Just received an email a few days ago congradulating my design submission as a runner up in the Chicago Fringe Festival Design Contest! 3 runners up will be posted on the festival's website for our excellent designs. Makes me smile. Email I received:

Here's a little something about the festival design contest:

 50 shows booked. 1 design needed.

Chicago Fringe Festival is an artistic extravaganza featuring theatricalizers of every stripe, from actors to aerialists, performance artists to puppeteers! CFF is 50 shows, from the whimsical to the WTF, performed in Pilsen between September 1-11, 2011. Last year’s Festival drew an audience of over 2,000 people. This year’s Festival will be even bigger.

Chicago Fringe Festival needs a design that is so arresting, dynamic, searing, fanciful, mind-bending or otherwise amazing that it will radiate cartoon-like waves of energy. Some further crucial information to help you create the graphic gold we’re panning for:

• The design should reflect, suggest, embody, convey or otherwise relate, directly or obliquely, to our Festival theme: On the Map, Under the Radar
• The design should capture (or at least not contradict) some of the other key characteristics of Chicago Fringe theatre. We value diversity. We feature performers of all ages, ethnicities, nationalities and orientations in shows about everything from Irish dancing to Rambo. And we believe that audiences should reflect the diversity on stage: our tickets are affordable, allowing anyone with a few spare bucks to see theatre. We are homegrown. The Festival was founded by Chicagoans and is infused with Chicago’s spirit of grit and innovation. And the Festival is proudly located in Pilsen, a neighborhood whose vivid murals testify to Chicago’s rich history and tradition of public art. We are guided by the philosophy that small theatre can be great theatre. A show performed in an improvised storefront space can be just as gripping and revelatory as the most lavish production at the fanciest theatre. To learn more about what Chicago Fringe is, visit http://www.chicagofringe.org/.

The Chicago Fringe Festival (CFF) invites emerging and established performing artists from Chicago, the U.S. and beyond to showcase their work and add to the dialogue of theatrical art. The Festival also seeks to enhance the perception of Chicago as a major hub for theatre. CFF encourages performers to take bold risks by providing an avenue for affordable productions. It also seeks to bring in non-traditional theater-goers through a commitment to low ticket prices and outreach into communities not commonly represented. In this fashion, The Chicago Fringe Festival provides an avenue for diverse artists and audience members to connect in a singular and immediate way.