Recent Comments:
The Autoblog Redesign Our Business Cards Contest: Winners announced! {Autoblog}
Oct 30th 2006 1:49PM HAHA, this is perfect... you guys picked some really amateur work. This looks so good on Autoblog, when you run a contest and devalue the design industry and it's professionals as whole you get questionable work as you've shown us here.
The winning choice has horrendous typography, no kerning, no grid structure, fonts are far too large. Well, I guess the plus side is that you didn't have to buy the prizes so you should have some money in your fat AOL pockets to pay a real designer/studio to make some real cards now.
Nothing like some pie in your face John.
Redesign our Business Cards, Win 1 of 2 Pioneer AVIC-D2 sat navs! {Autoblog}
Oct 24th 2006 4:14PM To the people that have no problem with this contest, you obviously don't make your living as a professional graphic designer. It's not like Autoblog is some site run by guys who are doing it for the love and have nothing to give back. This site is owned by AOL, they have craploads of money... also, the 'prize' was given to Autoblog so that Pioneer could get some advertising and exposure out of it.
#39 said it best...
"Would you ask a bunch of doctors to give you a physical and the one who does it the best wins a prize? How about asking a bunch of carpenters to build you a bench and the best one gets compensation? No?
Didn't think so.
This is just a shady way to get outrageously discounted work."
Redesign our Business Cards, Win 1 of 2 Pioneer AVIC-D2 sat navs! {Autoblog}
Oct 21st 2006 3:00PM John, please read this and then maybe you will see the point some people here are trying to make.
"I recently wrote a blog entry on Freshly Squeezed Droplets about Powerball winners and the dangers that a sudden windfall of success can bring – whether it’s in the form of money from a lottery, or customers from the unwise practice of running “sale” ads. I’d like to continue the lottery theme with some thoughts about a growing problem within the industry of design.
Right now, there exists a trend in the business world whereby companies get it in their heads that it would be a good idea to run a contest for their design work. What they will do is announce that they need, say, a new logo. The intent is for designers to individually spend the time to develop designs and then submit them. The company then goes over the entries and selects a “winner.” Only the winner receives any compensation for the work.
On the surface, and without applying any deeper thought to it, this might seem like a great idea. Rather than trust one designer to come up with a solution, a company can solicit the creative talent of dozens, or even hundreds of talented creatives.
As with most things, however, the reality of the situation is rarely so simple.
Advertising is a business, and working with a designer is a business relationship. Because of that, there are far more factors at work than just the final product. People will switch doctors because they don’t get along. They will refuse to shop at a certain store (despite really liking the products) because they can’t stand the employees. Conversely, people will go out of their way to do business with someone they like, even if doing so might be inconvenient or even a little more expensive. It is no different with a company’s relationship with its designer.
It isn’t only important to find someone talented and who can get your projects done on time. The best relationships between companies and designers occur when they understand each other, when the designer “gets” what the company wants and needs to be successful.
This kind of relationship is almost never possible in a contest.
Design contests are obviously huge gambles for the designers. They have to commit to doing a significant amount of work, and they have to do so essentially blind. Without the benefit of meeting with those putting on the contest face-to-face and gaining some in-depth insight into the project, the designers have to guess at the tastes of those in charge and just hope they do something appealing.
The thing that contest originators don’t understand, however, is that the contest model is just as much a lottery for them, too. Without meeting with the contest entrants, and seeing their past work and experiencing their personalities, the contest originators put themselves in the middle of a very risky gamble. Based simply on a submitted image, it is impossible to determine whether or not the designer has the knowledge and background to guide the project to an efficient (or even successful) conclusion.
It really isn’t all that difficult for someone with some basic creative skills to put some shapes together into a pleasing arrangement. However, making sure that those shapes have the technical foundation to meet the needs of a company is a different matter, as is having the knowledge and skill to follow up the project with changes, modifications, or even application to future projects.
Once the winner of the contest is chosen, the company has committed itself into a relationship with the designer. Now, at least on some level, the company is going to have to deal with this person. It’s not unlike choosing a mail-order bride based just on a picture. It’s not going to matter how pretty she is in the picture if she’s a complete and total shrew in person, or if it’s discovered that she can’t speak your language and has no skills to speak of. I’d venture to guess that very few of the companies running contests have the knowledge of the design industry to take over a project should they discover that their winner’s only skill is in making pleasing pictures.
What it boils down to is a loss of control. By running a contest, the company gives up its power to choose a designer based on talent, skill, personality and all of the other factors that make it possible to conduct business with someone. This is no more a sound business model than playing the lottery in the hopes of making a profit."
Taken from: http://www.no-spec.com/
Redesign our Business Cards, Win 1 of 2 Pioneer AVIC-D2 sat navs! {Autoblog}
Oct 18th 2006 2:11PM US residents only?... why is that?, I would think you'd at least make it open for North America as a whole.
I'd love to submit something but I'm in Canada, any chance of allowing us canucks to join?
Alfa 4C Junior: sketches and speculation {Autoblog}
Oct 17th 2006 4:08PM That thing if fuckin ugly!, it looks like a lowered Nissan Murano.
Roll Reversal: HUMMER rolls OUT of a foreign country! {Autoblog}
Oct 10th 2006 4:28PM Maybe next they can roll off a cliff and take all the other shitty GM products with them.
The Sultan's secret 1995 Ferrari FX {Autoblog}
Oct 10th 2006 1:39PM Wow, a Saturnarri... how f------ ugly.
ALMS announces ambitious 2007 schedule with 3 new races {Autoblog}
Oct 9th 2006 4:54PM Sweet!, 3 more races for Audi to win next year.
Audi planning parade on Park Avenue {Autoblog}
Oct 5th 2006 9:46PM Well said #17.
Buick crashing SEMA with 11 custom Lucernes {Autoblog}
Oct 5th 2006 6:08PM Thanks Moses!... did you think that up all by yourself?
