The design contest flaw
This post is based upon my findings from entering quite some many logo design contests over the last month or so…
Like many, I occasionaly enjoy entering a logo or web site design contest on sites such as SitePoint (now 99designs for contests). Mostly I participate for practice, or just to ease that creative itch that we all get now and again.
These contests are run in a simple format;
- Contest holder needs a new logo/web site
- Contest holder launches the contest with a rough brief of what they are after
- Entrants furiously create design proposals for the contest holder to review
- Contest holder reviews designs
- Contest holder declares winner
Now, this might seem like a fantastic system, but in fact there is a major flaw. I’m not afraid to say that my work is above the average level of quality submitted to these contests, (which itself varies from MS Paint users to iStock rip off merchants to average designers to professional designers), but I rarely seem to win. In fact I probably win about 10% of the contests I enter, where most are won (unfortunately for the contest holder ) by the MS Paint users and the iStock rip off merchants. And therein lies the problem…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bitter about not winning - as I’ve said, I don’t use these contests with financial gain as my focus. I enjoy the practice. But I do feel for the blissfully ignorant contest holders. You see, the system is flawed because the final decision, the overall outcome and winning design is chosen by a figure who generally has no design skills or expertise at all.
They might choose a web site design which has all the bells and whistles and looks as though it has quite possibly had every single Photoshop filter in the world applied to it, without considering whether the design can be coded properly in xhtml/css. How well the page will adapt to their content. How many images will be involved, thus influencing page load times and bandwidth usage. SEO issues and so on and so on…
They might choose a logo with the most “wow factor” and the most different shapes, colours and concepts, but when it comes to printing that logo on their uniform or even onto paper they run into trouble with ink costs, because the original designer paid no attention to pantone colouring, or any of the other many colour issues which surround logo design. Or maybe there are so many little details in the logo that it translates poorly onto clothing or signage.
Suddenly the wow factor wears thin, and they see the logo for what it is - a fancy combination of filters or shapes which don’t actually relate to their company at all and while it might look good in theory, it works very poorly in reality. So how can this be solved? The sad thing is - it can’t. There are so many fundamental problems with the entire process that I am sure that contest holders will go on picking iStock images for their logos. And Photoshop filer laden design proposals for the web sites.
So, are these contests of any real benefit to anyone? Well of course… I’m sure in most cases the contests holders leave happy, with a good (if not the best available) product, meanwhile the winner is happy as he has a hundred bucks in his back pocket. Hurray for bucks, right?
But if I could give one piece of advice to these contest holders, it would be to do a bit of research on what you are after. Choose the proposal which best fits your project, and if you don’t really know what that is, then you would be best just hiring a real designer to get the job done properly.
Tags: Logo Design
Your observations are quite true. Most times, the amateur designers end up winning because of the untrained eyes of the contest holders.But then, such services or contests are intended for the contest holders to easily get what they want. If they are ignorant on some aspects, then so be it. I think the sites should have a few rules regarding the quality of the web page codes that are to be submitted, among other things.