Vermonters Len Britton and Bradford Broyles (pictured) are using an online contest to find a logo for their planned ski movie. This is the movie project we reported on back in March — not one of those “ski movies” that’s basically just cool skiing footage, but a “comedy-drama” type of thing that happens to be set at a ski resort. Tremors director Ron Underwood is helming the production.
Broyles says the production will get ski footage at Sugarbush and visit “selected Vermont towns for the off-mountain portions.” In keeping with the general Vermontiness of the project, its original working title was Woodchucks, but that’s since been changed to Down Hill: The Movie.
From now through Monday, August 29, the filmmakers are inviting designers to submit logos incorporating that title at the crowdsourcing site 99designs.com. They’d love to see some Vermont participation, says Broyles. Enter the contest here, or check out the 93 designs (and counting) entered so far. The ski-goggle-shaped logo seems to be doing well…
This article appears in Aug 24-30, 2011.
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Calling it a “competition” is comical. Good luck! The submissions are terribly generic.
Let’s address the negative comments about our online logo contest. As a producer on the film, we engaged multiple Vermont designers at market rate the last three months to design our logo. Unfortunately, after much work submitted and monies paid, we didn’t end up with a product we all liked. This 99designs contest is a competition, just as actors have to audition for a role. The cream will rise to the top. At the end of the day, our logo is a key brand and it’s wonderful to have over 100 submissions of which to evaluate.
Sure, my opinion is biased. I sell vs. commodity design every day. Think of commodity design as commodity music – Milli Vanilli, NKOTB, Baskstreet Boys. That type of trendy and commercial vision is what these folks are hoping to capitalize on in the short term, but it’ll fade as people’s interests move on, and they’ll be stuck as a company that doesn’t have a strong vision for who they are or want to be. The social media buzz they get out of this benefit them for a while, but building a strong brand is not about having a “popular” logo.
I’d like 99 movies to approach me for artwork & I’ll choose the best…. 😉
Agree with the comments above. Good design is thoughtful and intentional, and worth paying for! I’m not a designer but I have worked with many talented VT designers to create brand and marketing materials, and we have a wealth of great professionals here.Taking advantage of folks by running a contest to get professional services for free is unethical, in my view. No matter your budget, you can find a real pro who will work with you on your project if you want to build a real relationship and accomplish something of value.
Agree with the comments above. Good design is thoughtful and intentional, and worth paying for!
I'm not a designer but I have worked with many talented VT designers to create brand and marketing materials, and we have a wealth of great professionals here.
Taking advantage of folks by running a contest to get professional services for free is unethical, in my view. No matter your budget, you can find a real pro who will work with you on your project if you want to build a real relationship and accomplish something of value.
I agree with Michelle, Cody and Liz. This is not the right way to approach a logo. How can one create something w/o knowing anything about the movie? As we can all see from the submissions, the art direction is everywhere which illustrates my point of creating something w/o knowing anything about it. If this is an indication of their processes, this movie will surely fail.
It’s sad that in a state with thousands of talented graphic designers that these guys decided to use 99Designs. I agree with the above comments made by Michelle and Cody. Are people too lazy to do the research to find a designer? I am not sure if it’s laziness or just a lack of respect for our craft, but I am certainly disappointed in this practice.
This is detrimental to graphic design as a whole. Crowdsourcing shows a lack of respect for the time and skill that goes into creating a logo.
This is not a win for Vermont designers. My thoughts are summarized best here:”For the designer, crowdsourcing demonstrates a lack of respect for the value of design’s full potential and places the lowest, rather than the highest, value on design service.” – Ric Grefe, Executive Director of the AIGA | the professional association for design http://www.aiga.org/whats-the-harm-in-crowdsourcing/As I expressed to an attorney friend: I think if someone needs legal services, they should have 99 lawyers spend hours researching and pitching their case for free, then only the winner gets chosen, and thus paid for their professional work. No, thanks, right?