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Fossil Holds Design Contest- Great Exposure or Simply Spec Work?

The Design Studio at Fossil Watches has produced some exceptionally well designed products and marketing materials over the past several years. As far as in-house studios are concerned I would place them at the top. Now they are holding tin-design contest. Why? With an exceptionally talented design team why hold a “contest”?

I am in 100% agreement with Jeff Fisher at LogoMotives

For me, the distinction between “design competition” and such “contests” is very simple. “Competitions” are conducted to evaluate and select graphic work already completed by a designer. Most so-called “contests” are requests for the creation of new work for possible review and selection - and that is “spec,” or speculative, work. No designer should be asked to work for free as a condition for the chance of being selected as the “winner” or possibly being hired for future work.

Recently the Bare Naked Ladies held a similar contest to design the t-shirt for their upcoming tour. Naturally this would be a great portfolio piece and if managed properly could propel the winning designer to get more projects like this.

Again, Jeff writes:

On the surface, these contests seem like fun ways to allow designers and even fans to explore and stretch their creativity outside of the restraints of a “formal” creative brief. Sometimes, this is exactly the case and such contests are harmless exercises with the potential for winning a prize. More often than not, however, the details lurking beneath the surface suggest something far less equitable.

For instance with the case of the Fossil contest you lose all rights to your designs when you enter the contest. Here is an except from the contest rules (posted at: http://design.fossil.com/ContestRules.pdf )

Return of Designs: submissions will not be returned. Submissions become the property of Sponsor upon submission.

Additionally, Fossil may use any of the entries in future promotions, read below:

Ownership/Use Rights: In order to be eligible to be awarded 1st-4th place prizes, the selected designers must assign all right, title and interest in their designs to Fossil. The copyright in all other designs will remain with the designers. By entering the contest, you agree to have your design displayed on the Website, without any fee or other form of compensation, and agree that Sponsor may display the designs in future promotional programs and may retain and make copies of your design as it sees fit for its own promotional purposes.

TexasDesign believes a designer should be paid for their efforts, even if the designs are not used. Additionally TexasDesign supports the NO!SPEC initiative. To find out more, go to the NO!SPEC web site