Graphic designers from across Tennessee will gather in Chattanooga in January to compare their efforts.

The second Ten Show event, founded by the state’s chapters of design trade group AIGA, is a chance for designers to examine their peers’ work and to highlight local art in a growing industry, organizers said.

“We want to communicate to not only local designers, but to people from Nashville, Knoxville and Memphis that this is a town that takes this seriously,” said Grant Little, event director and designer at Daniel+Douglas+Norcross. Ten Show is open to “any type of graphic communication,” Mr. Little said, adding that there is an emphasis on the beneficial relationship between design and business. To that extent, the response from area businesses is strong, he said. Mr. Little said there also is a category for student work.

“We’re not just trying to communicate the value of good design,” he said. “We’re also trying to encourage the next generation.”

Allied Arts is tying an “Artini” party event to the opening of the winning works gallery.

Helen Davis Johnson, director of community programs for Allied Arts, said design is a growth industry with the potential to attract and retain young professionals and small business owners. Ten Show is a good opportunity to highlight Chattanooga’s scene to those in the industry, she said.

“One of the things we like to do is showcase what this city has to display with the arts,” she said.

Last year Chattanooga hosted the CR824 Web design competition and will do so again in 2007. Mark Cooley, art director at Coptix, a Chattanooga Web and graphic design company, is from Nashville, but he stayed here after school to work.

“Chattanooga, for the size that it is, we have a good amount of really talented designers and people who don’t want to move to bigger cities,” Mr. Cooley said. “It is significant that we have good design in this city.”

Judging the event are Art Chantry, known for his work in Seattle and with musicians; Doug Davenport Jr., chairman of Atlanta AIGA Interactive Outreach; and Marion English Powers, Slaughter Hanson Advertising design director. The winning works will be shown at a reception and then afterward in a local gallery.

Winners will be entered in AIGA’s national competition and have their work displayed in New York City and at trade group chapters nationwide.

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