THIS.

sarcasm
noun sar·casm \ˈsär-ˌka-zəm\
: the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really want to say especially in order to insult someone, to show irritation, or to be funny

It's always the creative gigs that get the short end of the stick...

Creative contests are generally a waste of time--for both the entrant and the company running it. It's usually better just to do your research, look at portfolios, and find someone to do the work with established expectations.

And if you get stuck, it's perfectly acceptable to put feelers out into the community--something like "Hey guys, we're working on x project that needs xyz and were hoping to find someone familiar with this. Contact us if you're interested or pass this along to someone you know who might be interested. Thanks!"

That would go over a lot better than a contest.

Here's a response from one of my designer friends. He's well respected in the design community. His response is directed to the company who asked him directly for spec work. Not a blanket invite like this dominos post.

https://twitter.com/Vonster/status/664175462491385856

I completely agree, I just don't think that's the case here.

Someone needs to integrate a Pizza Hut's Ultimate Hershey's Chocolate Chip Cookie spinner in the design!

Brad

ph_pinball_spinner.JPG

TRON rules

Please read the contest rules:
"The Submission must be in a readable format (preference for Adobe Illustrator files);"

Did it say anywhere that Dominos is looking for "professional" designers? Its a freaking contest for "joe blows" to submit a few silly pictures.

Why am I not surprised you "artists" take it so seriously...lol

I don't see anywhere (in the OP), that this is a call for Professional Graphic Designers.

Every year my town has a 5K race with about 5,000 racers...and every year they hold a design contest for the T-shirt that race participants receiver. The reward is $50 gift certificate and a picture in the paper. 100's upon 100's enter... I've never once seen people stamping their feet and throwing a hissy.

I love Aurich's work...I've bought from him and it's incredible...he's also been extremely easy to deal with. I'm sure other designers that have popped up in this thread are similar to him. But, seriously, guys... there isn't a single shred of insult laced into this contest. If the work is beneath you, click away and keep enjoying pinside. Maybe there are some art students here that want to give it a whirl... or maybe some people that create just for fun. Heck...maybe someone will literally submit an undrawn idea and the "real" design team will be inspired by it and use it.

This thread is plain weird.

"...help design the art for the game"

A few silly pictures would be coloring book pictures that get hung up around the office and the best ones get picked. That would be a design contest. This is looking for cheap labor in disguise as a contest.

And the 5k Race probably supports a non-profit?

I wonder though how you'd feel if you shared your block with retail businesses that sold the same products as you, but that decided that in order to "get exposure" that they'd start selling everything below cost. Just take a loss for a while, see if it leads to more customers.

And then suddenly you look overpriced, even though your prices are totally reasonable given your costs. And no one wanted to pay your prices anymore. You might not be so chill with that.

Here's what people aren't understanding: yes, I could just not enter the contest (don't worry, I won't) but the problem is that the entire thing is offensive to what I do. Because it devalues my efforts.

Do I think someone is going to come to me and say "hey, do our pinball art, but we've seen that the going rate is $200"? No, of course not. It's a slower process than that.

I have as much right to speak up about that as anyone has the right to speak up that they don't care for my viewpoint. This isn't the "free pinball art forum" where I'm expected to just roll with it.

I'm sure Adam is a nice guy, and means well. And I know Charlie is a nice guy and means well. But this kind of contest just isn't the right approach, and to come here and say "we have a design team we're paying" just makes it even worse. We're not talking about a charity here, where you could say "I'd like to donate my time to see a custom game in a children's hospital" or something. It's a f—king Domino's Pizza machine. Do you think they try and run contests to do their TV commercials or print ads?

I guess it's time to fire this puppy up!Screen Shot 2015-12-04 at 4.38.33 PM.png

Says the guy with a dog in the fight. How silly can we make this over a contest?

I drink a lot of beer, because I do Heiniken asked me to do a review of the latest bottle design for a free case. I declined and frankly I'm insulted that they don't think im worth more.

Yes, he did say that was the preference but not mandatory, I could email them an idea and it would work.

The problem is...... this contest isn't for you or about you!!! Just move on and continue to do the excellent work you already do.

Did you even read what he wrote, or are you just vehemently insisting because he's not participating it can't possibly affect him?

Good lord.

Obviously not a serious entry... pinball always needs to be a little sexy. You need that bread stick going "wrist deep" in that sauce.

I think everyone missed the point entirely. Its a $200 gift card for Domino's pizza. I'm sure homeless people and struggling college kids it is well worth $200. To me it might as well be $10. I'm not going to eat pizza's that is the quality of those red barn frozen specials.

