Water as Art? Or perhaps we should rephrase this to say “water bottle as art.” Art Water is a company that makes it a priority to make sure that the water they package is as refreshing to the eye as well as the body.
Art Water is announcing its Skin the Bottle Competition and wants artists and designers to create works of art for its line of bottled water.
Contest Details There are three categories for this contest:
* Photography * Traditional Art * Digital Art
Art Water states:
“Create anything you want using the [provided] template so long as it represents your vision…
“Conform only to the shape of the bottle and create an Art Water label that represents your aesthetic insight…how you feel the bottle should look or what you think the bottle should say is how Art Water wants YOU to design it.”
General Submission Guidelines
* All designs should be in JPG, PNG or GIF file formats. * If your entry wins you must submit the accompanying PSD or vector file. * All entries must follow contest template guidelines. * No watermarks or other distinguishing graphics that identify the ….author/company. * More than one entry is allowed. * All contestants must be registered on the deviantArt.com contest site.
Judging Criteria All entries will be judged against the following standards:
* Level of Superlative Visual Design * Best Utilization of the Art Water Bottle Design * Overall Presentation and Appeal of the Design
Prizes The winners of each category will have their designs imprinted on the bottles of Art Water sold throughout the US.
In addition:
* Each winner will receive $1500 * 8,000 deviantART points * One year premium membership to deviantART.com * A $0.03 royalty for each bottle of water incorporating their design
Other Contest Info and Links This contest if free to enter and you may enter as often as you like. The contest deadline is November 30, 2010.
Follow these links for important contest information:
Been There, Done That, and Been There Again Sometimes a difficult customer can make you feel depressed, angry or both. But as they say, it’s all part of the package when you work for clients.
Tak Robinson, a lead graphic designer, shares his story of a difficult client.
“One of our customers used us because we were known for fast service. He had to pay a premium but grudgingly did so to meet his tight deadlines.
“Then he started to drop off his work after our studio was officially closed for business. He knew we had a night crew and demanded that his projects be ready by the next day.
“This really disrupted our night shift’s schedule in taking care of other rush jobs for the following morning. Our excellent night team was not happy.”
What did Tak do? The rest of the story is at the end of this article. (As usual certain circumstances and names have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty.)
Difficult Clients Most of the time, clients are reasonable. But there are always customers who stretch your patience to the max. . ………………. . As Jill the graphic designer indicated, you can’t really tell off a customer the way she did. But in rare cases where compromise or a mutual understanding isn’t working, it may be the better part of valor to diplomatically turn down the job.
Kristen Holden of SitePoint offers this advice:
“The easiest way to deal with problem clients is to not take them on board in the first place.
“Avoid feeling compelled to accept every piece of work you come across. Some clients are truly not worth the extra effort spent on managing them. Over time, you actually lose money.”
With that said make sure that you are doing the best you can to be professional and understanding in order to find a solution that will keep both you and your client relatively happy.
Graphic Design School and Customer Relations The first priority for going to a graphic design college is to get a strong education in design and art. The secondary purpose is to prepare you for career opportunities upon graduation.
How you relate to your fellow peers in graphic design school, how you handle the pressure of deadlines, and your ability to produce consistently good work under adverse circumstances helps you in providing good customer service.
Hard Decisions In a perfect world there should never be a circumstance where you need to turn down a client. But as we all know this isn’t a perfect world. Turning down a client must be done in a pragmatic and logical manner after all other avenues to work with the client have been closed.
In some cases a job may not be financially sound for your business. In extremely rare cases the client is unreasonable and unrealistic concerning expectations, deadlines or final costs.
Let’s find out the rest of the story concerning our graphic designer and the difficult client.
“His demands were becoming increasingly over the top for us and we had to make a decision to tell our night staff to charge him premium-rush-overtime to complete his work ahead of our other clients.
“The funny thing is he never complained about the extra charges. He started to drop off his work during the daytime again instead of at night. Eventually we figured out that he was always behind in his work and passed his hectic deadlines on to us.
“We wanted to drop him as a client but things worked themselves out for us. We think his company fired him because another graphic artist took his place.”
Next Time… We hope you’ve enjoyed this series about Graphic Designers vs. Clients. In the next few weeks we’ll take a look at the creative processes of graphic design and see how good ideas can sometimes backfire.
