Feb

Snippets: Images Without Borders, MSU Spartan logo to stay, AIGA speaks out & the $15 logo design contest

Steve Douglas on February 7th, 2010

We lift a pint to the good people at Images Without Borders, a fund raising campaign for one of my favorite relief organizations, Doctors Without Borders, a non-political and non-denominational medical group that usually hits the ground long their more high-profile compatriots. You can now lend financial assistance to Doctors Without Borders through a web-based initiative and get yourself a beautiful custom photographic print into the bargain. Images Without Borders provides stunning pictures from world class photographers working around the globe and are offered to the public at a special price. Profits go directly to DWB (less only the cost of printing). The project was originally launched as a response to the earthquake crisis in Haiti, but will remain in operation for the foreseeable future “as crises emerge” and to provide day-to-day support for DWB ongoing work in troubled regions throughout the world. [Images Without Borders]

According to a recent survey at Leeds University, published in the Psychopathology journal, too much web surfing can make you depressed. The study also found that twice as many people are addicted to the internet as there are to gambling. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to drown my sorrows in chocolate milk and gummi bears. [Mirror UK]

Couple of days ago, we told you about the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) holding a spec-work-driven design contest for their new Art Works logo. Many in the design community flipped out, pointing out the irony of an unpaid logo contest for a project that was supposed to remind foks that artists were “real workers“, ran real businesses and injected real money into the economy. Graphic arts organization AIGA, in a strongly-worded letter, tried to take the NEA out to the woodshed, as much as strongly-worded letters take anyone out to the woodshed, telling them that design contests like this ran “against the global professional standards and practices for graphic design” and violated “a tacit ethical standard that has long standing in the communication design professions worldwide.” The NEA response was a politely worded “get bent” that told us they “looked forward to announcing the selected image in the near future.” Hooray for strongly-worded letters. [AIGA]

When word leaked out that Michigan State University were working on a new direction for their Spartans logo, coaches figured that everyone would be cool with the news. Alas, folks weren’t very cool with it at all. In fact, when people found our that the university had applied for a new trademark (the slightly more pissed-off looking helmet at right), people lost their ever-loving minds, setting up no less than 8 Facebook pages (with almost 20k members) and writing all sorts of, ahm, creative stuff on related Wiki pages. Blogs and local radio talk shows were similarly afire with protest. According to an internal memo, the helmet redesign was “the result of a two-year collaboration between MSU Athletics and a team of top designers from Nike.” Well, that wasn’t too cool either, and led to claims of ‘sellout’ to corporate interests. After a brave defense of their position, MSU officials relented, telling fans that the old logo would stay. [Detroit News]

Snooty graphic designers are always going on about how logo design contests devalue design, designers, the creative process, the client-designer relationship and threaten the graphic design industry itself. People who insist on holding design contests claim that designers are elitist fucktards who need to get with the program. So far, the pro design contest people seem to be winning, which leads to all sorts of wonderful business opportunities like this one – a $15 logo design contest for some wonderful outfit called RHC Visa Services. Yep, a princely fifteen smackeroos. The job posting, written in Full Metal caps lock mode, kindly advises interested designers “DO NOT BID IF YOU DONT SHOW US A MOCKUP… WHO MAKES THE BEST DESIGN GETS THE MONEY” and “YOU WILL NOT BE PICKED AS WINNER IF YOU DONT MAKE A SAMPLE DESIGN FOR US AND SHOW US BEFORE HAND.” Let’s hear it for the democratization of design. [Dynamik Design]