A logo design competition for Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017 that only allowed post-secondary students to submit designs has received criticism from Canada’s design industry.
The Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) first protested the student-only contest when it was first announced in December 2014, criticizing the federal government, who organized the contest, for making “students work for free.”
Second-year University of Waterloo global business and digital arts student Ariana Cuvin won the contest with her colourful and modern maple leaf design in a contest that attracted more than 300 applicants. She was awarded $5,000 for her winning submission.
The winning design will be featured on products and banners commemorating the event.
GDC president Adrian Jean criticized the contest for not allowing Cuvin to retain intellectual property rights to her design.
“It feels like a win-win because the students gain exposure but it asks them to give up their intellectual property,” he said.
Jean also called the contest exploitative as students are entering into the contest in an effort to boost their resume on their way to a career, but are not rewarded by the contest.
Additionally, the contest has received criticism for its $5,000 prize, while the designer for Canada’s 125th anniversary logo was compensated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Jean said the norm in the professional design world is for clients to send out written requests for proposals. Normally in the professional design world, no physical work is done until after the designer has been hired, he said.
The GDC sent a letter of recommendation to the Ministry of Heritage on how to better include students in the event in a less exploitative manor. Jean said the government should be more involved with schools “for students to get an educational experience out of it.”
Following the announcement of Cuvin’s win, the association released another open letter criticizing the contest as a way of eroding the professional marketplace.
“The fact that the federal government is doing this is disappointing. Design is an intellectual product worth paying for and worth being paid for,” Jean said.
Third-year Carleton industrial design student George Liu said design contests can be positive because they can allow different creative ideas to gather.
Liu said he likes the design but the maple leaf is overused.
“The maple leaf is not the only thing that represents Canada,” he said, but expressed the fact that designers also have to research about target audiences.
“This is time consuming—good invention takes a lot of thought,” he said.
