To celebrate its 8th year in business, Maryland-based design firm Octavo Designs created a self-promo mailer with fun temporary tattoos. We gets lots of promotions from designers at HOW. This one caught my attention because it was simple and showed a sense of humor.

Posted by Megan

Independent branding and design consultancy CBX is inviting all design students to enter CBXtra Credit, a competition for a summer internship in its New York City office. The deadline for entries is April 24.

Posted by Megan

I arrived in San Diego this afternoon for the annual Y Conference, which I was also able to attend last year. This year, they were able to add another day to the conference, so it kicked off tonight with an opening keynote speaker. Unfortunately that speaker, Paul Hawken, wasn't able to make it because he became very sick. Instead, Metropolis editor-in-chief Susan Szenasy took up the torch and presented a session about green design. (The entire conference is dedicated to the subject of green and sustainable design.)

Susan's presentation focused on some very inspiring, cutting-edge (albeit architecturally-focused) projects that are embracing and pushing the movement forward; projects like planting crops on rooftops in China or examples of schools and colleges where every architectural detail means something. Project after project, each was an innovative take on how to better our environmental--and living--situation through architecture.

Which got me thinking: How can we, as designers, do things like this? How can we apply our talents in such ways? How can we raise that sort of awareness?

That kind of kick-start thinking is the stuff keynotes are made of. And something tells me that this vein will run deep throughout the conference's next two days.


The giant Y sculpture greets attendees as they make their way into the Conference.


Susan Szenasy presents the keynote session at the Y Conference.

Posted by Carmen

Illustrator Julia Bereciartu, based in Spain, creates lovely collages with vintage images and ephemera.

Posted by Megan

With stunning type and motion, movie titles set the mood for films before the action begins. Entertainment Weekly points to 13 great opening credits as chosen by readers, including the classic-looking opener for Catch Me If You Can.

Posted by Megan

Over on the HOW Forum, we've started a little contest called Show Us Your Desktop, where designers can post screenshots of their Mac desktops and vote on the best ones. The designer whose desktop gets the most votes wins a free one-year HOW subscription. You can only post one image, but you can vote as much as you want; the contest ends April 18. Wanna play? Post your desktop and vote.

If you are, you should definitely check out Chronicle Books Design Fellowship program. The program offers five *paid* six-month fellowships in Chronicle's different in-house design departments: publishing, children's, marketing and products. The deadline for applications is April 25.

The Chronicle Books Design Fellowship program offers five recent graduates a six-month, paid, hands-on education. There is a Design Fellow for each of our publishing groups, and they become an active member of the in-house design team, working on a range of projects while gaining professional skills and a portfolio of printed work. In addition, the Fellows collectively compose the Chronicle Books Design Lab: a think-tank charged with brainstorming the future of Chronicle's products.

Posted by Megan