Before They Showed Up The use of personal computers and cell phones is very common today and it’s hard to imagine not having these devices in today’s high-tech world.
We wonder, “What will the next generations of electronic marvels hold for us?”
The Fujitsu Design Award is about the future and how high-tech devices will influence us years from now. In the words of the sponsor:
“The Fujitsu Design Award is held to make the future lifestyles of people richer and even more fun, and to give concrete shape to the future…
As Fujitsu sees it, by more frequently using ICT (information and communication technologies) that is becoming increasingly diverse, and dramatically expanding the possibilities of our services.”
Contest Details This competition is about submitting your best vision of the future and how new computing technology will be used.
Fujitsu is asking designers to formulate designs and concepts for the devices of the future and what they will do for people in relationship to networking with others, daily routines, entertainment, and fulfilling Fujitsu service design concepts.
Fujitsu describes a service concept as:
“…a type of service utilizing ICT is provided to enrich peoples’ ….lives, and can be described in these terms:
* What type of person, and what type of service will it provide? * What will that service be used for, where and when? * What convenience, experience, excitement or other new value ….can be gained by using the service?
There is no need to interpret the service content based on a business model (income and expenditure).”
There are two different design divisions for this contest:
* Lifebook Category: What PCs will be like in 2013; the near future. * Lifedesign Category: What next-generation computing devices will be like (including service ….concept) ten years from now in 2020.
Submission Guidelines Entries may be images or video clips. The following are the recommended specifications for each type of file:
Images:
* 72dpi gif or jpeg files in RGB color mode * Dimensions should be 600 pixels wide x 800 pixels high * File size not to be larger than 150kb.
Video Clips
* Only flv or swf files will be accepted * File size: 640 pixels x 480 pixels * file size: 10MB or less
For full details see the official rules and guidelines.
Prizes The following cash awards will be given to the winners:
One Grand Prize: €30,000 (42,390 USD) for 1 work Two Runner-Up Prizes: €10,000 (14,130 USD) for 2 works (1 from each category) Seven Judges’ Special Awards: €1,000 (1412 USD) for 7 works
Contest Links and Other Information This contest will close on January 31, 2011. The winners will be announced sometime in April 2011. There are no entry fees for this contest.
Follow these links for important information regarding this competition:
Been There and Done That Again? One graphic designer relates an experience dealing with a difficult (cheap) client.
“A client gave us assurances that when his business increased he would definitely compensate us properly for services rendered. We made a decision to do some work for him on spec and crossed our fingers that his word was good.
“We provided crucial content for his website and his business did increase, just as he predicted.
“We approached him for payment for our design work and he said he would devise a pay schedule for us in a week.”
What happened? See the conclusion of this story at the end of this article. (Names and certain circumstances have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.)
The Price Is Right/Wrong? If you’ve been in the design industry for any length of time you’ve probably heard many of the reasons why a client only has “a limited budget” for the project. But let’s turn this around a bit.
What if someone needed surgery and told the surgeon that he would pay the operation out of pocket but had only set aside a certain amount for the operation? Would the surgeon take the job?
View this video and see if anything sounds familiar to you: . ………………. . Be Prepared When you enter negotiations with a perspective client it takes a firm hand and some good insight regarding the character of the customer you are dealing with.
Ken Eikenberry, an organization/business consultant, gives some advice on client-vendor relationships.
“When we ask questions we understand situations better. Take the time, make the time to ask your client how she feels, what she thinks, and try to understand her observations regarding the progress of the project and your performance.”
If a client demands the moon but only wants to pay dirt cheap prices you may have to think twice about taking him on as a customer. Ask yourself this question “Is it worth the time, effort, and expense to keep this client happy?”
If the initial meetings are filled with talk of budget constraints on the client’s part rather than the creative aspect of the project, this may be a red flag indicating that there may be trouble ahead.
Graphic Design Schools and Client Relationships The task of meeting deadlines and presenting professional quality work is a must for successful designers.
Graphic design schools help to simulate these conditions through the projects you are assigned, how you relate with your teachers (clients), and the grading of your work.
Graphic design colleges not only provide the needed education to become a graphic designer, they help you to cope with the pressures of design deadlines and project expectations.
In God We Trust; All Others Pay Cash In the beginning of this article a graphic designer described a “cheap” client promising to pay for design services once his business was more successful. Here’s what happened.
