Recently I wrote a blog post looking for people to design the cover for a new edition of my most popular book, Moods of Future Joys.
I opted to run a competition for a couple of reasons:
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It would mean a lot to me if someone who enjoys my blog or books had the chance to get their design on the cover of my book.
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I hoped this would be an opportunity for someone new to get their design work out onto an already-established and respected book.
Being honest, I also ran the competition for a couple of less noble reasons:
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My publisher didn’t have sufficient budget to attract the calibre of work I wanted on the cover of my book.
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A competition is an easy way to get a range of new and different design idea.
Neither of these, you’ll agree, are particularly saintly motives! Which is why I finished the competition post by saying “please just ignore this if it’s not your thing. Please only get involved if it’s fun for you or if you think it will be worth your while!”
I was not prepared for the response it received! A lot of very angry designers accusing me of slave labour / de-valuing their industry had their say in the comments (scroll down from here) and on Twitter. I’mve given my thoughts about this in the comment section.
But I was also amazed to receive submissions from over 50 people. Some doing it for business reasons, some because they loved the book, some just for the fun of making something. Even when I replied to people to say they had not been chosen, I still received two more submissions from people who knew their work wasn’t going to be chosen. So this is the encouraging side of running a creative competition.
I guess I just want to flag up for other people who are considering running a design competition that they should think about their motives. Yes, there are some good / harmless reasons for it. But you are also asking lots of people to do good work for free. And that is not something that you should do lightly (see here for a witty / slightly narky diagram of the concept).
I don’t regret running this competition, but it has made me think more carefully about doing something similar in the future.
From my own point of view I get asked to work for free a lot in the form of giving free talks. I consider the offers and then sometimes I say ‘yes’ (fun events, events that may lead to opportunities for me). Sometimes I say ‘no’, regretfully (a nice charity, a fun event) or angrily (companies with plenty of money clearly taking the piss). The choice is mine.
Anyway, a big thank you to everyone who submitted their work. I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed doing it. I’mm sorry to everyone I had to say ‘no’ to.
And congratulations to Dan Armstrong whose work will be on the new edition of Moods of Future Joys and Thunder and Sunshine. His designs are at the bottom of the page. If you’d like to commission him for work, please click here.
Finally, to fulfil part of my side of the bargain, I want to showcase some of the designs that were submitted to me. If you like any of them please click on them. It will take you through to an email where you can get in touch with the designer and hopefully pay them lots of money for some nice design work!
Finally, here’s something I’mm giving away for free – my most recent book – There Are Other Rivers – on Kindle. Click here to get it.
[…] Post On Design Competitions A fortnight ago I wrote a blog post looking for people to design the cover […]
These are all so amazing – must have been fascinating to see so many different interpretations of your book.
As for running a competition and asking for help, if people are willing to submit something then why not, everyone starts somewhere! Now off to read the link you posted earlier on this subject!!!
Adding your book to my christmas list
Holy moly! I am blown away by the quality of those covers Al! I cannot get my head around how awesome they are. The winning design must be bloody unbelievable. Great contest and congrats to all the folk who submitted. I can see it from everyone’s point of view for sure (positive and negative).
There are some really awesome designs in there – how will you choose?
Love the one with the portrait of you on.
A fantastic selection of book designs there. A couple really stand out . A great range and really interesting to see how differently the ‘style’ is projected by the designers.
Hi! It’s great to see my own design here :) Thanks for the opportunity, it was both challenging and fun! Congrats to all the designers! Good job guys! :)
This has been such a thought provoking discussion. Simply astounded by the feedback and covers sent in. Well done Al. Well done all designers. A very positive experience following the debate.
Proud to see my cover at the top there :) amongst so many other great designs. A great opportunity which I really enjoyed working on. Thanks!
These covers are amazing!! Fantastic work, great discussion; can’t wait to see the selected cover.
There’s some great ideas here, some of them are really strong. As an experienced designer it was interesting to read the comments on the ‘morals’ of running such a competition. I worked for a company that constantly runs competitions, the prize being £250 and a 2 week work placement, not much some would argue for two weeks of work. However, this is the design industry, there’s a lot of people wanting a foot in the door and many people want opportunities to apply skills and enthusiasm to actual ‘live briefs’. If Al was dealing with a large publisher or corporation I’d think differently but it this case I agree with his decision to run the competition. Well done to everyone here.
