Design Contests: SCORE vs. SCAM?
ENTER TO WIN! Submit YOUR DESIGN to MISC. COMPANY INC. for our NEW MURAL on 78th St.! One winner will be chosen to paint their artwork in full scale for the GRAND MURAL PRIZE of $2,000! All artists receive FREE social media EXPOSURE!*
*Application fee of $35 must be completed upon submission. By submitting art you give MISC. COMPANY unlimited and full rights to design and usage.
Design contests - are they an artist’s score or total scam? Perhaps you have seen a call to art such as this one and at first got really excited, after all what mural or street artist doesn’t get excited about designing a fresh wall. We see successful billion dollar companies put out design contest for murals, logos, tee-shirts, beer cans, and more. Surely large companies wouldn’t be scamming artists right? Wrong. And here are FOUR reasons why and what we can do about it.
Contests take advantage of new and young artists. Paying via exposure rather than monetary currency misleads the inexperienced artist that exposure will eventually turn into $$$. It rarely does however. Exposure does not pay artists’ bills. Rarely will exposure evolve into more work.
Application fees. If there is an application fee that is a huge red flag this is a scam. If the application fee is $35 and there is a nationwide reach and 5,000 artists apply that is the easiest $175,000 generated with zero effort. And they may not even look at all the designs filtering in, they could casually scroll and pick one at random, grant the winner a $1000 cash prize and still be $174,000 richer at the expense of artists pocketbooks.
Contest are the companies way of saying they don’t believe art takes work. Could you imagine a company needing a new roof to call a bunch of roofing professionals and request they all install a section of the roof as part of a contest and they will pay the winner only? It seems ludicrous, but that is exactly what is happening with mural and design contests. Art supplies are expensive and artists spend years, sometimes decades, mastering their craft.
Contest are a way companies can take your designs. Most of these large companies have designers on staff. They might say a contest is a fun way to get public involvement. That might be true and innocent in some cases. However, these contests are not regulated and many will say in the fine print you are giving them the rights to your work regardless of winning the competition. If there many stellar designs coming in that gives their company an entire portfolio of ideas for the foreseeable future that they got for free. They can even cancel the contest without granting a winner.
Art is Work. Art is Valuable. Art is Essential.
What can we do to say no to contests and support artists? Start a dialog. If you see a mural or design contest reach out to the organization or company and explain how there is a better way. Keep the conversation friendly and non-accusatory. Help them see the pros of a non-contest art call: 1) professional artists tend to stay clear of contests. If they are truly looking for a fresh face in the design scene they will get hiring quality work via a high quality call to art. 2) If they can join the movement to pay artists appropriately they can also use that as marketing and PR to boost their public image. Volunteer to help them negotiate a way to make a public art call or search for local artists using art councils and groups.
Want to do even more? Spread the word by joining forces with 934 Gallery and sign their #PayArtists pledge, publicly. 934 Gallery proudly champions the principle that artists deserve fair compensation for their creativity, work, and contribution to our cultural community.
