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Peters recent logo design contest reminded me of one I entered five years ago. A local radio station had a contest to design their new morning show logo and offered a $2,000 prize for the one chosen.
I decided I would enter it and figured I would come up with a few before the deadline that was two days away. In two evenings I came up with twenty designs with about six hours invested.
I didnt win the first place prize but I put myself to the test trying to come up with such a large number of different designs with very little little to work with. It was quite the challenge.
These are the ones that I submitted. I thought some were good and a few even I didnt care for but its quite the test to design so many so quickly.
I think everyone should give it a try if you want to challenge yourself.
-------------------- Bob Stephens Skywatch Signs Zephyrhills, FL
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Well then Bob, I would love to see the winner, if these were some of the losers! Nice stuff. You're right, not ALL winners, but certainly a good grouping!
A lot of times, I believe that "contests" are held to justify the design that they already have decided upon. I think someone says, "Oh, I think this should be opened up for public input". Some "insider" wins anyway.
Kinda like the "3 quote" requests you get from government and public entities. They're going to stick with their current vendor/provider anyway, because it's easier for them. They just want to make it LOOK legit.
-------------------- Gene Golden Gettysburg Signs Gettysburg PA 17325 717-334-0200 genegolden@gettysburgsigns.com
"Art is knowing when to stop." Posts: 1578 | From: Gettysburg, PA | Registered: Jun 2003
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Gene you are so right. I do most of our municipalities work and they have to get the three bids. It's a formality but they always want me to do the work so I guess even though I didnt win the contest, I do get most of the bid jobs
-------------------- Bob Stephens Skywatch Signs Zephyrhills, FL
-------------------- a.k.a. Brian Born www.CheckersCustom.com Harrisburg, Pa Work Smart, Play Hard Posts: 3775 | From: Harrisburg, Pa. U.S.A. | Registered: Nov 1998
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I personally don't like design contests, in order to do a good job, I think talking to a person or group in charge will give you a better idea what is really needed, then there is the process where tweaking the design can make the logo even more appealing and a happier client and designer. Otherwise shooting a logo with no client input is just making a drawing based on little or no information. I think most contests are there to lure a "big" name design firm or the gifted designer who needs or wants some recognition and not have to pay the big bucks it would take to hire a design firm. Sounds like shopping for a sign to me. I know a lot of people do that-hey they can have 3 or 4 talented sign people design them a logo for free and then pick the best one and we sign people go along with it just to sell door graphics or a banner or sign. One thing I can appreciate is the latest design contest here, you got something for participating, that is how it should be done. If your doing it for the "fun" of it then I think it's cool too, just know that 100's to 1000's others are doing the same and your efforts more than likely are not even being considered.
posted
Bob - thanks for posting this. You are a constant inspiration. Your gentle nudging to challenge ourselves and get the money we're worth is appreciated. Please keep doing posts like this.
-------------------- signs Posts: 535 | From: pa | Registered: Dec 1998
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That's a wonderful range of ideas Bob! There's some winners in there. It shows just how creative we can be if we put our mind to it.
Even if we don't win some of the contests we enter its a great excercise. The ideas can be filed away as starting points and inspiration for future need too.
Brains need constant excercise to keep in shape and full of ideas.
-grampa dan
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8738 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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What software did you use to create these? I think that is part of the battle for those who do have the creative ability, but lousy tools! I do get frustrated at my designs because I'm not sure what software is best. When money is an issue, I am careful as what I purchase because I'll end up getting stuck with a dud. As a result, I buy the off the shelf kind and do the best I can.
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...Bob, I mean NO slight to you or your efforts but, Logo "contests" are a rip off (as far as I'm concerned). Any "professional" designer would be wasting their time, and shooting in the dark to enter one. The people having the contest could to have alterior motives. Or (like Rick said) they just don't want to PAY the PRO.
quote:Originally posted by Boyd Merriman: When money is an issue, I am careful as what I purchase because I'll end up getting stuck with a dud. As a result, I buy the off the shelf kind and do the best I can.
Boyd
You should be OK with Illustrator, Corel or Freehand. Most of the "sign" software isn't all that designer friendly (just an opinion...I know there are few people who can make those programs sing, but they're in the minority).I think most signmakers design in one of the big three vector programs, then either cut straight out of them, or import them into a sign program for cutting.
I'd suggest choosing a program and concentrate on learning it so well that you can put your full attention at the designing, without constantly needing to think what button does what.
Every software ever created has a learning curve. Learn the stuff you want to be able to do as it comes at you, and build on to that with each project. You won't need to know every single feature to do your job, but you'll find that you'll stumble on to cool new things to do almost every time you slide your chair up to your keyboard.
You'll be ahead of the game if you have a buddy that uses the program you decide on, that will let you look over his/her shoulder for a few hours.
There are lots of web tutorials and stacks of books for almost every program. So far as books, I'd recommend the PeachPit Press "Visual Quickstart Guides". They're available at any major bookstore or at amazon.com. They are several steps above the "dummy" books, but much more user friendly than the owner's manuals that come with the programs, with tons of screenshots.
That being said, I don't like design contests, either. The worse one for me was supposed to pick the winner from the top three, as voted upon by the community. The top three were to receive $250 each and the winner $1000.
I was chosen in the top three, and when the designs were published in the local newspaper, there magically appeared a fourth design, labeled "chamber of commerce submission".
Guess which one was chosen. (I never saw the $250 sucker prize, either.)
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Boyd I use CorelDraw for all of my design work. As for the contest, I was never that concerned about the money. I really did do it just for the learning exercise and the fun of it.
None of the logo's I came up with required any great skill. Just a little imagination. One of the reasons I've honed my design skills is because I did spend countless unpaid hours on my own time learning the software and constantly improving me designs.
Trust me on one thing. When I do charge for my work, I don't give it away. You have to invest in yourself before you can expect others to.
-------------------- Bob Stephens Skywatch Signs Zephyrhills, FL
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Money wasn't what bothered me about the city logo, either. It was the manipulation and eventual "cheating" by the city council that turned me off to the whole thing.
On top of what I've already written, three days before the contest deadline, the deadline was moved back two weeks. It became obvious later that this was to allow time for the chamber of commerce design to be added to the 40 or so entries that had been submitted on time.
Second, in the same fax, they announced that the community could vote for their choice between 10am and 2am Monday through Wednesday. This assured that only unemployed and retired people would vote for the three finalists.
Third, in the same fax again, the rules were changed to allow only black and white, and with no copy. Since the theme was "The City of Hibiscus", we all ended up with black and white flower motifs. (Part of the contest directions were that we had to work in "The city of Hibiscus" into the design.)
The "magic entry" was just icing on the cake. I left with a real bad taste in my mouth.
All of the banners printed with the chamber's winning design were destroyed in the hurricane. The only good thing to come out of that storm here.
Recently the local Tourism Board held a photo contest. The winner would receive no compensation, just their photo on the cover of the next Tourism Guide.
Everyone was urging me to enter some of my photography. I wasn't real keen on the idea, I prefer making money on photos, nonetheless I went and picked up an entry form just out of curiosity.
Within the guidelines was this:
"All submissions become property of the Tourism Board."
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