Daily
Wednesday Lunch Poll #9
Design Competitions, Good Or Bad?
This isn’t a new conversation on The Denver Egotist, but we feel it’s an important one, so we want you to chime in. If you think they’re OK, we want to know why. Likewise on why not – pipe in on why you’re opposed to them. When is it an acceptable approach for getting a logo and when isn’t it? Is it acceptable to solicit posters or TV spots through a competition? Do we need to draw a line to protect our profession? If so where and how?
We have our own opinions here at The Egotist. We want to hear yours.
35 days ago / / Link
I’d say almost always bad. There is no iterative process (you’re submitting and potentially having chosen your first pass at the logo) and beyond maybe a creative brief, no chance to interact with real people on the client side to get a feel for the entity’s culture, personality, and what makes them tick. A logo is the most simplified visual indicator of a brand…sure it’s meant to speak to a certain market or demographic, which is easily enough communicated in a creative brief, but it should also reflect the personality of the entity, which is not so easily communicated that way.
So chances are, it’s a bad idea before you even get to the spec part of the argument.
As far as compensation, that’s where it’s usually a blatant rip off for the creative that “wins” the award, not to mention the countless hours of uncompensated work submitted by the runners-up. Unless the “prize” is the going rate (cash or equivalent) for the logo portion of a branding job for that type of client, it’s likely a bad deal. I mean, that had better be the most bitchin’ gift basket ever put together.
That being said, if a non-cash prize is sizable enough and desirable enough, I say let the people that want to compete for that prize go at it. Soft & Furry is a good example. The prize doesn’t appeal to me because I’m not really into that kind of stuff, but it seems like an almost better-than-the-cash-value reward for someone who is.
— table2press · Jul 16, 10:14 AM · #
The design competition is awesome for the creatives on the come up. They get a vehicle to rock out a design and gain some highly desired attention.
For a seasoned professional it’s different. Why would someone who’s putting in 50-80 hours a week want to do something like that? Maybe the project allows them to get involved with something they would normally not see at their agency job. Maybe they just really want the gift prize at the end. Whatever. If they don’t want to do it, they don’t have to. Nobody’s forcing them.
What these things are as a whole are portals for creative exploration. You aren’t going to get a lot of strategy or a highly thought-out and super dialed-in identity system. Just a quick and dirty piece of design. For the most part, fluff.
We can gripe all we want about how it devalues design, but in reality these little start ups have no money and are either going to have little design challenges or they’ll have the IT person who knows photoshop slap together some pile of shit. Personally I’d rather see good design than bad design no matter what the means.
— matt schreiber · Jul 16, 10:40 AM · #
It really does depend on the situation. On the one hand, there’s something in it for both parties. One gets exposure, the other gets a free design. But when companies do it just to milk ideas from designers without paying a cent, I think it’s bad form. On the whole, I’m against it…unless there’s a seriously kick-ass prize at the end of it all. The Fink Tank had a competition to produce a logo that was like no other, and they ponied up 10,000 pounds (about $20k) to the winner. Even I entered that one.
— paul suggett · Jul 16, 10:54 AM · #
Dude, if you send an unpaid intern over to my place to actually dig through my sample cabinet, fill out the three copies of the damn form, mount them (I’m looking at you, old Denver Ad Federation!) on black matte board (!), and rob a bank for the entry fees, I WOULD HAPPILY ENTER SUCH COMPETITIONS. Otherwise, I’m happy to spend my time earning, hoss. In the words of one of my favorite comics, “Shakespeare got to get paid, son.”
— Alan Bucknam · Jul 16, 11:01 AM · #
...um, and If I had read the whole post, I would have realized you were talking about basically designing on spec, as opposed to design award competitions… to which I reiterate: SHAKESPEARE GOT TO GET PAID, SON.
— Alan Bucknam · Jul 16, 11:04 AM · #
shirt.woot.com is basically a spec design contest and I think it’s one of the best daily updated websites in the world.
— josh mishell · Jul 16, 01:15 PM · #