design contests: worth it?

[shielddesign]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

So the very first time I submitted to Print I got into the Print Design Annual.

It was really great since that is my favorite design contest out there. However I have been submitting every year since and have not made it in again. So now they have raised their prices and I have lost a bit of my confidence...

so my question is are design contests worth the money to submit and how can one tell when something is worth submitting?

thanks!

[Si_Daniels]

I'm sure this is a total coincidence but the description sounds like a classic confidence scheme, where the mark gets a small pay-off at the beginning, but then continues to pay in long term after that.

[shielddesign]

Hmm I guess it might be a bit of a scheme at that. Also my local design community only seems to respect you if you get design awards.

[Dunwich Type]

Also my local design community only seems to respect you if you get design awards.

So tell them to get stuffed! I don’t think that the Print awards are a scam, but I wouldn’t pay an entry fee to help somebody else put together a magazine, either.

[bemerx25]

Real-life work trumps award work, in my opinion. Sometimes the two coincide. But award lists only tell me who likes a particular designer and not necessarily whether I'd like their work.

[Nick Shinn]

I don't enter or judge design contests.
Maybe if there was something that worked like the Oscars.
Cedric Gibbons was one of the organizers of that, BTW.

[Jackson]

Maybe you should reconsider if you're only entering in the big national ones. In my experience I've never had someone contact me from being in one of the big awards publications but I've had people contact me after seeing work in smaller shows I'd never heard of before or even knew I had work in (from agency and client submissions).

[hrant]

Try to enter only free contests - you won't feel dirty if you don't win.

Nick, the Oscars?! Scamalicious central!

hhp

[fredo]

Competing in design... It's not optimal, but it is what we got. If you get over the fact that it may not always be fair it can be fun. Some design contests are crap obviously, but win a Yellow pencil in D&AD and you have my eternal respect (and the clients continued confidence, presumably).

[Nick Shinn]

Hrant, the Oscars are voted for by a professional organization of around 6,000.
So it's not the celebrity whim format used in the design world, more of a rank and file thing.
That much at least keeps it real, although the campaigns targeting Academy members, and the awards night hoopla are a bit over the top.

[hrant]

Yup, it's just like US elections. Rigged.

You can tell that contests like the Oscars and many design ones suck simply by looking at the results: they suck.

> celebrity whim

Actually, good design judges actually exist, and some
organizations manage to select them for their contests.

hhp

[aluminum]

We designers are ego based. I usually don't enter call for entries that require an entry fee. Mainly because I'm cheap and lazy. Remember that these are rather genius businesses...they sell books/magazines full of content that they have you PAY to have included.

I've won a few free entry call for entries and admit that it's nice to get your ego stroked when you win. Has it won me clients and fame? No.

[aluminum]

The Oscars suck because it's 'crowd sourced' critique. And that never produces the best...just the average.

[shielddesign]

Thanks guys! I think I feel a bit better. I think in the end we have to please ourselves most of all, but sometimes it does feel good to get the extra validation from outside.

[bemerx25]

Money in the account can be a form of outside validation although I would *strongly* caution against using that as your sole measurement of worth or usefulness. Many a person is undervalued and many a scoundrel overpriced.

[jakes]

For what is worth, it's a boost when applying for a job...especially for the employer that doesn't know jack about art & design. They tend to focus more on individual accomplishments.

[scottsullivan]

@sii ...classic confidence scheme, where the mark gets a small pay-off at... it's so funny that you refer to the scammed as a 'mark' it's like a spy movie!

I generally feel weird about contests and whatnot but Jakes has a great point about employers and resumes and whatnot. I think it was at the AGI student conference this past Spring where the panel was giving us advice about winning contests:

• make it big, if it's printed and huge, it dwarfs everything when they're all laid out on the tables.
• make it quickly/simply understood.
• no complicated folding.. the first judge going through the work will unfold it and wont care to fold it back up.

- Scott

[FeeltheKern]

Bruce Mau Manifesto

Most of this is pretty life-coachy, but #26 is a good one.

I don't really follow this rule 100%, though -- I enter in free contests, because there's nothing to lose except a little bit of time. Most of these are books, which will stay on the shelf a lot longer than a magazine, too.

[FeeltheKern]

@jakes: totally agree. in school, you get a lot of info about how to impress art/creative directors. What you don't learn is you're lucky if you get to deal with a creative director, and a lot of times you're dealing with some MBA clown who can only see "oh, they must be good, they worked on Coke and Nike, and have won a bunch of awards." And often times "creative" directors are the same way, as this cartoon points out. It's nice when you deal with someone who can recognize great concepts and executions in a project for a small non-profit as much as they can for a big global company, but this is not always the case.

[dl]

Is there a list of free contests anywhere?

[Si_Daniels]

I have one. I'll sell it to you for $25.

[Sharon Van Lieu]

Thanks for the Bruce Mau link, Josh. There were some good thoughts there.

Sharon

[Simon Robertson]

yes josh, thanks for that link!

[FeeltheKern]

I'd be curious to know: of the art/creative directors on typophile responsible for finding talent, how many look at annuals, magazines and books to find people? In other words, are you making the investment of entering contests worthwhile?

[pattyfab]

I used to enter them when I worked for a company that paid for it - we won quite a lot. I also juried a few back in the day.

That said, now that I'm on my own I never enter these things. It's a lot of money. I also think (at least with AIGA) that if you don't participate and schmooze you don't win prizes. Sorry, but it feels like an old boys club to me. Again, I'm not paying their exorbitant membership fees now that I no longer have a company buying it for me.