A couple of weeks ago, we told you about the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) logo design contest for their Art Works project. Not going to regurgitate everything again, other than bullet pointing the bare bones. A government arts initiative that wanted to remind business people that “arts workers are real workers” who are “part of this country’s real economy“ 
and “earn salaries, support families, pay taxes, revitalizing towns, cities and neighborhoods.“ So they launched a logo design contest with a $25,000 prize. Not surprisingly, pushback was swift, with blog posts by designers and a strongly worded letter from the AIGA protesting the contest, all claiming that spec work devalued the graphic design industry and was, in fact, sending the exact opposite message that the logo was supposed to illustrate. The NEA responded thusly: “This RFP is open to anyone who enrolls in the Central Contractor Registration, and it has a streamlined submission process that essentially involves submitting one image, a three-page narrative that explains the thinking behind the proposed image and provides some basic information about the proposer. They also told us:
“The response to date has been overwhelmingly positive, and it has also engendered a lively dialogue about the structure of the RFP itself, in particular around the issue of “work for spec” in the graphic design community.”
Taking a gander at some of the comments on the blog, not sure I’m on side with the “overwhelmingly positive” vibe but no mind. Bottom line, anti spec work crusaders could get bent, and the contest would go on as scheduled. Well, maybe not exactly as scheduled, with the deadline being postponed from February 26 to March 5, this Friday, due to snow storms that crippled the Nation’s capital. People who had tried to enter the contest ($25K is a lot of bones) were glad of the extension, not because they needed time to polish their logos, or the three-page logo symbolism treatise, or the basic biography that’s supposed to accompany the design proposals. Nope. It was because, like most things in the government, it was incredibly difficult to figure out the damn submission process. From the helpful:
“Might it be possible to offer an EZ-application form, Application-lite or Application for Dummies option for those who are interested in entering but don’t speak government language.”
To the exasperated:
“I am a graphic designer with (IMHO) a great completed design idea. However, I have found the submission process to be a such a frustrating labyrinth of links, forms, etc. that I have given up. I am NOT a business- no DUNS#, TIP# etc. The e-mail requirements for submissions are straightforward enough until you get to the forms and ORCA stuff. Why isn’t there a simple way for individuals to submit ideas?”
To the incredulous:
“I am so dumbfounded by the application process (do we scan in our completed paperwork to submit electronically in addition to our logo files?) Someone needs to explain this!!”
In response to the criticism, and just 4 days before contest close, the NEA posted a “thorough FAQ that supposedly “covers every aspect of the Art Works logo design RFP and submission process“. Trouble is the PDF download is still filled with so much legal gobbledygook that if you can decipher it, you probably deserve the 25 grand prize. Hooray for government spec work.
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Just curious. What does the FAQ say about protection of intellectual property, during the review process and then after? Does the NEA keep all work submitted (and potentially use the work)? How is intellectual property kept confidential to each designer during the review process?
Good questions Marie. I tried to find the answers but unfortunately, the FAQ isn’t particularly “thorough” and none of the issues you raise are addressed.
Obviously, they should be.
I went through the entire submission process and, although laborious, didn’t find it all that difficult to understand. But now that the deadline has come and gone and they’re considering the submissions, I can’t find ANY information on when or if a decision will be made. In fact, the page that posted the original information is now offline and I sent an email a week ago asking for an update, with (not surprisingly) no response. So what’s the deal? Will they ever come to a decision and update those of us who did enter a design? Seems to me like if they were going to go through all the hype to get a logo created then they would be timely with an announcement of a winning design.
Ms. Latonca Harris replied to me (gosh, just me?) with a form letter stating that a Brooklyn graphics studio won the nod. No hint of what it is or looks like. No hint of why. The RFP did stipulate something like “…contestants must be capable of developing the design…” so that must be what’s going on, now, two months after the deadline. I can hardly wait.
Thanks for the update Rick. I hadn’t heard anything myself, but I’ll post something when I do.