The Crafts Dept. Design Contest

Martha Stewart Living's blog, The Crafts Dept., is holding their first ever contest!  The Crafts Dept. is now accepting submissions for a brand new design for their header, displayed for crafters all over the web to see.  First prize will be bragging rights, of course, and a copy of Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts.  The deadline is May 22, so start brainstorming right now! All the details are right here.

Comments

[Cerise]

The encyclopedia is well worth it! The winner will be very happy for it. Thanks for publicizing this!

[Marlene]

Thanks for sharing! This is going to be a fun contest.

[erin]

hmmmm - I'm suspicious of this contest.

As a graphic designer and artist, I have concerns about contests that ask for entries and don't reward the winner with payment and/or ensure legal rights to their own work.

Martha Stewart / The Crafts Dept. is a huge corporate entity and should really just hire someone instead of trying to scam a great design for the cost of a book they've published. This is actually pretty offensive to folks who make their living as graphic designers.

I advise everyone thinking of entering to read the fine print. a couple things to note:

1. Sponsor reserves the right not to use the wining logo design, and no such guarantee of use is made.

2. By submitting an Entry and the included logo design (the “Logo”) to us, simultaneously with such submission you automatically grant to Sponsor and its subsidiaries, affiliates and related entities a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, exclusive, fully sublicensable, and transferable right and license to use, re-use, copy, reproduce, distribute, publish, re-publish,.....

Sounds like they don't have to use the design if they don't like the entries they receive or if they do like the winner, they can do whatever they want with it and the designer has no say in the matter.

The book is worth $35 - I'm sure your time, energy, creativity and abilities warrant more value than that.

[amy]

my mother in law always says "if you make your living doing _____, you should never do it for free." i agree! if you are a designer, it would be silly to design something for free.

since i'm not a designer i think it would be fun to try to create a banner for a martha stewart blog. i'll be putting my creative thinking cap on!

[Josie]

I hate to be negative BUT... this just seems like just another way that artists (whether professional or not) get ripped off. Martha gets a great new logo, The artist gets a free BOOK?

[Amy]

I agree, don't work for free. But this isn't really for free and I'm not talking about the reward of the Martha Stewart Craft Book. The winner receives bragging rights. It surprising how far the PR can take you when you can say you won a Martha Stewart contest - even if it's just for the craft department. I say graphic designers and crafters alike should enter! I'm both, but not sure I'll enter if Purl Bee is entering - they're sure to come up with an ultra clever, super cute banner. I look forward to seeing what you girls create!