An incredible spectrum of designs indeed! I can imagine how difficult it has been for Al to pick his favourite design – even though he may have had a vague idea in mind already. I already look forward to sneak a peek at the final design next year… :)
I also found it pretty interesting to see what controversy the design competition caused and not less important: how Al responded to this in parts scathing criticism. I found his reaction pretty candid. The dispute about the “ethical values” of design competitions is probably as old as designer tools being accessible to a wider range of enthusiasts. And enthusiasm was probably the core motivation of most people – may it be due to the fact they consider the book itself an inspiration or simply being keen to “create” something. Seeing that there even have been advertising agencies sending in their design suggestion already speaks volumes and only shows how insanely competitive and over-saturated this trade is. So people should consider the entire thing what it was: an opportunity…
I for my part have been grateful for it and I really enjoyed this wee “escape”. The book has been a huge inspiration for me when I first read Al’s story so I was keen to knock up something what reflects this enthusiasm. Maybe also an attempt to “give something back since I also got more than printed paper when I bought the book!? Think about it… ;)
Hi Al, I got to this after reading and commenting on the FB thread.
Firstly I think there are a heap of great designs. But this is testament to how you give too and any angry replies are only a tad short sighted. Sharing and trading this way is happening more and more and I think it is only right.. At some point those designers who have submitted their work free for you will get it back somewhere down the line. Perhaps the greed culture of past is on its way out after all….
When I was young I got help from random people in a way that I will never forget and now I return the favour frequently to random people. And its very satisfying. I am now considering making my entire photographic portfolio free for download with the exception of commercial buiness. Its too much of a struggle to make photography alone pay, so why bother at all..? If I spent the same time marketing other ways of returns but give away all my images, I think this will be effective.
So well done, I think you did a great thing in offering it out for people to have a crack at and I am sure you will continue to sell books at unbelievably low prices, offer great deals, give talks to charities, and work as I know you do, a lot for very little other than spreading the adventure bug… Cheers. Mark.
Hi Mark! Not meant to interfere with your conversation, but I really appreciate your input on this one! I read quite some mixed feelings in between the lines since you are an artist yourself. I quite like the idea of returning favours and doing things without expecting anything back. Probably a mindset which may become less and less common, but on the other hand migth be more and more important nowadays.
I just took a look at your portfolio which offers quite a spectrum as well (and I suppose plenty of remarkable stories which may be captured in your mind only). If I judge your mindset the right way you may consider some more networking instead of simply offering your portfolio as free download. Stumbe across an interesting blog? Get in touch with the webmaster! Or maybe some local (charity) groups or other (creative) people and create something together. Some of your images could be nice book cover photos as well and may it ebooks or something. Simply offering the download would make you miss out the communication with potentially likeminded people too and maybe not as fulfilling as it could be for you. I certainlu would be interested in a a wee project and will be in touch soon to elaborate on my idea, right!? Have a good evening and speak soon! Cheers, Oliver
Hi Oliver, please get in touch anytime.. I have a lot of different projects on and do share a lot too.. One area I have found to be profoundly changing is music.. If you check some of our vids, we always use top music but all young.. All allow Youtube sharing and all benefit. I have not paid for any music to date but always write to the artist asking price, or possibilities to share.. They gain from our vids and we gain from their music… Win win… Get in touch..
Wow, those are stunning covers. There are some amazing, creative, talented people out there, and what a rich journey you’ve been on to stretch out to them and stimulate this response. It’s a privilege to see the results. Thank you for sharing them.
Hey Al,
On the contrary to those who’ve damned your approach – I feel you’ve created an opportunity for many people to give their time to something that feels worthy, with the genuine possibility that their work may adorn the bookshelf of thousands of homes (or more!). Invitations to design book covers really don’t come around that often!
Not only that, you’ve offered genuine creative freedom to every entrant, something that is much harder to keep hold of in paid commissions.
I like to think you’ve offered a breakthrough to a budding illustrator to make their mark, and hope your chosen cover is a good one!
Best, Luke
I was one of the critics of the approach. Not an aggressive critic as some of the others. I didn’t suggest that Al was intentionally exploiting people, for example!
I don’t think I would have commented if the ‘less noble’ reasons were in the original post, Namely:
– My publisher didn’t have sufficient budget to attract the calibre of work I wanted on the cover of my book.
– A competition is an easy way to get a range of new and different design idea.
I suggested that Al had made a mistake. But actually I think I was mistaken in this case. I had decided that before this post in fact.
I think what I didn’t appreciate was that there are a large number of people who are really invested in Al and his work, and so this competition was quite different from the ones we see being run by big companies with deep pockets.
I still think laying out all of the motives on the table would made it a little less likely to have attracted criticism, and that was my main point in my previous posts.
But congrats to Al on the results of this and to everyone who entered – the designs are amazing!
What an outstanding collection of designs. I’m so impressed and love how your journey and the concept of it can spark off so many different images that encapsulate it.
