by Artwell Nwaila (@artwelln) In 2013, after years of a different top studio being responsible each year for the Sydney Design festival’s poster design and supporting marketing material, Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum launched a competition asking the Australian public to submit these elements — for “design prestige and US$1000 in prize money”.
A few days later, the competition went sour and was pulled, due to offensive and non-compliant submissions from ‘pissed off’ designers. So what went wrong?
This type of contest is becoming increasingly popular all over the world and is flourishing in South Africa. Organisations such as the one above see the cost-effectiveness of opening up a brief to the public, as opposed to commissioning one entity.
What they are offering creatives is an opportunity to flaunt their skills on a public platform and stand the chance to beat their counterparts. In a nutshell, it’s about bragging rights.
The problem is that ‘US$1000 and prestige’ highly undervalue what this job entails — and the kind of organisation and experience required. It’s insulting. Hence the out-lash of spoof entries that followed:
The problem with this type of contest for the creative
In the hype and excitement of challenges, these competitions very often camouflage that they are usually “on spec”, which means individuals may not get paid for their efforts. Speculative presentations, by definition, require designers to invest both their ideas and time without a guarantee of compensation.
In South Africa, this point of view has not sunk in yet but, internationally, awareness is being created by organisations such as No!Spec and industry leaders such as DA&D’s past president, Mike Dempsey. He has been quoted as saying that graduates must refuse to work for nothing.
The problem with spec work for the brands
A qualified and experienced creative or organisation will never enter into any spec work project of any kind as it is time-consuming and non-profitable. The result is a pool of very junior submissions, with the quality to match.
There is also the issue of research, understanding of brand positioning, values and target markets. These are generally ignored, creating a very visible disconnect.
In closing
Creatives need to evaluate why they are entering contests and ask what’s in it for them. Brands need to accept and acknowledge that using the contest model to source work will compromise quality output.
In conclusion, the spec-work template needs to be relooked at, as this trend will reduce the value of the client/designer relationship — if there is one to start with.
Artwell Nwaila (@artwelln) is a creative director at Offlimit Communications and publisher of the award-winning creative publication SA Creatives (@thesacreatives). His monthly column on MarkLives, “Creation”, takes a look at creative work from around the world and what we can learn from it in South Africa.
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