Design contests , What we need to make them rock .
 

I have a few things to say about the recent design contests ,
I wanna to put to light and hopefully it will better the situation for everyone involved in all contests ,
Most have gone well , but some end with many people being pissed off when no one is chosen , time designing a logo or what ever was lost , as well as time watching the thread and replying to people etc etc ,

Many people say , " even if you didnt get a prize you still get to show off your work "

Well more recently , Its not so much the case , because I find myself * ( and others judging by some entries ) dont bother to even put a solid effort in because more and more often these contests go unpaid ,

I myself have a little policy that includes dividing the prize by 20 and working for that amount of minutes , ( 100 prize = 5 minutes work ) because there is already chance your not going to make a profit of the design . AND it is GREATLY increased that NOONE will get paid .

I have taken these contest outlines from another board that does exactly this , nothing but design contests

to show you want a great contest involves and how to set it up ,

ALong with a few tips to pull off a huge contest .

<<<<<<<<<Contest Guidelines
We're happy you've decided to run a contest on DesignOutpost.com. Please take the time to read carefully the steps you need to take before starting your contest.

1) The first step is to pay in advance the prize money you are offering. As soon as a winner is decided, we will pay the designer. You and the designer will work with each other once the contest has ended.

2) After you have deposited your prize money, we will receive a special code number that we will add to your message after you post it. That number will be posted in the body of your message so to verify the contests validity.

3) Your next step is to post your contest on the forums in it's appropriate category. Just find the appropriate forum, then click the "New Topic" button on the top right of the forum. Fill out the the topic title, and then type in your contest requirements. It's important that you are specific in what you need. Let us know what colors you'd like, what site the logo needs to match, what links you need in the template, certain sites you like the look of, etc. Any information that will help the designers create exactly what you want is very important.

4) Although it is not required, we ask that you keep up with the contest and give comments and critiques on the designs submitted. Please do not contact the designers by private message or email, this is against their rules that they follow. To comment on their entries, simply post them on the public forum in your contest thread. This way the design can be improved as the contest progresses.

5) When the contest has reached the deadline you've declared, now you need to post a message declaring who won.

6) The last step is to contact the winning designer by private message or email to make arrangements for any minor revisions you need, then they will email the files you request from them. >>>>>



My Tips for a great contest

Provide as many details as you can IN YOUR FIRST POST .

I tell my clients never to fear providing me with an encyclopedia worth of details on the project at hand . it is ALWAYS the clients that dont provide enough details , that never seem to be happy .
provide us with direction and your vision is more likely to be taken to a new level by a designer on this board

Bigger the risk the greater the reward .

I wouldnt suggest a $50 prize for an item that is priced on average 200% great on all our pricelists and expect miracles , they wont happen :2 cents:
The greater the reward to the winner the greater chance he ( she ) will risk more time on the creation of the project .

If you dont have alot of cash , mix it up
Cash and content ,


IMO , it would be nice if GFY could play middle man( seeing as how they are taking place on their own board and I wouldnt want members of my board being ripped off right on my board ) for the upfront payment , all they would need to do is add a " [email protected]" email to their paypal and contest would be posted after approval .


I think if everyone follows these guidlines , You'll all start to see alot more amazing logos show up in these threads , and new faces that usually dont try out for them .

They are fun , and a chance to show off talent ( if used correctly ) and a good way to waste a few minutes if you can spare them , but they also suck when you AND 50 other people waste time as well

awesome ideas there. in know many people would submit more entires into a somewhat 'controlled' contest.

:thumbsup :thumbsup

I agree, but maybe a trusted 3rd party that would answer the emails asap.

That would be good yeah ;)

Good post.

I don't participate in the contests...one reason is I'm too busy to put out work for possibly free when people are paying me to allocate time for them.

I am not bashing those who do post contests, it's all in fun I'm sure, and it's interesting to see the kind of work people can do.

But it would be a horrible thing if the "winners," don't actually receive a prize.

Most contests are a retarded effort to get design at a low cost...

If the prize is below 500.00 Count me the fuck out.
Not worth it.

Designers...

Your being taken advantage of.

Get the fuck out of your hole and know your worth and stop under selling yourselves.

Oh never mind...
I have preached this for years to no avail.

