A couple of days ago, it came to my attention that one of my favorite design bloggers, Swiss Miss, is on the jury of a global logo competition. To add insult to injury, famed type designer Erik Spiekermann is on the jury as well. I’m completely baffled as to why either of them would want to be involved in a logo design competition. This isn’t about the cause, however noble it may seem. Design competitions are simply bad for the design industry.
This particular competition is being hosted by Jovoto – ” a global platform to enable creative excellence through mass collaboration.” It’s no different from the much deservedly lambasted 99designs. My biggest problem with this philosophy is that being capable of creating something one might consider a logo does not qualify one as a designer. The quality of the work ranges from hysterically terrible to maybe-that-would-work-for-something.
These types of competitions target young designers and designer wannabes. I know first hand what it’s like to so desperately want that first paying client. To want to design a logo instead of a post card. To crave the creative freedom that comes from working with someone who respects your judgement and skills. I’ve been there. I still feel some of these feelings.
What keeps me from taking on projects that do not value my skills, that do not pay for my expertise, that do not push me for the highest quality that I can provide is not some other source of financial security, an already extensive portfolio or connections at recognizable institutions. I do not take on projects such as these because I believe in myself. I believe that since I’ve gotten a paying client, I will get another. I believe that since I’ve made logos for startups that may be very successful, I deserve to be paid to make logos for startups that may be very successful. It’s simple. And it’s cyclical.
This is my founding principle of having a design business. This is what it takes to make it work.
Selling yourself, your business, and your design capabilities short will hurt you both in the long run and in the short run. Entering competitions does not serve the client since there is no collaboration upon which innovation can occur. Entering competitions does not serve you when your logo that you threw together in no time sits on a page with hundreds, if not, thousands of others. You will not receive the kind of feedback that a client can provide. You will not get rounds of revisions to hone in on the perfect concept.
From the Vigneilli Canon:
As designers, we have three levels of responsibility:
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One – to ourselves, the integrity of the project and all its components.
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Two – to the Client, to solve the problem in a way that is economically sound and efficient.
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Three – to the public at large, the consumer, the user of the final design.
I’m still in the first chapter of what I plan to be a life-long career. I still admire the demigods we were taught about in school and the more contemporary designers I’ve fallen for online. I’m still finding my way and setting my boundaries. Maybe that’s why I’m feeling so let down that Tina Roth Eisenberg and Erik Spiekerman are associating themselves with this design competition.
I’ve got nothing against human rights (who does?) or even working for free or a reduced rate for a non-profit. But I’ve got something against design competitions. However young or experientially challenged I may be by comparison to these jury members, I can firmly say I stand against spec work and design competitions.
Learn More:
about No Spec, check out their website or the ever-present link in my sidebar
about Guidelines for Art Competitions from the Graphic Artists Guild
about AIGA’s position on Spec Work
Beautifully said, Elizabeth. Or why couldn’t they have just asked any one of those designers among the jury to design it?
Amazing, just amazing! This is one of the best pieces I have ready againts Spec Work, and what you have said has really hit home with me. Right now I’m in the middle of my own ethical dilemma in regards to a logo design I’ve been fighting with and I think you have shed some light on what I should do. Thank you very much.
I think this is pure snobbery. Designer wannabees???? What’s wrong with that? I love design, I love creating things. Why shouldn’t I be able to contribute my creativity to the design world?
I do not care if I get paid because I’m in love with what I do, sure it might not be technically as good as the ‘professionals’ but why should my ideas be shunned because I’m not a professionally trained graphic designer? I work in the print trade and have seen thousands if not millions of designed booklets, brochures, leaflets etc. some good, some great and some dam right appalling. I thought I can do better, so I am.
I think of it like this. Would David Beckham shun footballers who play Sunday morning football purely because they are technically not as good as he is?
I think you misunderstand her, Matt. It’s not about what amateurs cannot do, it’s about valuing the craft of graphic design. If you “love” design as much as you say, this is something you should be seriously concerned about.
You say you are a printer. What would you say if I asked you and every other printer in town to print my business cards and letterhead for free, so I can choose the best set and pay only that guy? I mean, you love your work, right? Why shun the hard-up printers who might not have the best skills or equipment but really want to get into the game? You might say no way, but what if all the other printers in town agreed to it? You would lose business because you weren’t willing to join the race to the bottom, where printers don’t earn enough to survive.
Design is literally what pays for the food on our tables, the equipment it takes to do our work well, and the years of schooling it takes to learn to solve complex design problems with insight and beauty. Design work is already massively undervalued; the average graphic designer earns less per hour than the average college intern (ahem… David Beckham?) due in great part to this dangerous belief by non-designers that since we love what we do, we don’t deserve to be paid for it.
It’s not about keeping amateurs out. It’s about valuing the craft of graphic design. Graphic design is a remarkably democratic field– any hobbyist designer or illustrator with a few good samples can easily find good exposure on the web, and local businesses to do cheap or probono work with. See a bad brochure? Call the company and offer to make a better one for them. If you love design as a hobby, please pursue your love that way, not by engaging in contests that literally treat this wonderful craft like it’s worthless.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I completely agree with what you have said here.
Blog bookmarked! :)
I don’t know that this would even be defined as “on-spec” work. It appears to be more pro bono donation to me. I see this as no different than what many of us typeface designers have done with the several FontAid projects. There is no speculation because there is no pay off other than acknowledgment and a bit of brief notoriety. To me, it is a straight donation for a cause the contributors believe in.
I don’t want any organization or pundit defining for me what is charity. I know what it is for me and don’t think anyone has the right to redefine it for anyone else.
Not that it has any bearing on the issue of pro bono vs spec, but I also believe honestly that it is a quite GOOD logo (symbol sign, brand, what have you). It is certainly far better than the redos of, Quark, The Gap, UPS, and dozens more big-bucks gradient emblazoned bandanas that have been paid for by for profit businesses.
Spec work is work done almost under coercion with empty promises of future business and “making a name for oneself.” It is the bait and switch shell game of con men who feel proud of themselves for squeezing free work out of work-hungry designers with bills to pay and then go off laughing about the suckers they have screwed over in their career.
Pro bono, or volunteer work for charities is someone giving freely of their time and skills with no expectation of renumeration. The difference can only be honestly determined by the parties involved.
Chris Lozos