Advocating on behalf of all designers DesCan has raised our concerns regarding the FIFA World Cup 26 – Vancouver Host City Poster Competition by reaching out to Councillors Meiszner and Fry, and along with our colleagues at RGD, we spoke on CTV Vancouver Wednesday, August 28.
We encourage all designers to reach out to the City of Vancouver and express your concerns over a large (for-profit) sporting organization attempting to solicit free creative under the guise of community involvement. Feel free to use some of the language from our letter here:
A concern about your RFI
On behalf of the Vancouver and British Columbia design community and all designers across Canada, we have concerns about your recent poster competition RFI.
While this letter may sound critical, it is intended to be helpful. As a national organization for designers, we protect our members and work with organizations that procure design to better inform them about fair practices. We would love the opportunity to convince you to rethink your RFI.
Understand our perspective.
Many organizations like ourselves do not condone competitions—design or otherwise—that request speculative (spec) work. Furthermore, our certified members are guided by a professional code of ethics that limits them from doing speculative design work. The Société des designers graphiques du Québec (SDGQ), Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD), and American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) all have similar policies, as does the International Council of Design (ICOD).
What is speculative work? We believe “Spec” (speculative) work is when a client or organization requests designers to submit design solutions or concepts on the chance to ‘win’ the contract or a prize.”
While your RFI does not mention “designers,” it refers to “design” over 50 times and suggests having “significant experience in designing two-dimensional art.” Thus, this RFI is of concern to our membership, and to DesCan. We are not looking for a rewrite of the RFI to remove “design.” Rather, we invite you to consider an alternative approach to your competition.
We also believe the request for speculative (free) work runs counter to the City of Vancouver’s Sustainable Procurement goals. The policy “Invests in equitable economic participation that advance outcomes of inclusion, diversity, reconciliation, equity, and well-being,” yet this City is asking for free work for the sale and profit of a multinational organization (FIFA). Under the City’s Ethical Purchasing Policy, the City notes its intent to enable enterprises that advance outcomes of inclusion, diversity, reconciliation, equity and well-being. The RFI invites “…Indigenous master artists…“ to participate by submitting work for free. DesCan abides by a Code of Ethics to help members and industry conduct business with integrity. We believe this competition challenges the goals of your Sustainable Procurement policies.
We believe the most effective design work — the FIFA World Cup 26 Vancouver™ Host City poster—comes from the committee’s and the designer’s collaboration. A designer, artist, or collective should work with a client (the Committee) to articulate goals, needs, audience, and context so that the committee and artist/designer understand their objectives and cultural landscape.
A more effective and ethical approach would be to request participants in the competition FIRST submit examples of work samples from previous projects and commissions. You could even ask for a statement about their process or background and how it makes them a worthy candidate for the competition. Using this approach, your organization could assess the poster design’s suitability. Based on this, the committee would be confident they had the right individuals or teams worthy of the competition. To do so would require clear selection criteria and an evaluation process.
Your RFI suggests an honorarium: this is an excellent approach to competition. If you agree with the process, as mentioned earlier, your committee could shortlist five candidates and be upfront about the honorarium and winner prizes. That approach would respect the candidates’ effort.
DesCan is available to consult on handling work competitions. Here are some references to consider.
DesCan: Speculative Work Contests
ico-D Say No To Spec Competitions
I have included our Ethics Committee Chair, John deWolf and President Amanda Parker in the correspondence. Any of us would be happy to discuss alternative options and answer any questions.
Your consideration of these professional design issues is greatly appreciated.
This letter was sent to: DJ Reynes, dj.reynes@vancouver.ca CC: Ralph Alexander <Alexander.Ralph@vancouver.ca> (Chief Procurement Officer); bids@vancouver.ca, and procurement@vancouver.ca as well as Councillor Peter Fry CLRfry@vancouver.ca. We also communicated with Councillor Peter Meiszner peter.meiszner@vancouver.ca.