:thumbsup

reminds me of an idea i had awhile back and just dont have time for it. The adult web industry has many contests and like you say, many of them go wrong. an adult webmaster contest site would be cool. not only for design contests but for all types of contests: traffic, design, amount of sales, galleries, etc...

i've dabbled in a few contests but honestly... my time's better spent working on guaranteed paid work. why compete when that time is costing me money?

don't get me wrong, contest are fun and all but the bigger picture shows a bigger profit in something i'm guaranteed to be paid for.

how about a competition like this...

I give 5 different site themes, designers can choose any....

Winning site in each category gets $5,000 but all sites entered become property of competition starter :)

Thats sounds a hell of alot better than what has been offered lately ;)

We need some new contests, like doing designs for sponsor websites... Instead of paysites.

:thumbsup

really cool idea:thumbsup

good points... :thumbsup

So what would designers think about a contest like the following one:

• Design for a webmaster resource site
• Winner gets $800 + a small "designed by" button at the bottom of every page + the top listing in the "design" category of the site
• Numbers 2 & 3 both get $100 and a "recommended" status in the design category of the site
• I pick the designs eligible to win
• A poll on GFY decides the winner out of those

Would you designers participate in something like that?

Probably not for me, because of a few reasons:

1. And entire site is quite a bit of work. Too much risk of not being paid.

2. These kinds of polls in the past have shown that alot of GFYers just don't seem to be too great at picking winners in things like this.

To modify the contest, I think you should drop the poll idea and have a contest to design a header for the resouce site including logo and top buttons. The winner would get maybe $200 with $50 each for the two runners up and then first place winner would get the job to design the entire site for an additional $500 or so.

Just some ideas. :)

For a template ? or a site .
for the site it would be to low of a prize ,
a template that would be okay ,
Some resource sites are alot of work , for a little prize
a template would be worth the risk though .

Header, footer, nav bars, a few subheaders and most importantly the layout, which would be a few (largely similar) templates. The site is supposed to be very light on graphics, clean and simple, so that cuts down on the design work.

Keep in mind that the main part of the prize is actually the advertising it brings along. A top spot in the design category is worth more than the $800.

I'd do it if all was required was the main page and a single interior page.

Contests are fun granted.. but only for the winner, the fun kind of pales for the loosers and having your work turned down isn't all that good for moral.

Why not turn your efforts into something with more investment potential

I have a program I started where I'm doing this type of thing take a look

http://www.graphicsbytia.com/form.html

I'd like some feedback on this program if I could, so far everyone has loved it, but I'm sure there's room for improvment. We just put up the first designs here, they've been up for 3 weeks

http://www.graphicsbytia.com/works.html

Well, tia, I think you KNOW how *I* feel about it.

Looks good :thumbsup
not my sort of thing though , hope it does well for you ;)_

:winkwink:

Could you ICQ me when you get a chance?

contests are a great way to grow your portfolio :2 cents:, even if you don't win

great thread btw :thumbsup

Tootie,

I am embarassed .. I have to come right out and admit

I don't know who you are, I assume I have you on my icq list with another nick perhaps?

icq me # is below

Here's what designers need to rock:

How about designers who listen to what their customers want. deliver everything that was promised, and are responsive to the people who are over a barrell because they've prepaid?

How about you use real designers and stop cutting corners...

Last time I hired a fairly well-known designer he actually took three times as long as he had said before, delivered a product that was far below the quality of his portfolio (it was something I could've made myself in 4 hours, and I suck at design) and didn't respond most of the time I tried to contact him.

The reason I'd rather use a contest than simply hiring a designer is that at least I'll be sure to get a decent product in a reasonable amount of time.

who was it, no doubt from gfy based on this

Didn't get him through GFY, although I believe he does post here sometimes. Exposing him isn't really worth the drama to me.

no drama really is it, post ur experiences with the person... if its true its all good...

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

You're right emmanuelle, as with any business, you're going to find bad service providers. One of the things I like about the Adult industry is the communication.. everyone knows everyone else, and my best business comes from word of mouth referals. I wouldn't use someone I didn't know anything about no matter how good their stuff looked unless I could verify that they delivered what was promised, mostly because I've been scammed myself when I didn't follow this rule. I was new then and didn't know anybody, so it was hard.