Something’s been bothering me…

Art Contests.

I don’t agree with them. This all spurred from reading my friend Francis’ blog post a while back. I think he summed it up pretty well, and if you don’t want to read it, at least watch the video he posted. Along with his blog post, here are a few more that I thought were very well-written and made for a good argument:

I, like Francis, was all about design contests a few years ago when I was a student, and even when I was just graduating and looking for jobs left and right. You really have nothing to lose right? Well you may volunteer yourself for it, but you’re really not being fair to yourself by denying yourself valuable client interaction, experience, and not to mention payment. Not only that but it’s just as unfair for everyone else in the design community. By participating in any Craigslist contest or signing up for sites like CrowdSpring, you’re officially devaluing artists’ time and saying that it’s entirely acceptable work for free and it’s ok for small business owners to ask other designers to do so as well. What other field of work gets this treatment? I’d love to see a bunch of accountants competing for the paycheck to do my books, but who would do that?

I understand that design can be totally subjective and that clients can be crazy about some things and dislike others. However, when I hear some clients asking “If I don’t like the design, do I have to pay for it?” I get furious. Of course you do! You are paying me hourly to come up with concepts, sketch, design, whatever. How is it acceptable to bypass my hard work that I’ve already put in? On sites like CrowdSpring, your “prize” is getting paid for a job that you already did, how lame. The whole “I can’t pay you but this will be a great portfolio piece” excuse is getting really old, really fast.

That being said, I’m not against competitions with REAL, legitimate prizes. For example, if you’re a die hard David Lynch fan, then by all means, submit your idea for his lastest video. There’s a real reward when the work is on a large enough scale to actually benefit you beyond being paid. Not to mention, it’s more of an artistic collaboration than it is for him to make a profit, and what an awesome artist to work with!

The bottom line is that art contests are forms of exploitation. As a designer, please do not participate in these, and please spread the word. The only acceptable time for you to create art for free is for yourself, as a gift when you don’t expect payment, as a part of a collaboration, or a means to get yourself promoted. Please think before you participate in one of these!

That’s my opinion, what do you guys think?

UPDATE—————————

Just got a lovely email and I’d like to share some of it with you as it TOTALLY applies to the topic…

“I found your portfolio on LinkedIn.  I am impressed with your design work, and I was wondering if you are available to discuss a possible freelance project with me.  

To give you a little info, I am a start-up company that will be launching ___________.  I need help with logo/branding design.  I am going about this in a more unconventional way than most.  I have reviewed portfolios and selected a handful of designers to meet.  From here, I am asking for an initial presentation of ideas/visions for my company.  If your vision is in line with mine, then we will move forward together.  I will be in need of a logo, along with stationary design (business cards, clothing tags, spec sheets), and possible website consulting.  
 
Please let me know if you would be interested in discussing this further. 
I look forward to hearing back from you.”

My response:

“I appreciate your thoughts on my portfolio but unfortunately I must turn down your offer. To be perfectly honest and to put this as politely as possible, I have to admit I’m actually slightly offended by such a request. This “unconventional” way of working is considered to be very unacceptable by the standards of most professional graphic designers and artists in general. I work full-time as a designer at a firm where clients value the hours of work put in by myself and my co-workers. The freelance jobs that I take are all from clients (mostly startups just like you) that would never consider asking us for free work without reimbursement. I’m in no way trying to sound haughty or rude, my aim is to simply put things in perspective for you and have you know that no reputable designer would accept such a request, which unfortunately means the end result for you wouldn’t be worth it either. Please have a look at the following videos/articles and hopefully you’ll understand where I’m coming from.” (I attached the same video + articles from this post)

The potential client’s rebuttal:

“I certainly had no intention of offending you, so please forgive me for that.  It is clear you have some pretty passionate feelings on this particular subject matter, and you have made that quite clear.  

I was not asking you to work for free.  Nowhere in my email does it say that.  A simple negotiation was all that was necessary.  For me, it is more of a matter of finding the right fit, both in style and personality. I consider my designer to be a member of my team, one that will be around for many years to come.  It is important to me that I find the right person.  After re-reading my email to you, I can see that maybe you interpreted all the work I would be needing (logo, stationary design, etc) as what I was asking you to do so that I could decide if I wanted to work with you.  That was NOT my intention.  I was asking for an inital meeting, a chance to gauge our connection and hear what your vision would be….IF I thought we fit, I would hire you to do all that work. I have met with a number of professionals in your field.  They have had no problem taking 20 unpaid minutes to meet with me.  They have shown me their work, talked about my company and a direction they would want to go in.  Now I am just looking for the right person. At this point, I don’t think we would be a good match. I wish you the best of luck in all of your endeavors.”
My last response:
”I thank you for speedy response and I really do appreciate your honesty. I apologize if I totally misunderstood you or came off as rude. However, for clarity’s sake and for the sake of your future emails to potential designers, I would suggest that you not phrase your request as an “initial presentation of ideas/visions for your company” if you really just meant a 20 minute meeting to shoot around ideas casually, which I might add, I would not have minded in the least, nor would I have met with such negativity if you had phrased it in such a way to begin with.
I simply read into your email that you were asking designers to present and ideas and visions in a more traditional sense, which would then mean you are asking for free work as conceptualizing is the most crucial part of the process. Truly well-thought out concepts should include research, mood-boards, color palettes, graphic elements and other things before making an any kind of logo/identity and this process alone can sometimes take weeks to fully come to fruition. All in all, I apologize for reading into your email the way I did and I hope that you find an amazing designer that you love working with!”
And the closing statement:
”No hard feelings, just a simple miscommunication. Thanks for your insight, and honesty. Perhaps our paths will cross again someday.”
All in all, it probably wasn’t too professional of me to post such a thing but only did because I do believe this person meant well and I could see what she COULD mean, but it’s still frustrating nonetheless.

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