Why you should not participate in any unpaid graphic design contests
It’s not (only) because it hurts the market, it’s just totally useless for you
There are a lot of freelancing websites, like 99 designs, that work on the concept of unpaid contests for freelancers. Whether you are a graphic designer, a motion designer, or an illustrator, I strongly recommend you never participate in unpaid contest to win a client or a project.
Why?
Simply because it is a totally unreliable way of working. On any website that promotes that way of working, there are at least tens of people participating in each contest, if not hundreds. The clients select people based on their “feelings” on each project, which means it is usually totally random.
Even if they selected on talent or actual quality of work (which is absolutely not the case most of the time, because they are not professionals in this field), you probably have the same level than a lot of other graphic designers, illustrators or motion designers. Which means that even if you produce very good work, you still rely on chance to earn money. It’s like playing in a casino.
Moreover, even if you win once in a while, your ratio work/rates is impossible to sustain to live.
If you work one week on each contest, and you win a quarter of those contest (which would be an EXTREMELY good ratio of win, very unlikely to happen), you would still work entire months, for the price of a single week. But most often than not, you’ll win less than 10% of your contests. Than means you’ll work the entire year, for less than a month salary. How long do you think you can do that?
When you just finished school, and are desperately trying to have some new clients, it can be very tempting. Because you don’t really need to earn a lot of money (you are still living with your parents, or you are working another part time job, and/or you don’t have many expenses), but you can’t sustain a real life with contests. So why bother in the first place?
To make a “name” for yourself? To expand your portfolio?
That will not happen. The quality of the work you will produce will be very low, even if you are good. Because you simply don’t have the time to work properly, and you will lose your motivation very fast as the rates are very low anyway. After losing a few contests, you will give up. The problem is that there will always be new “juniors” to replace you.
Moreover, the clients who hire people in those contests usually are more interested in cheap over quality. They are not “big brand names” like Coca Cola. They are unknown “little people”. And they will often choose poor designs, or ask you to make your design “uglier” (my wife likes purple, can you do the logo purple, and add some yellow in it, and some pink…” those kind of feedbacks). So even if you win, chances are your portfolio will not improve that much.
Sometimes, the contests are simply canceled after every participants send their work.
I know it’s hard to not have work when you start. But trust me, those contest will only give you the false impression that you are working. But it’s fake. You are not really working if you are not paid.
What those contests are actually doing, is to provide a service for free for clients. That service is called “brainstorming”. It is actually the most important part of your design process. But instead of having just a few different ideas proposed by a single person, as is the case with any graphic designer or illustrator job, the client can choose between hundreds of propositions.
The problem? those propositions take time and effort to produce, by a lot of people. And almost none of them are paid.
To make an analogy, it’s exactly like if someone hired workers to build them a house, let’s say, a hundred workers (masons, electricians, plumbers, painters etc…). But they said they would only pay ONE of the workers, at the end. The one who did “the best job” of all.
Keep in mind that ALL the workers helped to build the house. They all worked hard, and participated in the success of the house. But at the end, only one tiler would get paid for his work, because he was the favorite worker of the client. And worse, he would be paid the price of a single worker, not even the price of the full house.
It’s not even a good deal for the winner. At least the winner should be paid the price of one hundred workers. That would be a little bit more “fair”. Like if you play the lottery, you don’t win the price of a single ticket, you win the price of ALL the tickets sold. That’s why people want to win the lottery. Only one winner, but who wins enough for a lifetime. Not just enough to finish the month.
In the end, the client had the work of one hundred people, for the price of one.
That’s exactly the same in those graphic design contests. The client has one hundred ideas for their logo, their videos, their packaging, but they pay only one. It’s absurdly unfair.
But I want to stress out that the problem is not a “moral” problem. I don’t really care about that. If people want to work for free, it’s their problem, and their “right”. Really. If you want to clean the house of your neighbor for free, who am I to stop you. But they should at least know that they are working for free.
That’s why I’m writing this article. To explain the “real” deal of those contests.
To conclude, be aware that there are absolutely NO reason to participate in unpaid contests. It’s not “just” killing the profession, I know you don’t really care about that when you are desperately trying to work, but it’s also killing you.
It will have EXACTLY the same impact on your career than to simply create your own personal projects to expand your portfolio. Honestly, take the time to do that instead. Then try to register with real “agents”, or websites that don’t work on the basis of unpaid contests.
Thank you, have a good day :)
