Design Contests, yay or nay?
A guy walks into a high-end restaurant and orders every entrée on the menu including all the chef’s daily specials. He then tells his server, “I only want to eat the dish I like the best. I want to see all the options first, and then I will pay for the one dish I choose to eat.”
Wait, what? If every patron made this request, for obvious reasons, the restaurant would not survive. Nevertheless, people make similar requests of designers and artists all the time.
A brand needs a logo or label designed but doesn’t want to spend the money to hire a professional. So, they call on designers to enter a “design contest” by creating a custom piece and submitting it for consideration. The brand expects to receive tons of free design options from which to choose, and one lucky designer will get paid with a sampling of the brand’s product, a small lump sum, or online exposure. Sounds like a win-win, right?
Last time I checked, the mortgage company doesn’t accept payment in the form of products or exposure. And neither does the grocery store or the electric company. Some brands may view design contests as a way to get free work, but it also diminishes the true economic value designers contribute to business’ objectives. Just like yourself, designers’ time is limited and valuable and they deserve to be fairly compensated for their time and expertise; ESPECIALLY when the brand intends to use the winning design on a for-profit product. Even if you pay the contest winner a small lump sum, the unselected designers are left with hundreds of uncompensated hours. This is called “spec work,” and it’s rude.
Designers, even if the winning prize sounds pretty great, I urge you not to create custom work for contests. If you want brands to value your work and time, you need to value it first. And that starts with requesting fair compensation in exchange for work (and negotiating the usage rights of your intellectual property) just like every other service provider.
Brands, if you need design work, please stop disrespecting the design industry by holding contests. If you need a design, choose a professional and pay for it as you would every other service provider. As a bonus, by working directly with a professional the caliber of work you would receive would drastically improve. By allowing a designer the chance to know your brand, they can tailor the work specifically to meet your identity and functionality goals, instead of making arbitrary artistic choices that compromise brand consistency via a contest.
I have encountered a lot of contest requests lately and I’m over it. I say NO to spec.