Typically, a contest sponsor puts out a call for a design project, along with its rules and requirements. It solicits original material to be used for their benefit, while offering the winner anything from cash or prizes to publicity or simply the promise of future work or referrals. This differs from design industry competitions that judge previous created, often published, work.
Stripping away the the smoke and mirrors, what’s at issue here is the fact that the sponsor receives the benefit of the entrants’ work, often for a paltry sum, if any. In addition, most contests’ fine print stipulates that all entries become the property of the sponsor. The artist or designer, by creating the work and submitting it, is transferring all their inherent intellectual property rights in the work to the sponsor.
It’s important to note that it’s doubtful the majority of contest or competition sponsors approach their contents with idea of exploiting the creative community. Many begin their overviews with something like, “We thought it would be fun ...,†or, “We wanted to give designers the chance to show their work ...,†etc. However, without communication and education put forth by the design community and its supporters, this trend toward disposable design will continue. As it grows it reinforces the notion that the solutions designers develop – ideas and concepts expressed in tangible forms such as logos and other design items – are simple to create commodities of little value.
Consider an employer seeking to fill a position. They place an ad. “At Acme Widgetwonders, Inc., we’re looking for a top-notch employee. One who can deliver the goods for us by producing great work. We thought it would be fun to dispense with formalities of boring interviews. So, come on in, pull up a cubicle and work for us for a couple of weeks for free. If we like what you do, we’ll hire you. And here’s the best part. In lieu of a salary, we’ll put your name on every widget we make. You’ll be famous!†How many quality potential employees do you think will show up for work the next day?
Phil Bowell
· 2 years ago
Great stuff. As if I needed another design brief to contend with! Ah Man!
Adam Walker Cleaveland
· 2 years ago
And I thought my contest was giving away cool prizes...
An Apple TV?! Very NICE!
Rinzor
· 2 years ago
Go Nicky Go!
Brent
· 2 years ago
Minxlj,
All I can say is I agree wholeheartedly with the article's message that some logo contests have the potential to be exploitive and damaging to the design community. As much as it sounds as if that is what I am doing here, I assure you it is not. This is nothing more than a friendly competition by your choice. I am a brand designer myself and I do place a high value on my work, but I design because I love to, not just because I am paid to. I look at it more like a person who plays a sport professionally (or anything for that matter). They will most likely play that sport with friends for no pay just because they like to play. I look at this contest in the same way. iBAM contains in it's community a collection of creative individuals like myself that love what they do. Here is a focused opportunity to showcase that talent and as an added bonus have a chance to win a fairly substantial prize. I am more than capable of designing my own logo, but that is against the point. This is a community site focused on Mac owners. I want the community to have part as well as say in what happens within these virtual walls. Additionally, we run this site out of our own pocket here as a passion of our own. We are not a huge corporation looking for free work. I do, however, understand the premise of the article, but it was not my intention at all to "pimp" out the design community in any way. We're here to have fun, if you're not going to have fun designing the logo, don't do it, simple as that!
I do want to applaud you for taking your stand and that's why I published your comment. I do agree with the article and in the situations it was referring to, I stand with you. I do believe this is a different situation, whether you agree with me or not. Possibly you would have gone about this contest differently, but I want to assure you, there is in no way an exploitation or selfish motivation in this contest, however faint the appearance of one may seem. I can't be any more honest than what I have posted in the rules and in this comment. I truly believe this is a different situation than the examples put forth in the article and I will stand my ground here. This is a community building exercise with no desire for my own personal gain. And that is that!
Please don't get me wrong, I am not attacking you as I do understand you are only trying to show another point of view and that is what makes this form of communication so great. Thank you for your post and I do hope that mine has explained my intentions behind all of this in response. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your voice, I do hope to hear from you again soon.
Brent
Joel
· 2 years ago
good contest. it's on.
Brent
· 2 years ago
I wanted to give a big shout out and welcome to our newest judge, Cali Lewis from GeekBrief.tv - Welcome to the crew Cali, thanks for jumping in!
Cory Basil
· 2 years ago
sounds tempting...
Lee Taylor
· 2 years ago
Just say NO to Spec Work! And designers wonder why clients scoff at fees?!
Jeremy
· 2 years ago
Part of me doesn't like spec work, part of me thinks "how is something like this any different from the Threadless.com competitions", part me wants a AppleTV, part of me is going to submit a logo.
ericzoo
· 2 years ago
Not even the IMac logo or apple logo is allowed?
Brent
· 2 years ago
I think that would be copyright infringement if we used the apple logo. I think ti would be okay if we were to just have it on the site, but if we turned this design into anything for sale like t-shirts then we could get in trouble. I'm not a 100% sure on this point though.
