RVA Creates banner design competition
You’ve seen those street pole banners hanging around town, right? Well, for the past two weeks RVA Creates has been running a competition looking for new banner designs submitted by you, the citizens of Richmond. The choicest banners have been selected and winnowed. And now! A victor* must be chosen using the two-handed broadsword of democracy!
Feel free to vote for as many banner designs as you like. Also, feel free to vote as many times as you’d like until midnight on Thursday
* Hey, actually, everyone’s a winner! Every design you see on this page is being made into an actual banner made of actual atoms! Hooray! The design with the most total votes will be awarded 200 clams.
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Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
This is a fantastic way to get people involved. Great initiative!
No comment necessary
There were only 8 entries? (Actually I know that’s not true since I submitted and entry that is NOT shown here in the People’s Choice voting. The ad before the contest said ALL submittals would be voted on in the Peoples’ Choice Vote.
The ‘contest’ was fixed beforehand. Those who wasted their limited free time out of love for their region will be sad they were not ‘involved.’
Man I missed the boat on this one…I woulda thrown down, an entry, in the battle royale!
next time!
Are those wizardy magic fingers? Entry #3. Because if they are, I am gonna vote twice! Richmond IS Magic!
I’d have to agree with Beth. I spent a good deal of my free time creating a submission, and due to the over sized nature of the banner, it took twice as long as it should of. Shouldn’t everyone get a chance to be voted for?
We just wanted to correct some misunderstandings expressed in the comments. Here’s what the contest website said about the selection process:
“Multiple winning entries will be chosen by a group of RVA Creates partners and two of those winning entries will be awarded a First and Second Prize. Plus one winner will be voted by the public as the “People’s Choice” through an online poll. All winning designers will have their work displayed on downtown street pole banners for a year or more!”
As the introduction to this poll states, these are the winners, and we’re looking to you to pick your favorite as the “People’s Choice.”
You’ve changed the wording of that introduction. The original call for entries said: “one winner will be voted by the public as the “People’s Choice” through an online poll.” Sorry, your ‘correction’ does not fool me: this was a fixed contest for an insider. Just like everything Richmond starts, ends up being ruined by the good ole boy system. Don’t dare call it ‘democracy’. Please do not insult ME by saying I misunderstood. I did not. I can read fine. YOU changed the rules half way through for your insider buddies. PS: I”m NOT voting, this is NOT democracy and I”m sickened seeing you use that word. Way to ‘include’ the community. I give up after decades of caring about this city. I give up.
Newsflash: it is NOT a “People’s CHOICE” award if THE JUDGES chose the choices, lol. Sounds like a Soviet election where you tell us which candidate to vote on.
Beth, have you ever entered a competition before? Because it seems like your maturity level is that of a 4th grader. No one has time or energy to “fix” a banner design competition. Are you kidding me? You’re embarrassing yourself.
Beth,
Did you ever consider that perhaps your banner won first or second place – and that’s why yours isn’t listed for the people’s choice competition? That would be hilarious/sad irony.
Nice banners. The real challenge will be to make the town (and us) live up to them.
I do agree that the people’s choice should have been from all of the entries (unless of course these were all of the entries). I have been following this competition and was excited to see all of the city’s creative ideas. Maybe if there were other entries, could they be available for viewing at some other time since it seems like they put a lot of time and energy into creating these banners– even if they didn’t win? Just a thought.
As a fellow designer in the contest, I see Beth’s point, and I agree. I was surprised and disappointed to be removed from the ‘People’s Choice’ segment of the contest.
The contest stated the following, which is an indication to me that the Top 1 and 2 would be selected from the group of RVA Creates partners, and the people’s choice would be selected by the people. No where was it evident that the judges would be screening and excluding people from the ‘People’s Choice’…
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Judging:
Winning banners will be selected by a group of RVA Creates partners from The Martin Agency, VCU Brandcenter, West Cary Group, J H I, Elevation, The Hodges Partnership, Venture Richmond, RVA News, RVA Magazine, and the City of Richmond.
