Are Designers Devalued At The Expense Of Open Calls For Design Submissions?
A local Art Director and designer, Audsome, took to Instagram to share her thoughts on the recent open calls for designs to be submitted.
In her post, she mentioned that the problem is not the open calls itself, rather it is how designers are being devalued at the expense of such competitions.
As a creative, it is insulting enough to be underpaid for years of training and design but to lose rights over your own work as well is painful.
She questioned the integrity of such competitions when it is being run like a lucky draw instead of providing a platform for budding designers to gain exposure and proper remuneration.
She did a comparison between two recent open calls and considers the Sengkang town council one to be a better deal for budding designers.
While design is akin to other creative professions, Audsome believes that designers aren’t given the same opportunities upon winning talent competitions. She said that the submitted designs and the people who designed them are almost never seen.
Comments from fellow designers seem to agree with her sentiment as they shared their grievances.
However, there are some who believes that such competitions exist to help designers learn about the direction they want to go into. Speaking to a local interior designer, he shares his two cents worth.
“I feel open calls are a good thing and it will set the future standard based on design practice. We as “designers” are very competitive and always strive to be better than others. But we tend to forget about the bigger picture. It’s not always about winning awards or winning prizes. It was never about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. As a designer, I feel it’s necessary to join this type of open calls or competition to see other local competitors. This will build up the style/direction of a designer that you wannabe. It’s about passion, pride. It’s about changing people’s life with the designs you created. It’s not about just designing pretty things. It’s about designs that will sustain into the future.”
At the end of the day, it is about perspective
Reporter’s Opinion: As a creative, I understand where she is coming from.
I led a team once, designing an interactive book about national defence for pre-schoolers and we were paid in Taka vouchers for winning first prize.
The payment didn’t bother me as much as the fact that nothing we designed and wrote belongs to us. The book was supposed to be published but I really have no idea if it was because we didn’t see it in the particular organization we collaborated with.
I was pissed because it was my storyline and the hard work of my fellow educators who helped me design the book.
But having said that, I also agree that it is about gaining exposure as well. People want to be recognized for their work, they want to be appreciated. And we need to recognize and appreciate our creative industry.
