Inviting Designers to Create a Logo in Support of Artisans

UNESCO established the Award of Excellence for Handicrafts program to acknowledge artisans around the world whose work exemplify tradition, innovation and sustainability in handicrafts. Looking to support UNESCO's work in this area, DESIGN 21: Social Design Network developed the Crafting Excellence competition to create the official logo for UNESCO's flagship program. Two winners including an Overall Winner as chosen by UNESCO and a D21 Judges' Pick will receive $3,000 and $2,000 respectively in addition to a Most Popular entry.

In order to keep handicrafts relevant, valuable and marketable in the modern world, craftspeople need to strike a delicate balance between tradition, innovation and sustainability. UNESCO developed the Award of Excellence for Handicrafts initiative nine years ago to support craft producers in improving their product design and marketing techniques. The program currently exists in Southeast, Central, South, and East Asia, Western Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean with the hope of spreading to other sub-regions where handicraft is central to the local economy.

Looking to engage its global base of designers while helping to support the handicraft community, DESIGN 21 created the Crafting Excellence competition. Interested participants are asked to design a logo that will represent the UNESCO Award of Excellence for Handicrafts program. Each entry must only contain the words Award of Excellence for Handicrafts and should include both a black and white and color version. Deadline for entries: September 7, 2010.

Representatives from UNESCO will select one Overall Winner to receive the top prize of $3,000 in exchange for the rights to the logo, which will be used in the program's communications materials. One entrant will also be chosen to receive $2,000 by two D21 Advisory Board members and one entry will receive the Most Popular design as voted on by DESIGN 21 members in an online poll.

About DESIGN 21: Social Design Network
DESIGN 21: Social Design Network is a joint venture of Felissimo and UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). Functioning as an online community that brings together socially conscious designers, non-profits, individuals and organizations, DESIGN 21 promotes better design for the greater good. To date, the network includes over 29,000 members from more than 160 countries and almost 400 organizations from the non-profit, corporate, education and government sectors.