Thursday, December 22, 2016
You’ll be able to do this for a while, at least until the design contest owners tell you to stop. Put your web address on every single submission you make. Don’t just slap in on, make it look nice. Not too big or overbearing. Simple font too.
You can work it into the frame we just talked about. You’ve been told not to worry about getting paid, and that contest sites are all about exposure. Get. The. Exposure.
What’s also cool is that contest holders will try and contact you ‘off the grid’ – ie: directly and through your website (some may try to contact you through private messaging on the contest site itself. Trouble is, many won’t, fearing their private conversations aren’t so private, which by the way, they probably aren’t).
They’ll probably ask you to design their logo cheaper than what the contest site is asking. Go for it. Sure, you may take a little cut in the overall price, but this way you’re positively guaranteed to win.
In order to look legit, the ‘buyer’ will pick one of your submissions at contest close and you can do a little extra work – say stationery design – to make up the difference. Or, they’ll have a pal set up a ‘creative’ account, submit some bogus logos, and the ‘buyer’ will pick that design while they work with you “off the grid”.
Always keep this in mind – design contests are NOT about design. It’s about winning stuff if you’re a designer. And getting “more stuff for less” if you’re a buyer. Any tactic that meets that basic philosophy is fair game.
If any of this is against the contract you clicked before joining the community worry not, the chances of any of these contracts standing up in court are pretty close to zero. While I’m not a lawyer (that’s known as a legal disclaimer) I’d think that anti-competitive clauses and unfair labor practices will trump every time.
Besides, there isn’t a contest site on the planet who’s going to spend $1000s of dollars to chase you half way around the world to recoup a few hundred dollars. They also don’t want to see their contracts – and business model itself – challenged in a real court so they’ll just leave you alone.
They might ban you from their website, but if you’ve got other user names and proxy IP, it's ready to go, you’ll be submitting more logos in no time at all. It’s all good.
Adapted from thelogofactory.com
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