Designing Oscar

About a month ago, Airbag Industries was promoting a logo contest for a local business. This spurned an incredible debate that argued the merits and ethics of design contests for commercial business. Even for events that aren’t necessarily considered commercial by nature. There was a bunch of talk on devaluing the design industry and what have you. I feel that such contests, while not wholly evil, do place a strain on our community and the industry as a whole.

And now I read about how the Oscars have an open design competition for every year’s poster design (and subsequently the look and feel of the event). Brett Davidson, a designer gone IT guy for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (which runs the Oscars), was this year’s “winner”. He beat out some “big guns” to do it, too. Congratulations! However… the Oscar’s has an open design competition for its look and feel? This brings me back to the prior topic. Are these design competitions devaluing the industry? What was the reward for having your design selected? Aren’t companies, in effect, getting to choose from a veritable buffet of design without the charge, for the process and effort that went into its creation, when having a competition of this sort? What confuses me is that this year’s competition was under a “blind submission” judging process. Yet… Davidson (being the IT guy) was “the one who had to set up [the large agencys’] fancy presentations in the conference room.” And Davidson, himself, presented his submission to the committee. So, how is that a blind submission? Perhaps I simply don’t know the AMPAS’ definition of blind submission.

Personally, I am not in favor of contests — specifically, those that are for commercial enterprises. I will not harp on those designers that participate in said contests, but I will not be participating in them. Those “big guns”, that Davidson’s design beat out, put a lot of effort and time into their submissions and were not compensated for any of it. Don’t mistake me, I am excited for Mr. Davidson winning with his submission. I actually like the look of the poster. He did a really great job. It’s the principles of a contest for design work that I find fault in.