Dear Adelaide Fringe,
Every year, you run a poster design competition to determine the visual branding of the next year’s festival. I understand why you might think this is a great idea: it’s inclusive, puts “professional designers” on the same level as the amateurs, is a bit of fun, and gets people chatting.
From another standpoint, though, it’s Very Wrong Indeed. In sourcing specifically-produced work from a range of designers (the “entrants”) and only paying one of those designers (the “winner”), the end result is that you’ve dramatically underpaid for all the work you’ve received. Even if you pay the winner handsomely, consider this: if you receive a hundred entries and select pick one, you’re only paying 1% of what you should have. If every organisation or business were to follow your lead, the median salary across the design profession would shoot down. That sucks, no?
“Whoa, now!” I hear you say. “That’s a bit rich! We’ve made the rules clear! People know what they’re getting into!” That’s true, but it’s also true that you’ve set a precedent for other organisations and businesses to follow in sourcing design work. You’re a leader here, and instead of approaching the designer as a fellow professional, you’re promoting a model in which the client has all the power and the designer has none.
Would you consider it acceptable for any other business to seek out a redesign this way? If not, ask yourself what makes your organisation the exception to the rule – and recognise that almost every business believe themselves the exception (that’s the whole problem).
Also keep in mind that, contrary to supporting emerging talent, you’re actually suggesting to the amateur designer that spec work is acceptable practice, and that it’s usual for designers to work on projects for which they receive no compensation. Emerging designers need to understand that spec work is bad practice, or risk undervaluing their work.
So, what’s to be done, then? I’d suggest a better way to go about sourcing a fantastic poster design would be to ask designers – professional or amateur – to shoot through samples from their portfolio. If one of those designers stands out, you work with them to determine the kind of poster design you’d like. For unsuccessful applicants, very little time or energy is lost. For the successful applicant, you provide valuable advice and experience, assisting them in creating the kind of poster that fits the festival. You get a better poster. You don’t piss anybody off. Everybody wins.