Design Army donates to AIGA DC Continuum Fund

Owners of Design Army, Pum and Jake Lefebure, have donated 100% of their speaking and judging fees to the AIGA DC Continuum Fund Scholarship in 2009 and 2010. Some of these events include speaking at Design Madison, AIGA Blue Ridge, AIGA West Michigan, AIGA Baltimore, and Columbus Society of Communicating Arts. HOW International, ADDY New Mexico, ADDY Akron, and NORI Awards are all judging events where the money earned was applied to the AIGA DC Continuum Fund Scholarship.

AIGA DC recently connected with Design Army to find out what makes them tick and why they donate to our scholarship fund.

What compelled you to donate your speaking engagement earnings to the AIGA DC Continuum Fund?
Being in DC and seeing the potential of design community and student talents we have I hope that it will better programs and elevate DC even furthter as a creative hub. And we like to give back - AIGA DC Continuum Fund is great place to give.

Why do you enjoy about being a donor to the AIGA DC Continuum Fund?
Seeing a talented designer have the opportunity to be even better - it's a tough market these days and every/any advantage will be needed to make it.

What would you say to someone thinking about donating to the fund? Why should someone donate?
Why not? If you are going to give why not give to a good cause you are passionate about. We get called on by all sorts of organizations and while we do give to some, we will really look each one and how it will or will not impact our daily lives. Design is our life here at Design Army.


The AIGA DC community looks up to Design Army because of their involvement with causes and the opportunities they achieve in the design industry. To know that they care enough to donate 100% of their speaking and judging fees to the AIGA DC Continuum Fund means a lot to the future of design.

If you would like more information about AIGA DC's Continuum Fund Scholarship or have questions about donating to AIGA DC's Continuum Fund, please email continuum@aigadc.org or visit www.aigadc.org/continuum.

--
Carolyn Belefski
Continuum Chair, AIGA DC

March is Women's History Month

The above image is my Sketch Before Sleep entry (March 20, 2010) of Jackie Ormes, first female African American cartoonist.

Since March is Women's History Month, I want to know what female artists people are inspired by. On Twitter, my personal Facebook page, and the Curls Studio Facebook Fan Page I posted:

"March is Women's History Month - What female artists/comic artists are some of YOUR inspirations?" (Some female illustrators I enjoy are Elizabeth Watasin, Amanda Conner, Lauren Faust, and Raina Telgemeier.)

Some of the responses I have received included:

- "Jill Thompson and Amanda Conner."

- "Georgia O'Keeffe is the first artist I can remember "knowing": her history her art her life. But to this day when I need inspiration I turn to Cassatt's (japanese-esq) prints....."

- "Always loved Julie Doucet-very eye opening for a teen in the sticks."

- "Wendy Pini. Back in the 70's and early 80's her strips for Elfquest were awesome. She was the first female comic artist I knew of."

- "Kiki Smith, Annette Messager, Eva Hesse and the Louises Nevelson and Bourgeois!"

- "julie klausner, linda barry, cristy road just to name a few!"

Please comment below if you have any female artists you are influenced by and spread the word of Women's History Month.

Thanks,
Carolyn

Results: Curls Twitter Contest

We announced the winner of the first ever Curls Twitter Contest is @rosscott. When I asked him what type of sketch he'd like he replied:

"@curlsstudio Hey thanks for the Twitter Contest! How about a sketch for a fellow graphic designer? Nerdy as you can!"


Well, I did some thinking about it and decided to do a full-on comic strip instead of a sketch. The nerdiest thing I could think of was having Curls throw a Designer's Halloween Party. As you can see, she is a Photoshop Wizard bossing, oh, I mean "art directing" Pitter Patter the penguin as he adjusts the banner to her liking. Some of the guests came as CMYK and a "bleeding" man. Maybe that's Steve Jobs in the background? Yeah, think it would be pretty dorky to dress up in honor of design for Halloween, but designers are dorky anyway, so it's all good.


@rosscott wins the original inked art (which I photographed for you all above) and a print of the color version of the comic. I hope he enjoys his win! Thanks and congrats!

Curls Twitter Contest

Hello everyone!

The contest is officially on and you have one week to get retweeting (or RT as they say on Twitter)! If you already have a Twitter account, all you have to do is be a follower of @curlsstudio and post:

"CONTEST: Spread love of the Curls Webcomic! RT this message - one will win sketch on 3/4 by Carolyn Belefski. http://tinyurl.com/curlscomic"

If you don't have a Twitter account, now is the time to get one. One winner will be announced on March 4, 2010. The winner will get a free sketch by yours truly, Carolyn Belefski. Thanks for helping to spread the word about Curls!

Comic Creator's Alliance Donation Drive 2010

The Comic Creator's Alliance Donation Drive is LIVE January 11 - 24!

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-Margaret Mead

Monday, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. To participate, we formed the Comic Creator's Alliance--a group of over eighty comic book creators (both web and print) who volunteered our artistic talents to raise money and awareness for this cause. You may not know it, but there are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide- more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year. Unlike slavery in the 19th century, what is happening today is happening in secret. So it won't end until awareness is raised, and people like you and me take a stand.


So here's what we did: each creator contributed an original drawing of one of our own female characters, and combined them into a single wallpaper image. The wallpaper features characters from The Phoenix Requiem, Girls with Slingshots, Earthsong, Looking for Group, Curls, Shadowgirls, Marsh Rocket, The Uniques and three IDW Publishing titles: Fallen Angel, The Dreamland Chronicles and The Dreamer, and lots, lots more! Donate today to download this unique, once-in-a-lifetime wallpaper. The Donations Drive will last for two weeks, from January 11th - 24th. All proceeds will be split evenly between Love146 and Gracehaven House - two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this crime.


Character List (Curls is #32)

To learn more about the Comic Creator's Alliance visit www.comicalliance.weebly.com. To learn more about the problem, visit http://love146.org/slavery. (Note: contains adult themes and actual accounts of sex slavery.)

Sketch Before Sleep

This week I created a new blog called Sketch Before Sleep as an outlet to experiment with my new Wacom Tablet. I will try to spend a few minutes before I go to sleep to create something everyday as my gift to you. The images above are some examples of what I have been posting.

Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed! If you are interested in purchasing any prints of my Sketch Before Sleep entries, contact info@curls-studio.com and tell me what you'd like. Or if you are an Art Director or Creative Director in need of illustrations or spot art feel free to contact me about future assignments.

UPDATE - March 11, 2010
If you see Sketch Before Sleep entries you'd like to purchase as prints, email info@curls-studio.com or contact me on Etsy and I will try to make them available to you in the following sizes: 5" x 5", 8" x 8", and 10" x 10"

Urban Forest Project Submission

This spring, The Urban Forest Project, a global public arts and environmental initiative, will plant 100 street banners designed by local designers and students in downtown Washington, DC. Each banner will use the form of, or metaphor for, a tree to make powerful visual statements about the environment. Together they’ll create a forest of thoughtful images in the heart of the nation’s capitol. Once the banners come down from the light poles, the artwork will be repurposed into tote bags for purchase. Proceeds from the sales of the tote bags will go to non-profit environmental efforts that will aid Washington, DC in being a cleaner, greener and more sustainable city.

The project, conceived by Worldstudio, is being presented in Washington DC in collaboration with: AIGA DC, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) and the Corcoran College of Art + Design.

Here is my statement about the banner I created:

The Washington Monument is the inspiration for my banner design. The shape lends itself to create a lovely tree and represents both the environment and the city of Washington, DC as one visual element. In addition, the variety of leaves evokes a feeling of diversity and community.