Manolis Gerasidis
· 2 years ago
I really don't understand why my submission was not accepted. But it's ok. The thing that really annoyed me was that Brent didn't even bother to reply to my e-mails asking why my submission didn't make it to the contest's Flickr page. I think this is almost riude. So if anybody wants to check it out, here it is: http://www.gerasidis.gr/misc/ibam
Brent
· 2 years ago
Don't hang me just yet. I didn't reply because I never saw them. The judging isn't finished yet, so I sent an email to the judges with your link. I'm so sorry! I promise I wasn't picking on you, I honestly never saw any of your emails or submissions till just now.
Brent
Manolis Gerasidis
· 2 years ago
Brent, i didn't mean to "hang" you. I just couldn't understand why my e-mails were ingored.
Manolis Gerasidis
· 2 years ago
The only problem now is that many of the contestants will think that i saw their designs (the box with the mac inside, for instance) and stole them. Which is not true. At the time i made my designs and sent them to you there were only about 14-15 submissions.
All Comments
Excerpt:
Typically, a contest sponsor puts out a call for a design project, along with its rules and requirements. It solicits original material to be used for their benefit, while offering the winner anything from cash or prizes to publicity or simply the promise of future work or referrals. This differs from design industry competitions that judge previous created, often published, work.
Stripping away the the smoke and mirrors, what’s at issue here is the fact that the sponsor receives the benefit of the entrants’ work, often for a paltry sum, if any. In addition, most contests’ fine print stipulates that all entries become the property of the sponsor. The artist or designer, by creating the work and submitting it, is transferring all their inherent intellectual property rights in the work to the sponsor.
It’s important to note that it’s doubtful the majority of contest or competition sponsors approach their contents with idea of exploiting the creative community. Many begin their overviews with something like, “We thought it would be fun ...,†or, “We wanted to give designers the chance to show their work ...,†etc. However, without communication and education put forth by the design community and its supporters, this trend toward disposable design will continue. As it grows it reinforces the notion that the solutions designers develop – ideas and concepts expressed in tangible forms such as logos and other design items – are simple to create commodities of little value.
Consider an employer seeking to fill a position. They place an ad. “At Acme Widgetwonders, Inc., we’re looking for a top-notch employee. One who can deliver the goods for us by producing great work. We thought it would be fun to dispense with formalities of boring interviews. So, come on in, pull up a cubicle and work for us for a couple of weeks for free. If we like what you do, we’ll hire you. And here’s the best part. In lieu of a salary, we’ll put your name on every widget we make. You’ll be famous!†How many quality potential employees do you think will show up for work the next day?
An Apple TV?! Very NICE!
All I can say is I agree wholeheartedly with the article's message that some logo contests have the potential to be exploitive and damaging to the design community. As much as it sounds as if that is what I am doing here, I assure you it is not. This is nothing more than a friendly competition by your choice. I am a brand designer myself and I do place a high value on my work, but I design because I love to, not just because I am paid to. I look at it more like a person who plays a sport professionally (or anything for that matter). They will most likely play that sport with friends for no pay just because they like to play. I look at this contest in the same way. iBAM contains in it's community a collection of creative individuals like myself that love what they do. Here is a focused opportunity to showcase that talent and as an added bonus have a chance to win a fairly substantial prize. I am more than capable of designing my own logo, but that is against the point. This is a community site focused on Mac owners. I want the community to have part as well as say in what happens within these virtual walls. Additionally, we run this site out of our own pocket here as a passion of our own. We are not a huge corporation looking for free work. I do, however, understand the premise of the article, but it was not my intention at all to "pimp" out the design community in any way. We're here to have fun, if you're not going to have fun designing the logo, don't do it, simple as that!
I do want to applaud you for taking your stand and that's why I published your comment. I do agree with the article and in the situations it was referring to, I stand with you. I do believe this is a different situation, whether you agree with me or not. Possibly you would have gone about this contest differently, but I want to assure you, there is in no way an exploitation or selfish motivation in this contest, however faint the appearance of one may seem. I can't be any more honest than what I have posted in the rules and in this comment. I truly believe this is a different situation than the examples put forth in the article and I will stand my ground here. This is a community building exercise with no desire for my own personal gain. And that is that!
Please don't get me wrong, I am not attacking you as I do understand you are only trying to show another point of view and that is what makes this form of communication so great. Thank you for your post and I do hope that mine has explained my intentions behind all of this in response. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your voice, I do hope to hear from you again soon.
Brent
The thing that really annoyed me was that Brent didn't even bother
to reply to my e-mails asking why my submission didn't make it to the
contest's Flickr page. I think this is almost riude.
So if anybody wants to check it out, here it is:
http://www.gerasidis.gr/misc/ibam
Brent