to create the most bland, weird or otherwise unsuitable logos out there. Just click on the edge of the yellow box to launch the Logo-Matic Machine. (And while you're there, be sure to check out Pentagram New York's new redesign of the Mohawk site.)

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New York City-based artist couple Justin and Christine know exactly what they want so they paint the objects and sell them for what said items would retail for in the real world. They've just posted new March Wants like this one: "Drinks On Us" for $500.

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From the graphics-industry trendwatchers at The Industry Measure comes another bit of news: The number of creative shops in the U.S. grew from 2006/2007 to 2007/2008. The group's "Design & Production Demographic Atlas" counted 52,513 total design and production establishments, a 0.9% increase (about 500 firms). That doesn't seem like whopping growth, but consider the rise in corporate design departments, the sluggish nature of the economy, and the trend toward consumer-generated/viral marketing efforts, and the data is notable.

Coroflot just released the results of its 2007 Design Salary Survey. You can dig through the data to see where you stack up or peruse a selection of helpfult charts like this one that shows a nice increase in salaries for web/interactive designers.

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Veer, a producer and provider of visual elements and design-related products is now accepting applications for its internship program from design students across North America. Veer offers paid summer employment with its award-winning, in-house creative team. The successful applicant will spend the summer at Veer headquarters in Calgary, Canada. It is a two-month internship. Veer provides airfare and accommodation. The student intern is responsible for food and entertainment.Applications will be accepted until April 30, 2008. For more information and instructions, please visit www.veer.com/ideas/students/internships.

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Debbie Millman will be interviewing Stefan Bucher today at noon on Design Matters. He'll be talking about his new book 100 Days of Monsters, among other things. Besides getting a mention in Wired earlier this week, the book was just reviewed in Communication Arts and got a nod from Very Short List. You can check out Stefan's creatures at DailyMonster.com.

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To celebrate today, TypeTrust is offering 29% off of any fonts designed by Neil Summerour and Silas Dilworth, including gems like Donatora and Vandermark.

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Henry Sene Yee, whose day job is designing gorgeous book covers, has a photoblog that captures the essence of being in New York City.

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All you in-house designers who work in cubicles will love the book I just received as a belated birthday gift: Overheard in the Office, Conversations from Water Coolers, Conference Rooms and Cubicles.

Overheard in a HOW Books meeting today: "A journal is just like a book with nothing printed in it."

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Amazing designer and friend of HOW Stefan Bucher just sent over the trailer for a new movie called "The Fall." Stefan created the titles for the trailer, including the exquisite "Fall" logo, based on previous work he did for a book promoting the film. "The Fall" is directed by Tarsem Singh, the man behind 2000's gorgeous "The Cell," but he's probably most famous for his work on R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" video. After watching the trailer, I can't wait to see this movie, which is supposed to open in the U.S. this spring.

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If you like Shepard Fairy's Obama Hope Poster that's been buzzing around the blogosphere, now you can get the design on a t-shirt from Upper Playground for $25.

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Design*Sponge today points to a line of cute office supplies from Galison that features the designs of William Morris. What's really cool is that the Clover pattern supplies recently won a merit award in the HOW In-HOWse Design Awards. The pattern was reproduced from a wallpaper sample in the Brooklyn Museum of Art and can be found on file folders, journals, notepads and  more.

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The judges for HOW's latest International Design Awards were mighty impressed with a collection of gig posters from north of the border. We've just posted an article about this Best of Show-winning project, as a sneak preview from our International Design Annual, on newsstands now.

Poking around on Flickr last night, I came across some playful lettering by designer Jon Contino, which made me want to know more. It turns out he has a blog as well as a site for his design studio Onetwentysix, so you can see work from early sketches through finals.

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Stefan Bucher's soon-to-be-released book for HOW, 100 Days of Monsters, just popped up in the pages of Wired magazine. How cool is that?

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A few years ago, during a drip to Madison, WI, I came across a set of adorable mugs with catchy word/image pairings. I chose one that paired the word "big" with a cute drawing of a wedge of cheese. But when I got home, the mug was broken (due to some bag packing on my part). So I was excited today to see a post about Jane Jenni on the Drawn! blog. I thought her style looked familiar so I checked out her site and there it was: big cheese (plus a bunch of other designs that I like even more.)

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Seattle artist Rakka has been working on a thing-a-day project where she creates logos out of appropriate materials, like Quaker Oats out of oatmeal. You can watch her creativity unfold at Suspect and Fugitive.

via Craft

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