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Professional Associations stance on design competitions

bowling_ball

Just stumbled across this interesting bit of news.  The Canadian gov't is holding a graphic design competition for a logo, where the student winner gets $5k. Runners-up get nothing.

Interestingly, the Graphic Designers of Canada (professional association) is urging students to not enter, and wrote an open letter to the gov't explaining why this is exploitative. 

I don't think my association has made its stance known (that's just too much to expect, right?) but I agree and I think it's worthwhile to have this discussion with youngsters (and oldsters) in our industry.  

Unless it's for charity or non-profit, we should all expect to be paid for our work. It's ridiculous that this is even a conversation...

 
Feb 3, 15 10:12 pm
x-jla
  1. agree^  only work I will do for free is beer tasting. 
Feb 4, 15 12:23 am  · 
 · 
greatescape

@jla-x, speaking of beer, I love my Jeremiah Red crafty beer. 

Feb 4, 15 12:33 am  · 
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bowling_ball

I accept beer at par. I assumed this was an industry standard.

Anyway - maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, and folks here don't mind working for free.

Feb 4, 15 12:58 am  · 
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IamGray

I doubt anyone enjoys working for free, but project acquisition is always a non-billable part of the job.

I find most competitions quite dubious, but they certainly can be a way of securing real, paying commissions. 

It's not so simple.

Feb 5, 15 7:07 am  · 
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Non Sequitur

Professional association of graphic designers?

Feb 5, 15 8:33 am  · 
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fulcrum

I don't think participating in competition is all about winning or losing; it helps ones to keep honing his/her design skill... and you get a nice project to put in your portfolio at the end. I don't think I would have landed at a position where I am without doing any competition (worked at a firm that spewed out junk after junk during the recession... ugh)

However, I've always avoided the competitions that ask a lot of $ to enter.... like entry fee is $250 while the winner gets $3,000...

Feb 5, 15 8:55 am  · 
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Aside from a bad website, they have these 'ethical' rules for members:

https://www.gdc.net/tools-resources/design-buyers/design-contests

It would be interesting to see a link to the actual competition.

Feb 5, 15 9:14 am  · 
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anaiira

http://www.canada150.gc.ca/eng/1407417717020

I'm pretty torn on this. Competitions get you quantity with no guarantee of quality. Especially if your target is students. But it's also a kind of good opportunity for students to... doodle something? (which =/= logo design)

Feb 5, 15 2:11 pm  · 
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