In terms of the argument re asking for entries, I think one shouldn’t overlook that people like giving. Indeed some wise person said “he had the vanity to give but not the kindness to receive”. Not you Al!
Hi Al, Love the designs that people have done for you, there’s some real talent out there. Talent that people like me can now look at and appreciate, talent that someone in teh publishing or design world mike look at, like and pursue. It’s a shame you got negative comments about your competition, as I though you were quite clear from teh outset. You said it was a freebie and you said it was a big ask, but people have choices in life, and thankfully some very talented artists have made the choice to design a cover for your book. OK, so they won’t get paid for their work, this time! Your publisher will now have another desinger to call upon next time they need a cover that they will pay for, and Dan Armstrong has raised his profile as a designer. I’m sure good things will come out of this for lots of people. If nothing else, people will be able to view their designs here and say “look what I did, I’m proud of that”. Let’s not forget, life is very competitive these days, and we all have to give a little to get noticed in our own field of work.
I say good on you for getting people involved in your creative process. I’m sure you won’t be forgetting the people who have entered this competition, and I’m sure there will be many more opportunities like this in the future. If I were more creative I’d have given it a go myself! Good luck with your future projects, and books. I look forward to seeing some wonderful book covers on shelves soon!
All the best, Andrew.
Great covers guys!
(Some of them don’t look that relevant to the actual story in the book though, is there a salt flat or a wintery- looking forest in Africa?)
Still, the artwork’s hard to beat.
Phwoah! How does one go about selecting a cover when the standard is so high?!
What else can I say? Congrats to all the designers, your designs are just amazing!
I may have rather missed the boat on this one; having not dipped in here for a week or two, but for what it’s worth – and for all those asking the question back to Al if he would work for free – i’d just like to share this:
I work for a small charity based in Bristol. About 18 months ago one of our projects, which offers people who are blind or visually impaired regular opportunities to come out cycling on tandems, free of charge, was facing a funding shortfall. So we decided to try and hold a ticketed talk – with all proceeds from ticket sales going to support the project and keep the rides free to our visually impaired participants.
Never having organised something like this before, I wasn’t sure where to start. But, being an avid reader of Al’s blog and knowing what wonderful cycling adventures he might be able to share, I tentatively dropped him an email to see if he might consider coming over to give a talk for a very modest fee.
Despite having read his blog for years, I had never had any prior contact with Al. I’m pretty certain that he had never come across the charity beforehand and Bristol isn’t exactly on his back doorstep. In short, it was commercially a very poor offer. He had no real reason to accept – especially as he was by this time an already well estabilsed speaker, not just starting out in the game in and in need of exposure.
Despite this, not only did Al agree to come over, but he offered to do the talk for free – voluntarily passing up the modest fee we were able to offer.
Al duly came over and delivered a barnstorming talk to a sell-out crowd of 200 people. Not only did he give the talk for free, but after selling a rucksack’s worth of books at the end of his talk – the one opportunity he had to make a few quid from the evening for himself – he immediately donated half the cash to the chairty.
After the talk, Al stayed around in the bar socialising – everyone wanted to have a word with him. So he stayed longer than planned and ended up getting the last train back to London. He then missed his connection and ended up having to sleep on the station platform, finally getting home early the following morning, presumably after a cold night with no sleeping bag – as his bag had been full of books.
The charity made £1,400 from the evening – far more than we had ever hoped – and all because Al was willing to give up his time, for people he had never met, for free.
The success of the event gave us such confidence that we have since held two similar events, raising a further £2,000 for our projects – something we never would have done if Al hadn’t replied positively to that first speculative email.
I realise that it is a very finely balanced argument surrounding working for free, however I hope this helps to give a bit of context to those who criticised Al for running the competition.
Lovely designs by the way!
http://www.lifecycleuk.org.uk/al-humphreys
Thank you, Ed.
(I’d forgotten the bit about missing the last train home!)
I think it’s a shame designers have got on their high horse and had a go at you for this. On your part, you have gone to great lengths to build your profile, write the book, do the adventure in the first place for crying out loud. A task that has no doubt taken years to bear fruit. As a designer myself of many years, I have often taken a business decision to do something for someone for gratis or a reduced rate, mainly because I know I’ll gain so much more from the relationship in the long run instead of a quick couple of quid. I have done celebrity work for pennies and have reaped thousands. These guys complaining need to think beyond their pay checks and more about their careers and what it would have done for them to have their name in the credits of such a good author. I hope Alastair that this reaction doesn’t stop you from allowing those of us that actually enjoy our art to share it with you in any future book covers.