ENTRIES OPEN : DESIGNER COASTER COMPETITION

Drink Outside the Square, a competition that gives students and established designers the chance to have their work retailed as part of a premium homeware product, officially launched today.

Entries to the competition, which is hosted by boutique homeware brand Thirst Impressions in collaboration with a new online creative hub, Create or Die, opened today.

The competition calls on participants to submit a design for the Thirst Impressions range of creative coasters for the home. Participants have until October 31 to enter.

Details and the entry form are at www.createordie.com.au

The competition will culminate in an exhibition featuring the work of twenty finalists. Four winning designs, including a people’s choice, will be included in the Thirst Impressions range and retailed in boutique stores and online in 2012. Participants can enter in either the Student, Designer or After Dark categories, the latter of which allows entries from those not employed in, or studying, design.

All forms of print-able visual art forms including photography, graphic design and fine arts are encouraged.

The judging panel features an impressive line-up from within the design industry, including representatives from Semi Permanent, Creative Conferences and Design is Kinky, and prestigious design school Shillington College.

The competition and exhibition is supported by Digitalpress, Coaster Kings, Tyrrell’s Wines and Sushi Ginza by Zushi.

Thirst Impressions launched just this year after graphic designer Belle Howie discovered a gap in the market for a product that combined the practicality of the often-pilfered cardboard bar coaster with the visual appeal of high-end homewares.

The Australian-made, Sydney-designed coasters are made from plantation stock cardboard, to give them all the liquid-soaking quality of a bar coaster but in beautiful designs for the home.

Belle Howie said the aim of the competition was to encourage designers to think about being artistically expressive in a way that was also commercially viable.

“Thirst Impressions is proof that sometimes the best designs are the most obvious,” she said.

“The product also opens up the imagination as to the possibilities in functional, yet artistic, design. I hope it inspires other creatives to take the plunge and combine art with a commercially viable product, taking art to the masses.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing what my product inspires in the budding and established designers who participate in this competition.”

Create or Die founder Deb Morgan said the partnership was a natural one for the new online collective which aims to support creatives who don’t make their primary living from their art.

Create Or Die (www.createordie.com.au)meshes an online hub and blog with offline events, projects and exhibitions, and even extends to the online store www.robio.com.au, which gives members the chance to launch their creations into the retail space. It also provides opportunities to collaborate with other artists, designers, photographers and writers, and a platform to showcase work.

“Create or Die is a platform for people who hold true to the notion that if they are not creating, pieces of them are slowly dying,” Deb Morgan said.

“Create or Die is for those among us who, due to the pressures of this modern life, spend their time working for a client and haven’t managed to get their own art out there.

“Create or Die looks forward to working with Thirst Impressions to bring Drink Outside the Square to life.”

Editor’s notes:Entrants are asked to set their art up at 300dpi, 500mm diameter round canvas with 10mm bleed. They are asked to submit in low-res, but be designed in high-res so that the lucky finalists chosen to feature in the Drink Outside the Square exhibition at Showcase Gallery in Darlinghurst can be produced