Yes, I completely missed the part when he said:

Aurich said:

but the problem is that the entire thing is offensive to what I do. Because it devalues my efforts.

Give it a rest.

481171.jpg

I am REALLY digging this...

Are you going to create an alternative translite? Maybe something with a hot cookie or cheese injected crust? If so, set up the pre-order now! I'm In!

Yeah, but not a REAL pizza like mine will have

I do plan on redoing my translite. My 5 minute design was a bit too rough.

I think it would be cheating to allow Aurich to enter the contest, because he is a professional.

Leave the contest to a hungry amateur.

If this being done to damage someones business, it is illegal to do so, and hard to say that is the case here. This is clearly a silly contest asking folks to send in a sketch to win some pizza, it is not meant to damage professional designers. It is clear they are not looking for a finished design from a designer, they thought it would be fun to get some ideas from folks who are pinball and pizza fans. No professional designer would respond to this type of thing and I don't think that was their target audience for it. I seriously doubt they meant this to be an insult to professional designers and I also doubt that their internal designers are feeling that way. I also doubt the hourly rate of designers is going to take a hit as a result of this contest. If that is the case, your profession is in serious trouble.

I hear you say you are insulted by this type of thing, and I get your point on that, but your continued umbrage to it is really diminishing the point you are trying to make about the value of what designers do. Its a silly contest for amateurs, let it go.

http://mashable.com/2015/02/19/dominos-pizza-instagram-campaign/#TYnQzxoR_aqN

Here is an article on how Domino's is trying to find stores that haven't updated to the new signage ..... You take a pic turn the store in and you can get a gift card!!!!!

I'm not trying to be one of those annoying dudes who beats a point into the ground until it bleeds, honest.

But I think the "let it go" people don't understand how this is a real issue for me. Is one instance a big deal? No, not really. It's death by 1000 papercuts, and everyone in my industry is familiar with it.

And when it shows up in my backyard, in a way that's pretty damn close to home, I feel like I don't have to just let it go.

I wish Charlie had a better response, but he's got other concerns. I'm not going to threaten to not buy RZ or something silly like that, I can't wait to see it. And I've been publicly supportive of this Domino's idea. It's a good deal for Spooky I think, and ultimately good for everyone who wants to buy their games.

Maybe I shouldn't expect too much class from a Domino's pizza pin, but if it's going to be a community thing, why not do it right?

I'm saddened to hear that as an experienced graphic arts person you don't understand why the artists here are pissed off, myself included.

The argument "if you don't like it, don't enter" falls apart because there is always someone who will enter - usually a naive college kid just starting out who actually believes the lie of "exposure" - and these sort of contests *set the value of art* because of that.

Let's say you're an artist and to "get your foot in the door" you give away your work for free. The corporate party line is that this will lead to more exposure and more paid work! The reality is that this leads to *more free work* because you've demonstrated your market value by working for free. Someone who got your work for free (or $200 in gift cards) will never pay more than that ever. Why would they? There's always someone else willing to do it.

This has the effect of making *all artwork worth less* because most people don't understand the difference between good artwork and bad - to them it's all the same. But it's not.

I spent 6 years as a poster designer and running my own studio, and I learned first hand how little people value art. You'd never treat a plumber, a carpenter or a mechanic like this, why do you treat artists like their work has no value?

If people are curious why Aurich and others are so vehement about design contests, try reading what designers have to deal with on a daily basis as the world at large devalues their work:

http://clientsfromhell.net/

If there was a sticky on what not to post on pinside, I imagine it would be a long read. Pinball is serious business.

Dorito's did... and for their Superbowl ads to make it even more spectacular.

Here's the one submitted by Joe Anderson, who also did voice work for us in AMH!

http://www.wzzm13.com/story/entertainment/television/programs/my-west-michigan/2015/12/03/local-comedian-finalist-doritos-super-bowl-ad-contest/76662970/

Not this contest, no.

But the THOUSANDS of these contests that companies run on a REGULAR BASIS does. I haven't done professional artwork since 2009 but I get a couple of design contest emails a week. This is an epidemic.

If they just want fridge stick drawings, say that. Don't talk about getting Illustrator files of finished work.

Well I can't understand the anger this contest has created. It's simply for fun, and no one is requiring anyone to enter. So let the joke submissions fly and I can't wait to see all the entrants!

