This is always a touchy subject, and it seems we’re talking about Spec work yet again. This time, however, there is a healthy dose of government-sponsored irony included.

The Obama campaign (which technically is not part of the government) has put out a call for poster designs to promote, of all things, the jobs bill. There is no pay on offer, but instead this is an open call with the only potential award a signed version of your own winning poster. The cause is noble, and the way they package the contest is well-executed, but it’s still treading into the realm of spec work.

I’m not sure where exactly I stand on this particular matter. On the one hand, it is creative work, and therefore we the creative professionals should indeed be paid. But this isn’t a commercial endeavor, exactly, but a political campaign. I wouldn’t mind donating a few hours to potentially help Obama win re-election (or another political campaign or cause, for that matter). Design the poster, don’t design the poster, I really don’t mind.

But the trouble starts when the folks sponsoring it don’t think they’ve done anything wrong. They put it out to the public as if this is “for fun”, framing poster design as less than a real trade, and assuming that anyone with artistic inclinations will jump at the chance to participate. That’s clearly not the case.

Shepard Fairey with his Obama “Hope” portrait at the National Portrait Gallery

It’s worth mentioning, of course, how much free unsolicited design work was given to the Obama campaign in 2008. Shepard Fairey created the most famous of these, and his “Hope” poster later led to a rather nasty (but significant) court battle against the AP over fair use in photography. Designer and Illustrator Felix Sockwell did a series he entitled “Obeyma” (a reference to Fairey) and there have emerged dozens of gorgeous examples such as these typographic posters.

Obama typographic poster

I read about this in an article on Rolling Stone, where the tone is much more scathing, pointing out how the campaign has $60m cash on hand, and how with the justification that this is a $2500 donation to a campaign the math doesn’t add up. Check it out.

What’s your opinion, should political campaigns solicit contributions from designers? Are you going to enter this competition? Is this poster really that big a deal?

via Rolling Stone »

The current Culture of Ownership header/logo.

BACKGROUND

The Culture of Ownership is a blog about intellectual property, and how big business and government are slowly, and not so subtly, hacking away at personal rights. Great resource, but it doesn’t really have a logo.

THE BRIEF

Create a new logo for C of O. Use type and/or symbols to make something simple and memorable. This should add to the blog, not distract from it. The logo should reflect the content’s serious and stern nature, but doesn’t need to be sterile and boring.

GUIDELINES AND CONSTRAINTS

The logo should be clear, and easy to read. Since it will primarily be used on the web, raster graphics and gradients are ok. However a sharp vector logo is always preferable.

Use the grey background as above, or use the white. It should match the website.

Spend as much or as little time as you like.

DELIVERY METHOD

Create a JPG of the logo that fits into a 300×55 box. Leave some white space all-around. Upload the files and add them to the comments, and I’ll grab ‘em and add them to the thread as they come in.

The first project up for grabs is an identity re-design for my buddy Cali Lewis and her show GeekBrief. Here’s the brief and how we’ll proceed:

The current GeekBrief.tv logo

Background

GeekBrief is a daily technology news video podcast. Produced by Cali Lewis and Neal Campbell, the show prides itself of delivering “shiny, happy tech news” in a light-hearted, but expert manner. While most technology enthusiasts are males 15-35, GeekBrief enjoys a much wider audience, including women!

The GeekBrief logo lives in a shape that is a hybrid between an elipse and a rectangle. It resembles a monitor, complete with glass reflection. The type is some typewriter face with a bevel effect that is straight from 1996 and Photoshop 3.0. The “.tv” is tagged onto the wordmark implying that this is a modifier and not part of the show name, GeekBrief.

All of this is in play for a re-design.

The Brief

Create a new logo for GeekBrief. The new identity should clearly display the show name, as well as “.tv” to complete the URL. While GeekBrief is normally a video podcast, at least one parellel extension is needed for GeekBrief Radio, the audio-only version of the show.

GeekBrief Radio

Bonus Points: demonstrate an overall style of art direction such as patterns, graphic objects, mascots, and other assets. These are the sort of stuff that can fill monitors behind Cali during the show.

More Bonus Points: find a way to include the other GeekBrief properties into the overall identity system. This requires a more modular approach to the design thinking, but it will be interesting to see if what’s possible. These other properties include iYule.tv, The Big Trip, and DearCali.com.

Guidelines and Constraints

The logo should be clear, and easy to read, especially when projected on a monitor behind Cali. It should also be scalable to small sizes. An abbreviated version of the logo “GB.tv” would be helpful, as would a version that can exist solely as a wordmark.

GeekBrief logo in action

Spend as much or as little time as you like.

Delivery Method

Create a JPG of the logo that fits into a 300×200 box. Leave some white space all-around. Upload the files and add them to the comments, and I’ll grab ‘em and add them to the thread as they come in.

use this template for your logo

This is a bit of an experiment, so let’s see where it goes…

Any questions, just leave ‘em in the comments.