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Oh, Those Design "Competitions"
Featured Author:
Mike Lenhart
After spending almost 15 years in the corporate, sales and marketing area of the hospitality industry, Mike Lenhart decided to pursue his passion for visual creativity and make a jump to graphic design and visual communications. Founder and Principal of ML Designs, a freelance-based and outsourced graphic design company and also Founder and Director of Creative Core, a graphic design collaborative, Mike can now use his business and marketing acumen in solving design problems for his clients. He also likes to write about the interesting, unusual, and sometimes irritating happenings in the graphic design world. Creative Core Design
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Mike Lenhart
As I’ve been out in the design world more, I receive a lot of “Call for Entries” postcards and email messages for various design competitions. They come from design magazines, most of the time, but they also come from professional organizations looking to showcase some current work from their memberships. The CFEs from the magazines, usually for their Design Annuals, are basically a Call for Magazine Sales, while those from the professional organizations are a little more practical, in my humble opinion. While the latter may be a ploy for membership, as you can’t normally enter unless you are one, the professional organization CFEs and competitions normally have the greater good of the industry in mind. How do you differentiate between these so-called “competitions”, and how do you know that your work will really be looked at, or even considered?
A Candid Look
I’ve entered a lot of these competitions in both areas of this genre and have one main caveat – read the rules and fine print. I guess there are 2 caveats, but they kind of go together. The magazine design competitions are usually more involved, in terms of entry, and have a lot of rules, restrictions, and fees in order to get your work “considered”. While the fees can range from $25-$75 per entry, they can add up, especially if you go for more than one competition. These “Annual Design Award” competitions are usually juried by well-known celebrities in the graphic design world in order to gain some legitimacy and notoriety. That’s where the problem lies, in my opinion. I really feel that the “winners” in this type of competition are from well-known and established design firms or designers that help to sell the magazines – just as the “celebrities” pull in the buyers and subscribers. Not that I have some sour grapes around this, but I really feel that this is the case. Look at those who are showcased in these Annuals and you’ll see what I mean. Maybe they are really good, but I feel that there are also some lesser-known artists out there whose work is just as good and even more cutting-edge. Would those “sell”, though?
Also, look at what it may cost for you, as a “winner”, to actually get your work placed in the Annual. I won 1 (yes, only 1) of these for a somewhat reputable design magazine and was asked to shell-out $250 just to get my “winning” entry in their special publication. I don’t know, but when you consider all of the “winners” in these Annuals who pay the same fee, that’s a lot of revenue for the magazine. Can we say greedy? Of course I paid it and ended up getting solicited by placement agencies and other headhunters who wanted to represent me for their clients. Humph.
The professional association showcases are not so shady, again, in my opinion. They may be juried by celebrities in the field as well, but the results, and winners, tend to be more reachable and local, and easier for us to relate to. We may actually know them. The fees to enter may also be more nominal, sometimes there are none. But remember, you may need to be a member of the association where annual membership fees exist. I’m always an advocate for industry associations, so spend your money on your local chapter.
What to Enter
When you finally have the time and guts to enter a design competition, which work do you submit? Well, obviously that which you consider your best, but also work that will most likely match the category in which you’re entering and hopefully cause a “wow” factor. Creativity and cutting-edge work should usually make the grade. You may want to be out in the field for a while to get some varied work in your portfolio that you can choose from for entry. Don’t waste your time, energy, and money to enter a design competition with work that really isn’t your best. We all know, in our gut, which work is really good – or not.
Final Thoughts
I realize I may have been a little harsh on design magazines and the celebrity jurors and winners. They’re not all bad and some of them may even be more above-board. It’s all just pretty arbitrary and you may have to enter your work numerous times and ask around to those more experienced in this area to get some valuable experiences and opinions. It’s always good to ask others. If you’re a student, there are ample opportunities to enter student competitions. Design competitions can be, and many times are, very good ways to get your name and work out there and contribute to the overall reputation of the industry. Heck, it just makes you feel good, too.
sedesign
about 1 month ago
190 comments
I have thought a lot about entering a competition, but I have never followed through with it, because I don't know what to enter and which competition to enter. I thank you guy's for posting the article and your comment. It gives me as a new out of school designer the energy and will to follow through and just enter. So think you agian.
TheDesigner
about 1 month ago
20 comments
My work has been published in CA, Print and etc. and I have won numerous golds, and etc awards in locally and nationally. I am not a writer so bear with me here.
I guess there always two sides to every coin- or maybe more. ON DESIGN ANNUALS: Yes I’ve heard a many a grumbling that only the work with big names get in- that easy enough to check. Of course a few smaller names have to get in just out of the odds and for filler- ( If ) for no other reason. Otherwise the cat would be out of the bag and next year only big names would enter. Making for a smaller book and weak sales/profits. WHAT NOT TO ENTER: Good clean nice, but plan work. {Even if it works and looks great} So if you do that kind of work great! But don’t waste your money. WHAT TO ENTER: Something off the wall, not what everyone else is doing, or what you saw in last years annual- For one, by the time you see it, it’s almost two years old. And yes, the fees are way too high. When I went on my own it was like do I want to enter the show or do I want to buy the kids shoes, jeans, and school supplies. lol I think they do that in part so you won’t send them everything you did last year. Yes these book are very lucrative. And as you said, do the math- These books get “Thousands” of entries. (I use know- but don’t quote me- but I think like one out of every 600 entries gets in CA. (Communication Arts magazine)
I have two sets of industry friends, the ones who say yeah that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee. They more often than not are the ones who never won, or could win. The other side of the coin is- if you’re ever looking for a job and you can say I’ve been published in CA. PRINT, etc and have won Gold, Silver, and Bronze in this ten different show, NY, LA, Chicago, Dallas etc. And Oh Yeah! a Pencil too. It goes a long ways to getting your foot in the door. And or if you have your own place, clients like to see that they are working with the best or a least a proven winner.
I’ve also been in on the judging- what goes on behind the scene- but that another story as they say.
Ardor71
about 1 month ago
1594 comments
I found this article to be very interesting as I have thought so many times of entering my work into contests. There is a popular soda company out there and I would rather not use specified names, in which uses photos people send them on their labels. I thought at first their marketing and promotions pitch is nothing shy of genius...but it too is greedy in my opinion because once you submit that photo them they own the rights to it. If they select your image you are never even notified that they have selected it you won’t know until you see it (hopefully) on one of their bottles. You don’t get a free case of their soda...in fact...you get nothing and the kicker for me was that they own the rights to the image once you submit it which means you could be driving down the highway, and see your image on a billboard and never have even been told it would be used or make one red cent on it. This seems a bit unfair. Be careful with all of these contests.