Laura Zabel, Executive Director of the awesome Springboard for the Arts posted a important Twitter thread on being mindful about the way you solicit creative work from the community.
Are you thinking about hosting a contest for a logo, essay, or other creative work? You are probably looking for a way to broaden your network, do some storytelling about your work and support artists and a contest seems like a good way to do this. A few things to think about…
— laura zabel (@laurazabel) August 10, 2021
Read the whole thread, it is short but she makes the important point that you may be asking creatives to do a lot of free labor on spec and if there is only a couple winners, most won’t see any sort of reimbursement for their time. She suggests that a request for proposals (RFP) might be more appropriate. She likewise reminds readers to make sure the planned remuneration, whether it is contest prize or fee for services, is appropriate for the level of effort people will need to invest in your project.
Perhaps most importantly, she urges people not to use any language which claims all the intellectual property rights for anything that is submitted. She notes that many templates have this language in it so even if it isn’t your intention, you could be making a “rights grab.”
Otherwise you are claiming the right to artists work that they created for free that you likely have no intention of ever using.
— laura zabel (@laurazabel) August 10, 2021