You're going to hear support and opposition to this idea, as it's been bandied about in different threads on CB. Long and short, for the most part competitions don't exactly bring the most positive feelings out in designers.

On the outside, any company offering a "competition" gets mostly scorn from us here as it's usually a cry for free work from a company with no respect for us artists/designers.

And from this side, who's going to be the final judge of the artwork? Would we all trust that person or persons opinion? How objective can they be? Why should most of us, working, designers bother? These are questions we'll probably belabor to the point where some of us swear off designing for good and others jump for joy for their apparent, if only phyrric, victory.

I'm inclined to say no to contests in general. My .02. :) How about we do collaborations and comparative designs instead?

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Natobasso
dirtandrust.com
"Powerpoint is not a design application"

I'd really like that.

Anyone ever done Photoshop Tennis?

I remember reading about it on Veerle's blog.

"It's a live design event. Originally it was called "Photoshop Tennis" but in this season there have been matches in Adobe Flash and After Effects as well gulp! It's two designers that swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each designer gets fifteen minutes to complete a "volley" and then it gets posted to the site. A third participant, a writer, provides play-by-play commentary on the action, as it happens."

http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/a_colorful_layer_tennis_affair/

I bet this can be done remotely with say 4 or 6 volleys and then the final work published. Then the community gets to vote which team wins.

Francois

Instead of "contests" where there are winners and losers, how about a "Challenge" where an idea is presented and we bounce off techniques and ideas off each other, while submitting our take on the challenge? That way it's a learning experience, rather than a competition.

I also like the tennis idea.

If not on CB, perhaps a sister site? I'm willing to invest some of my time. Lemme know, guys. :)

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My Portfolio

This dog's in too, re: Stephanie's concept.

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."
— Frank Zappa

I don't see anything wrong with competition, but then I'm also perfectly OK with losing just for the chance to see the magic provided by the winner and runner-ups.

I remember one contest I submitted to: there was an artist in France who created a scene of a realistic orange with a straw sticking in it, sitting on a table. It was all created in PS, with brushes, no photos. It's still one of the best I've seen even though she didn't win. I think whe should have won, but it was judged by a panel

but anyway, a self-juried (all entrants vote for the best) competition could solve that. The ones that vote for themselves would cancel themselves out, because the honest votes would have actual weight.

If I vote for my own entry, and everyone else votes for someone else's, then my vote doesn't mean anything. Even if everyone except one person votes for themselves, it still works because two votes beats one no matter what :) and in the event that everyone votes for themselves you'd have a tie and no one wins.

The challenge idea is good, but I was also looking for a way to drive more visitors to CB. There's nothing works better than a prize to do that. however, more traffic has it's downsides too: we could end up with a bunch of undesirables posting here. A "challenge" might bring in more serious designers or it may not bring any new ones at all.

"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa

Reading through the comments I'm unsure. :)

There is a cool competition here. We are going to extend the deadline, so you will have couple more weeks to participate:
http://adsoftheworld.com/blog/ivan/2008/nov/02/ads_of_the_world_research_competition

I think it would be pretty alright and I've thought of it before myself. I think the stipulation should be that it has to be something completely off the wall so that we know our work isn't being stolen. Like, a logo for a company that makes puppy mittens or something. ;)
Then, people could post stuff up and we could see how everyone else handles it, not necessarily a contest, but rather just seeing different ways of getting it done.