Are logo design competitions and logo design competition websites bad for business?
No, I don’t think so.
There are lots of people who think they are bad.
They give reasons like – the logos submitted in the logo design competitions are sometimes copied from the works of other professionals.
Yes, this is true, but only sometimes.
There are lots of people who copy other peoples logos and submit them as their own, but not everybody. Remember, many professional companies (who work directly with their clients) also do that.
I have experienced this problem myself.
Once, (when I was starting my career as a designer) I had submitted my resume, along with a sample of my portfolio, to a company that was in the process of hiring. My application was rejected, citing the reason that my work was not good enough. But after a few months, I saw one of my designs in an ad produced by that same company.
What can you say to that?
If someone copies any work from any other person and submits it as his / her own work then it is really bad.
Design competition websites should take strict action against that designer.
But, this is not enough of a reason to write off design competition sites. If someone kills with a knife, you can’t blame the knife for the killing nor can you ban the use of knives. The actual solution is to catch the killer.
There are lots of people gaining from these design competitions.
Some people are making a living because of these sites. These competitions give exposure to many unknown designers, who without these kinds of service would never get noticed.
Yes, there are some problems, like sometimes the money given is too low and sometimes the designs that win may not be all that wonderful. But it is up to the contest holder to decide what he/she wants and how much they want to spend on it.
It is also up to the contestants how much work they want to do for that money.
Everybody is free here.
So, it isn’t that bad after all, on the contrary it’s a very good idea.
We should thank these sites and the people who got this idea.
Note from George: Although we do sometimes hire the authors who contribute to LogoDesign.org, and this particular author received payment for his contribution, the subject matter and tone of this article were in no way solicited, and the thoughts expressed within this article are solely those of the author, Gairick Mukherjee. If someone would like to publish an article on LogoDesign.org expressing a different view than the one above, just let me know.
