Even though it was published on The Factor a few weeks ago, e-mail and comments are still arriving about our are logo contests legal feature. I’ve already written one follow up piece on the hornet’s nest, so I’m not going to write another (today at least).
While reading some of the ‘in favor’ opinions expressed, I was struck by a commonality in most of the messages – presumably from younger designers – and a central theme to their point of view. They didn’t support contests per se – in fact, many realized that it was a fairly contradictory way for a designer to conduct themselves, especially if they wanted to add the term ‘professional’ after their name. They understood that they were underselling their services, arguably exploited by contest site owners (who I have zero sympathy for) and contest holders (for whom I have very little).
That’s certainly fair enough. Many of these designers expressed the same rationale for entering their work for consideration in these dog-and-pony forums – a lack of alternative ways to get their names ‘out there’. Many saw logo contests as the only way to seek clients, to establish portfolios, and to promote themselves online. They viewed the internet as a vast resource of untapped clients, but had little idea about mining the online market, and saw contests as a means-to-an-end.
One comment opined that I was only concerned that logo design contest sites were “taking away from my business”. To be honest, that is a factor. It’s certainly difficult to compete with folks who claim they’re offering the same services as The Logo Factory for free. But it’s not my only gripe. Nor even my main one. Having been involved in the graphic design industry for over thirty years, it seems a shame that designers have to resort to such activities in order to earn a living in a career that, other than the occasional hiccup, has been fairly rewarding to me. Some went even further, arguing that I hadn’t walked in their shoes, one designer even asking, “What would you have me do?”.
You know something? They do have a point.
Rather than just bitching about logo contests (a self-indulgence I reserve for future installments), perhaps I should offer up some alternatives, at least in the promotional department. As much as I’d love to, I can’t hire everyone – not enough room at the studio – but I might be able to offer up some suggestions as to how designers can market themselves using online tools that are readily available.
I’ve never really considered myself an expert on marketing, at least in the traditional sense, but TLF has had some measure of success promoting our graphic design firm via the web. There’s people better at this than I am, but we have been tub-thumping on the internet for almost thirteen years now. During that time I’ve picked up a few things about marketing online logo design services. We’ve been reasonably adept at keeping our website traffic dense (despite recent lackluster search engine placement for some key phrases, we’re generally in the top 100,000 of Alexa, an important benchmark to folks who count such things). At the very least, I could assemble some tips, ideas and pointers that newly ordained designers might find useful. Maybe even (tah dah) another series.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to publish a series of in-depth online design marketing articles featuring stuff that’s worked for The Logo Factory over the years. Blogs. Online graphic design portfolios. SEO. Pricing. A soup to nuts treatise on how a designer might develop some online caché. Gonna call it the Marketing Design Online series. If nothing else, it will offer some helpful suggestions that might be of benefit to designers who want to take more advantage of the opportunities these interwebby things can offer.
We’ll fire it up tomorrow with something already in the ‘draft post’ bullpen – The whys and wherefores of online marketing with design blogs.
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Hi there… We cannot blame those who are interested in that contest. Maybe they are doing that for the sake of their selves. I mean they need money. Is that a big deal to join that contest? There are so many ways on how they show their talents and maybe that is the first step to their success. We don’t know their reasons are. Anyway, thanks for your concern about designers. Have a great day!