ShadowsMyst's Art n Stuff

I’m not going to name names, but I have to rant about this because its irritating the fuck out of me.

I’m a professional graphic designer. An award winning one at that. I volunteer my services for a PITTANCE to a new local convention to give them a new logo and do a brand identity. Why? Because I really want to support local conventions. I sent them a note on the forums, the organizer asked for some samples of work, which I provided, granted a lot of my best work isn’t online, but enough to prove that I am competent at what I do. And then… crickets. Nothing.

They don’t even have the fucking courtesy to write me back and say “no, we don’t want/need your services” instead they just fucking post a logo contest, which is like a bitch slap to the face of the entire design community. We all know how the design community feels about spec work and why logo design contests are bad for business. There’s also the problem with rip-offs, and the fact that a contest does not take larger marketing and promotional strategies and business values in mind, and the crowd they are addressing doesn’t even likely have the technical skill to actually MAKE a proper logo for all its various applications. Its a lot fucking harder than people think. Most branding process take at least 6 months to a year to just work out. Businesses that know the value of a cohesive well thought out brand pay tens of thousands of dollars for it. On top of the contest itself they only post it for a MONTH, which is pretty short considering people are going back to school at this time of the year, and its pretty much a gong show for near everyone.

So, they announced the winner recently of this so called logo contest. Giving people only a month, no brief, no guidelines, and the kicker they didn’t choose a logo, they chose a fucking illustration. There’s no way that’s going to translate well into anything but a forum header. Its clear these people don’t know a logo from their ass.

So now they have another shitty ‘logo’. And still no idea how to brand and market themselves to look professional. And now, probably, some poor designer somewhere is going to be saddled with working with their crap. Poor sod.