“After several months of spec work and his business starting to take off we approached him to fulfill his promise to pay us. Since there was no written contract (our big mistake) he decided he didn’t want to pay us after all.
“We were devastated. It wasn’t the money owed as much as how we were so naïve in believing this customer. We should have followed our initial instincts to be more careful.
“Of course not all clients are crooks, but the event has made us more aware about getting everything in writing and being more careful when customers want things done for free or at cut-rate prices.”
Next Time… Rodney Dangerfield, an old school comedian, made the catch phrase “I don’t get no respect” a popular introduction line to his club routine.
Graphic designers sometimes feel like Rodney when dealing with clients. Next time we meet we’ll see what sorts of steps designers can take to boost morale. Here’s a hint: Use the word “no” more often.
Design a Better Potato Peeler Or you can design any kitchen tool that is innovative or an improvement over the original design. If you are really ambitious create a completely new kitchen tool from scratch.
“World Kitchen invites you to redefine the kitchen tools for preparing, cooking and serving food, making them more space-efficient, time sensitive and versatile for today’s home chef and their cooking needs.
“Whether your design helps a cook to shape pasta, marinate meats, create a stir fry, flip burgers, or dish out soup, think about the cultural heritage you want to reflect and define its modern reality as you identify and design your concept.”
Judging Entries will be evaluated against the following criteria:
* Validity of Design Through Research * Innovation * Positive User Experience * Design Aesthetics * Manufacturing Feasibility
Prizes According to World Kitchen the following prizes will be given to the contest winners:
Top Three Winners
* A check for $6,000 USD; * Round-trip economy class airfare, for one, to Chicago, IL USA to attend ….our award ceremony at the International Home + Housewares ….Show® in Chicago, Illinois, between March 6 and March 8, 2011 * A hotel stay of two nights for that event for one * $250.00 to cover other travel-related expenses during your stay for ….the ceremonies * Publicity through press releases, exhibits, and official website.
There will also be honorable mention prizes.
Contest Links and Other Information All entries must be original work. You must submit a written treatment describing how the new kitchen tool is to be used and how your creation fulfills the contest requirements.
How’s Your Commute? If you commute to school or work how long does it take you to arrive at your destination?
If your commute is typical your daily round trip time is approximately 46 minutes according to a Gallop Poll conducted in 2007.
Michelin North America wonders what sort of traffic congestion will face us in the year 2046.
What sorts of cars will the commuter of the future use? How will these vehicles impact the environment and adapt to the needs of the commuter? Will the education you received at graphic design college help you design the vehicles of the future?
If you are a graphic designer, illustrator or artist who is interested in this scenario you may be the next winner in the Michelin Challenge Design Contest 2012.
What This Contest Is About Michelin wants to see design ideas for vehicles of the future. Specifically, Michelin states:
“For the Michelin Challenge Design 2012, participants are challenged to design a personal, ground-based vehicle that can transport between 2 and 10 people at a time.
Designers will choose Cairo, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, or Shanghai and design a vehicle to meet anticipated needs for that city in 2046.
“Michelin offers a challenge to designers around the world, individuals and small and large companies, to enthusiastically create, bring forward and display, significant design work that would normally not have an opportunity to be shown at a major auto show.”
Now you can utilize all you’ve learned at graphic design school or engineering school to enter your best shot. You may send in 2D renderings or 3D concept models to scale or full sized form. Sketches, engineering drawings and computer generated graphics are also acceptable.
Judging and Prizes Your entry will be judged according to:
* Relevance to the theme * Concept originality * Design value and quality * Developmental potential * Design display potential
The winners of this contest will have their entries eligible for display on the official contest site and various Michelin Challenge Design events and public displays.
Contest Links and Other Information To be eligible for this contest you must preregister by March 4, 2011. The contest deadline is June 3, 2011. Any questions about this contest should be directed to design [at] emcpr.com. There is no entry fee for this competition.
Water as Art?
General Submission Guidelines
Prizes
Sometimes a difficult customer can make you feel depressed, angry or both. But as they say, it’s all part of the package when you work for clients.
Hard Decisions
Design a Better Potato Peeler
Judging
According to World Kitchen the following prizes will be given to the contest winners:
Contest Links and Other Information
How’s Your Commute? 
Your entry will be judged according to:
