I need to start by telling you in my experience, the school-wide design contest promises more risks than rewards. It is possible a spectacular design may blossom from one of your school’s students. It is also possible that your contest could also cause campus turmoil. If you hold a design contest and several dozen participants submit their designs, be prepared to disappoint all of them except for one winner. Also note the several students that didn’t win may never buy the winning design and could hurt your overall spirit wear sales.
If your school still believes a design contest is a good idea this year, the following criteria should be considered when conducting that contest.
1. Be specific at the start of the contest about the desired design elements for the school’s spirit wear.
2. Make sure to note that the winning design may have to be altered to be production ready for spirit wear printing.
3. Make sure the all submitters understand that all artwork copyrights are retained by the school and not the artist.
4. When voting is conducted, make sure the names of the student artists are not displayed next to their design. You only want the voting to be about the designs and not artists.
5. If the design voting is an internal decision and not student wide, then have the decision made from a panel of parent/faculty judges. Make sure the judges have something similar to a point system based on specific criteria on how to pick the winner. Absolutely make sure the judging process is transparent to avoid potential controversy.
6. When making the selection, make sure a well written notice has also been created for those who did not win, so they feel the process was fair and their artwork was still a great design, just not the one selected.
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