Just calm down. You came with an egg for aliens. A good looking egg, but it is still an egg.

lets wait and see what the community can think of for a pizza pin. Having your idea or grafix on a pin is fun enough for alot of people.

This, but if anything this thread is proof of why PR/Communications people exist. Everything was poorly communicated. Is it a fun little sketch job for free pizza? Or is it a design that could actually make it as the design? They sort of didn't know. They just wanted us to think $200 in Pizza = fun, I'll do this.

The designers are of course over reacting a bit, heck we all are. Charlie is out there building a pinball company and we are in here complaining as usual. Nothing new. Another day on Pinside.

But there was $1 Million Dollars at stake for the winner. Not $200 in free pizza.

I really do get the point you and Aurich are trying to make. But at some point you are beating a dead horse as far as this thread goes, which was my point.

It seems the bigger issue is your fellow designers who are doing work for free. I assume there is an effort in your industry to get college professors to educate their students on these issues and the damage they are doing to themselves when they do this. Obviously not an easy think to fix, and yours is not the only profession who has these types of challenges.

The same idea of 'if you give it for free, they don't value it' was a big issue for companies in the dot com era, once they wanted folks to start paying for it. If something has value, folks should pay for it. However, my design on the back of a napkin is probably only worth $200 in pizza.

I think they should have a mode where you have to capture and jail the guy who was snotting and farting on the pizza.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/e2548ccc17/disgusting-dominos

We could get into a back and forth over this, but I really don't want to argue with you man. I want this pin to be a success for you, and I want Spooky to thrive.

I don't think a contest where there's $1,000,000 on the line is really the same thing, but point taken.

Can I suggest that you guys rethink this a bit, and find another way to get the community involved? I think it would draw in more people if there was another way, and could be a win-win.

Yes, this is called Internship. This doesn't solely effect artists.

A major point is that the contest specifically asks for Adobe Illustrator files. Adam and Charlie came here on Pinside and said "I dunno, just do whatever you want" but the actual contest makes it sound like they are looking for real design work. At best this contest has awful communication. If Charlie (or whoever, I get that this is Domino's not Spooky) posted on Facebook and said "Hey guys, give me some ideas for art for the Dominos pizza pin, I'm going to give gift cards to the best ideas" I'm sure that would've drawn a much different reaction than a giant contest page of legalease asking for real designs in Illustrator.

Well, we're commenting since it's our industry and have personal experience. You wouldn't believe the shit people in the arts have to put up with on a daily basis. Go read some of the entries on that Clients from Hell site - they're all *real*.

Yes, things like http://no-spec.com/ are in place to help and try to educate designers and artists, but the horse of design contests is out of the barn and it's too sweet a deal for corporations to give up now. The real indignity is that most expect *production ready work* from *multiple artists*.

It would be nice to not have to experience this in the pinball community at the very least.

If they want some *ideas*, just ask to have them posted in the thread at attachments, then choose the ideas they like. Don't ask for finished artwork in Illustrator format - that smacks of getting free professional work.

Probably donate it to a soup kitchen.

I'm not eating any fart pizza.

The minimum should be one of the machines and some royalty. $200 in pizza would only make sense if you're a homeless designer living in the woods.

$200 in pizza makes sense if your business card got drawn from the fishbowl.

If you need a dedicated website explaining why something is so bad, it's probably not as bad as you think.

If people want to work for free, so what? Yah, I'm sure it's not easy making money as an artist, and doing work for free is technically undercutting your rate, but to campaign against something people are doing willingly is insane.

Let people decide for themselves what's right for them, even if you don't agree with it, you don't have to.

I think everyone that works for a living (jumped through hoops to become SMEs etc) gets what you (and the other creatives) are saying, it is just that this is happening to everyone and in every industry, we just aren't going on and on about it, turning a simple "send your pics in for a pizza" thread (if you want to) into a thread all about us. This is a part of adult/working life these days, adopt and rise to the challenge (which I would argue you personally have).

Ironically (in a crowd sourcing way), during your early days as a pinball designer, you were happy to give free design advice to JJP for the Hobbit playfield (raising your brand) but are unhappy if Domino ask for it with a smashing pizza prize as reward for any effort. Up and coming designers would/should jump at the chance to add a coup like this to their portfolios (brand) and that is the real threat, which we all have, new young talent willing to work for much less than us family guys charge, simple supply and demand. Quality, just like cream, always rises to the top.

If I had a $ for every time someone said "how much - how hard is it to plug in a server?" I'd be a gigillionaire.