by Bright Ewuru | Aug 23, 2022 | Articles
Humans across history have always held the arts in the highest regard. It is human nature to appreciate excellence in art and design that lifts our civilisations upward and onward.
Beyond being objects of our admiration in a museum or gallery, art can also be the centrepiece of communications, campaigns and organisations.
So it goes without saying that there is a large appetite for art and design competitions, a way to celebrate excellence in the arts.
Such contests can invite design and artwork proposals from the general public to compete against others and receive awards. They can be a way to engage the community or celebrate diversity or herald a new theme or message through visual design and creativity.
Just as art encompasses no one medium, a contest can work to recognise the best in painting, drawing, digital art, architecture, and sculptures. The list is endless.
And, art contests and design competitions are certainly not recent phenomena. Art contests formed a part of the modern Olympic games until 1954! And, of note, the Acropolis of Athens and the Florence Cathedral are products of design competitions in 448 BCE and 1418 respectively.
As you can see, art contests have been around for a while. It’s obvious there are benefits. Here are just some:
As beneficial as they are, art contests can require a lot of coordination and program management. So, it’s important to have a good plan if you want to run your competition that is worthy of your artists’ time and effort.
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Let’s dive into the necessary steps for running renowned art contests and design competitions.
Determining the objectives for running a design competition is much like laying a foundation for a building. It’s the base upon which everything else stands. Figuring out the goals you hope to achieve through running an art contest will help you design the contest accordingly.
Importantly, the targets will give you a backdrop for the assessment of the contest when it’s all said and done.
Possible goals of running an art contest include:
An excellent way to guarantee that your art contest leaves a remarkable impression on your artists is to offer a prize. A prize has the effect of rewarding the artists and designers for their efforts and communicates your respect for them. But beyond that, it gives prestige to your art contests and design competitions.
Cash prizes are a popular option. For many art contests, cash is the major prize. But, nothing says you can’t take it a step further. Other valuable prizes could be an “artist-in-residence” acceptance, featured gallery showings, or further training or artist engagements.
Whatever you decide, stay within your budget and what you can actually deliver. You should be able to provide the winnings without compromising the contest or the operation of your organisation’s business.
It’s also very important to avoid exploiting artists with vanity prizes, which simply offer “more exposure” in exchange for free art. Artists and designers will avoid entering this type of competition, which can only serve to damage the contest’s reputation.
The next step is to design the art or design competition. This important stage will determine the entire process of the contest; therein lies its importance.
To properly run an art contest, setting rules is a no-brainer! The rules will specify the method of and requirements for entry, thus specifying the process of joining as well as eligibility. Do you want to focus on student artists? Do you only want designers operating as a company? Make it clear from the beginning.
Additionally, art contests often require additional files with the submissions. Be sure to indicate the accepted file formats, file specifications and your expectations of the artists’ submissions. If there is a specific focus on content or theme, the rules should also address that.
Importantly, there should be rules about the originality of the artists’ submissions. We recommend that you insist on total originality; it’ll save your organisation from any legal battles later.
You’ll want to make it easy for your artists to enter the contest. Make sure it’s easy to access, it’s secure and protects your artists’ data and it provides all the information your entrants need to submit their entry effectively.
It’s also important to think about your art contest assessment.
You need to determine how the submissions will be evaluated. Will the assessment be carried out by just one person or a team? Will the judges be staff of your organisation, random volunteers or notable figures in the industry?
Determining how to judge the art contest also includes defining the standards and guidelines by which the judge(s) will operate.
All in all, ensure that the judging process is unbiased and involves trained eyes.
Some pointers for a fair judging process include:
A good judging process along with reputable judges will send the status of your design competition skyrocketing.
A design competition that commands artists’ respect must have a timeline. When does it begin and when does it end? How long does each stage last? Set expectations from the beginning.
As you build the design competition, you should decide who will have the legal rights over the artworks and designs after the competition. This will ensure that you don’t violate any artists’ intellectual property rights after the contest. If your organisation will own the rights, it’s important to state that in the terms and conditions.
You can make all the steps listed above a breeze with an art contest management software, necessary for running a prestigious design competition. It ensures a streamlined, secure and hassle-free process all through the contest.
Art contest management software blows a manual setup out of the water any day, and it makes it possible to execute the elements of the contest decided on at the organisation stage.For example, with Award Force, you can take advantage of:
Generally, a reliable design competition management tool makes it a total pleasure to run the competition. The impressive experience it avails to judges and artists alike ups the status of the contest.
To build a design competition that’s of high repute among artists, a powerful marketing strategy is indispensable. Indeed, the contest on its own is a laudable marketing campaign but you need to promote it for it to reach its full potential.
Some common methods of promoting your art contest include your organisation’s website, social media, email marketing and traditional media. However, for such a competition it’s imperative to take it a step further.
You can also liaise with your community, schools, clubs or any other institutions — or work with any program sponsors to promote the contest together.
Promoting it ensures not only that artists are made aware of the contest, but that they also take note of the rules of entry and participation. Thus, they can easily decide early on whether they want to be involved.
After the assessment of the artists’ submissions, the next port of call is to announce the winners and runners-up, and then hand out the prizes. You’re welcome to notify them first via the contest management software which enables easy communication. But, you can opt for other methods of communication as well.
Having notified them, take to social media, your website and email newsletters to further announce it.
If you have the budget and capacity for an awards event, a gala is a great way to finish out the awards program with a recognition ceremony featuring the artwork and the artists behind it.
This can be an excellent moment to hand out the various prizes even as you generate more publicity for your brand and the competition. Be sure to take pictures that you and all participants can share on social media.
It’s worth a mention that a festive end isn’t compulsory; if you prefer a virtual event or a simple online gallery, that works too!
When the dust settles, there’s still a bit of work to do. You can use this time to assess the contest to find out areas for improvement. Also, you need to track its success and impact to figure out whether the original targets were hit. With Award Force’s reporting and exporting feature, you can easily see how your awards program performed.
Running art and design competitions worthy of your artists can certainly require a lot of coordination. But with the right awards software and planning, you can build an art contest of high repute–and one worthy of the talented artists in your community.
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