Call for entries: Members of DESIGN 21 are invited to help promote linguistic diversity and multiculturalism by creating a poster for International Mother Language Day, 21 February. All entries will appear on the DESIGN 21 website and an official poster will be selected from the submissions. UNESCO will distribute the poster through its Member States and partners.

Background

Languages are essential to the identity of groups and individuals and to their peaceful coexistence. However, within the space of a few generations, more than 50% of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world may disappear.

In November 1999, the General Conference of UNESCO proclaimed 21 February the International Mother Language Day. This Day has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic diversity and multilingualism.

In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2008 'The International Year of Languages', choosing UNESCO as lead agency for the celebrations. UNESCO subsequently launched an awareness-raising campaign, whose slogan was "languages matter", to emphasise the importance of a wide variety of topics including linguistic and cultural diversity, literacy and mother-tongue-based education.

Only if multilingualism is fully accepted can all languages find their place in our globalised world. We must act now as a matter of urgency.

The competition

This competition calls for a poster that celebrates International Mother Language Day on 21 February based on the slogan "Languages matter!"

The poster must be A3-sized and contain at least the following text elements, both in English and in French together in the one design:

• The slogan: Languages matter! / Les langues, ça compte !
• The date: 21 February 2009 / 21 février 2009
• The name of the celebration: International Mother Language Day / Journée internationale de la langue maternelle

View the poster from 2008 for reference.

UNESCO will distribute the poster through its Member States and partners. Winners will grant to UNESCO all reproduction rights related to the poster.

Judging Criteria

In addition to the stated judging criteria in the general rules, the judges will be looking for the ability to graphically and visually transform the "languages matter" message in a convincing and easy to understand way.

Prizes

A prize money pool of $5500 will be allocated as follows:

• UNESCO will select Overall Winner who will receive $3000 as well as an invitation to attend Mother Language Day at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
• In addition, two DESIGN 21 Advisory Board members will select their individual Judges Pick with a prize of $1000 each.
• As usual, members of the DESIGN 21 community will vote for their favorites during our online voting period; the Most Popular will receive $500.

Jury

DESIGN 21's judges, who will be selecting the "judge's picks", are:

• Jacques Lange (South Africa) Partner and creative director, Bluprint Design, Design Editor of DESIGN> magazine and Past President (2007-2009) Icograda.
• Omar Vulpinari (Republic of San Marino) Creative Director of the Visual Communication Department at Fabrica, and Vice President of Icograda.

UNESCO's judges, who will be picking the overall winner, are:

• Mr Daniel Prado - Director of Terminology and Language Industries.
• Mr Adama Samassékou - Secretary General of African Academy of Languages.

Submission deadline

19 January 2009 (6:00pm UTC)

Links

DESIGN 21 website competition guidelines.
UNESCO Languages matter! -information on the initiative.

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For more information, please contact:

DESIGN 21: Social Design Network
10 West 56th Street
New York, NY 10019
United States
W: www.design21sdn.com


About DESIGN21
DESIGN 21: Social Design Network's mission is to inspire social activism through design. We connect people who want to explore ways design can positively impact our many worlds, and who want to create change here, now. DESIGN 21: Social Design Network is itself a collaborative project undertaken by the global design and merchandise company Felissimo and UNESCO.