Competition - Design a Poster

JimRichardson

Hi all,

Was just wondering how interested people would be in a possible competition to design an advertising poster for a company. Of course some kind of prize (cash or otherwise) would be given to the top 3 or so, but just wondering what you might think of the idea as it is still in it's early stages of discussion.

JR

p

It depends on your goal. Generally, you'll get much better results if you just find someone who's work you think is good and hiring them. Competitions can be a mixed bag, as people are guessing what you want, rather than having a dicussion and evolution of a poster depending on your needs.

Most professionals probably won't bother entering a competition, when they've only got a 'chance' to get paid, when there's other clients who will pay them upfront.


If it was part of a marketing thing where you're getting secondary schools kids to come up with ideas, but not something you'll use professionally, then it might make sense.

JimRichardson

p wrote: »

It depends on your goal. Generally, you'll get much better results if you just find someone who's work you think is good and hiring them. Competitions can be a mixed bag, as people are guessing what you want, rather than having a dicussion and evolution of a poster depending on your needs.

Most professionals probably won't bother entering a competition, when they've only got a 'chance' to get paid, when there's other clients who will pay them upfront.


If it was part of a marketing thing where you're getting secondary schools kids to come up with ideas, but not something you'll use professionally, then it might make sense.

Hey P,

Competitions can be a mixed bag alright, but we would have to come up with some sort of brief to be followed by participants but nothing too limiting.

I'll agree that most professionals probably won't be interested in this but I'd say that there would be a good few design students that would jump a the chance to take part. I also wouldn't be too sure about this but I'd assume that some professionals would be unemployed at the moment and a cash prize might be tempting enough to participate.

At the end of the day, we will want to have made some publicity out of this and the winner would get to share that with us hopefully. But we're a long way away from anything concrete yet.

Thanks for the feedback,

JR

ztoical

The AOI and Transport for London are running a poster design comp at the moment to promote cycling in London which yes alot of pros and students will enter because it's being run by the AOI. Random company running a poster comp to design a poster they will use to promote themselves not really as tempting. The money you'd spend putting the comp together could be spent hiring an artist to design to your brief. The comp its self sounds like another way to promote said company rather then focusing on the art of illustration like the AOI one and thus not really appealing. There are alot of issues with copyright and such that would have to 100% crystal clear at the start cus your pretty much asking someone to brand your company which is something you could use for years if not longer.

p

Well Jim. I've shared my experience, which is that design competitions rarely achieve their goals, and rarely attract talented people. They also ignore the fundamental way design works. Competitions are guess work, design is a problem solving process you go through with the client.

By all means try it out, but I think you'd be better off spending your time and money engaging with one good designer.

eyefordetail

On a postive note...i'd be interested in this!! Never turn down a challenge!

Darragh

JimRichardson wrote: »

Hi all,

Was just wondering how interested people would be in a possible competition to design an advertising poster for a company. Of course some kind of prize (cash or otherwise) would be given to the top 3 or so, but just wondering what you might think of the idea as it is still in it's early stages of discussion.

JR

If you'd like to run this on Boards.ie, can I ask you to contact sales@boards.ie first for permission/costs , please and thanks

Darragh1

Dublin_Gunner

While it may not be the most productive way to get a poster looking the way way you want / envisioned, it could certainly be an interesting idea.

One advantage I see to running a design competition, is different designers, when left to their own devices, will interpret a brief differently.

You could end up with some cracking designs that you love, that you never in a million years would have considered or even thought of, and would NOT have been discussed via the usual designer / client meetings.

I'd take part most likely, as I love doing work for enjoyment as well as reward (god knows I'm a sucker for doing 'favours' grrr...)

Mister Man

Id give it a go, money or not

Duggy747

Ah, I'd do it for the fun of it! Can never say no to a challenge!

Iwantadesign

We just set up a competition based website yesterday called iwantadesign.com. You put up a prize and designers enter logos. Maybe this might be of use to you.