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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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

Nick, the Oscars?! Scamalicious central!

hhp

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).

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

@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

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.

@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.

Is there a list of free contests anywhere?

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

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

Sharon

yes josh, thanks for that link!

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?

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.

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.

FeeltheKern: the answer is never. Ever.

Intelligent and/or busy people might not actively follow the results of competitions, but I think it must be admitted that they still tend to look at design magazines at least occasionally, and if they run into some nice result from a competition they will take note of it. I can't picture a lot of people actively shunning competition results.

hhp

I guess another question would be if anyone has ever gotten a project as a result of having their work published. I only enter contests that are free, but even this is somewhat time consuming.

> if anyone has ever gotten a project as a
> result of having their work published.

In my case, two that I know of (and probably more that I don't).

Besides getting projects, it can also help in being accepted as a conference speaker (if only because somebody who has won awards makes the conference look better) which is of course yet another way to promote yourself and get more work.

The trick I think isn't to shun contests, it's to
not get duped by lame ones that charge too much.

hhp

I had the same experience with Print. But I have not sent many pieces in. If they ask you for quotes take the time to write something short. You may find you get some text as well as a mention for design.

This is the first time since 2004 that I did not submit to Print. You know what, I think I feel good about that...and I know my pocketbook does.

However I have been wondering lately since I am about 8 yrs out of school how can I find a mentor who can help me reach for excellence? Any ideas? I really wish I could find someone that I respect to give me regular crits.

thanks everyone

@Hrant: Thanks for the reply, I think that affirmed a lot of my assumptions. Sometimes I think designers shun contests because by nature we have an extra dose of ego, so when we don't get our work validated in a contest we assume that there must be something intrinsically wrong with the system. That said, I have come across many that are way overpriced and definitely seem like an old boy's club, where the same 5 firms take home all the awards.

Awe this is the cutest post ever.
Seriously though I think that when designing something for a practical application or use there is great reward in seeing the design being used and appreciated over long term.
The exposure from winning contests is super. At this point in my career just seeing the satisfaction on a client's face once Ive given them something they appreciate is enough for me. Even encountering a piece of my portfolio in it's intended use years after designing it is satisfaction enough. I often feel like I've won an award just knowing people like and use my work. It is wonderful how my pieces show up in odd places and not a soul in the room can identify the connection between me and the design.
It is delightful like being the writer of a book with a secret alias.

I decided to enter one contest a year. I picked a national in house award one. I win a lot but it feels like that Tiai Quan Do class I took, where you can kept testing and work up to a black belt, for a price, but it never feels like you really could kick someone’s butt in the real world.

I want whatever drug Jenna is taking.