One People’s Choice winner and two runners up will be chosen through online voting, promoted through RVA News and the RVA Creates facebook page. The submission with the most votes by midnight on Thursday, April 14, 2011, will be named the People’s Choice.
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I am pretty curious to whom the winning banners artists work for. Wonder if it’s like the radio where employees and family members of the station are ineligible.
I am pumped to see the winning banners hung around the city.
Thanks for your feedback Stephen. There were more than 50 banners submitted, too many entries to display them all here, which is a good thing. From the beginning, we said that multiple winning banners would be chosen for production, and would be hung on light poles downtown. Out of that set of winners, two would be chosen for cash prizes by the panel, and one would be chosen for a cash prize by an online vote. No names were associated with the banners during the judging process, and contestants backgrounds, professions, etc., weren’t considered in the voting. We hope that, even though your design wasn’t chosen, you’ll still vote for your favorite banner above to help that designer win the People’s Choice prize.
I agree, thought we’d get to see all of the entries. Yet we have to settle for these agencies that feel they have expertise in the choices they’ve picked. Pretty sad. RVA Magazine has a better RVA Logo anyway. At least they support the arts and represent the city the best.
RVA Creates,
50 banners submitted, nice! Sounds pretty fair removing the names, and we’ll take what we can get for not all being up on display for the People’s Choice. And of course I will still vote even though mine’s not up there! It’d be petty not too.
Rock on.
I’m looking forward to speaking (and potentially collaborating) with fellow designers around Richmond.. I think this is a good way to gather us all in one place!
Great initiative!
Wow, Ms. Sykes needs to find an additional creative outlet outside of a banner contest that could have netted her a whopping $200. For a contest that many did mostly for the fun of doing, you seem to have been only focused on being bitter if you didn’t win.
The list of judges includes many design and advertising hotshots in town and if your design had been a good one, they would have selected it.
You know, I really don’t have anything to do with this – I don’t pretend to be an artist or judge, and I don’t have an entry, but statements like the following jump out and strike me as more of the corporate, top/down nonsense that Richmond could use less of.
“The list of judges includes many design and advertising hotshots in town and if your design had been a good one, they would have selected it.”
I would like to see a wide open contest that everyone feels good about competing in. Of course there needs to be winners and losers, but I could care less what the appointed “hotshots” think who should be allowed to compete.
Let’s get rid of the condescending, elitist crap!
“Let’s get rid of the condescending, elitist crap!” Bravo! Well-said.
At least two of the entries here are VCU students. They don’t work for anyone and aren’t insiders.
ill admit im a little annoyed. i submitted a banner that i spent a lot of time on and was very proud of and i would bet that it would be picked by “the people” over most of these submissions…its frustrating because i came to this fb page expecting to see my banner and hoping to have my friends and fam vote for me along with any other person who enjoyed my work…but the competition seems to already be done..well for 42 people at least…so lame :/
#21 Having experienced, knowledgeable judges is not being elitist. Regardless of the kind of contest, singing, dancing, gardening, car restoration, whatever, I’d like to have judges who knew what they were looking at. Why enter a competition at all if you’re not prepared to be possibly eliminated or be willing to learn from the experience of being evaluated by experts?
I didn’t enter a design, and I’d like to vote in the “people’s choice” category.
However, NONE of the eight pre-chosen selections are really that new/different/or exciting. I kept scrolling down to see more choices…and was disappointed to see the paltry offering.
Perhaps if the organizers would show us all/more of the entries, I could find something worth voting for in the “People’s Choice” category. Right now, I see nothing worth “voting” for.
Show us MORE!
Yeah, I’m with Patrice, I thought these entries above were all mediocre, so I abstained from voting because I don’t like any of them.
People’s Choice is going to go to whom ever can advertise their design best… are the agencies recruiting? haha
Everyone on here complaining about not being in the final 8, please stop. Obviously your work wasn’t as amazing as you thought, or it would have been in the final 8. So stop complaining and do a better job at the next competition you enter.
Stephen has the right attitude. Beth, you are never going anywhere good with your pissy attitude.
Have a nice day.
Hey Rags,
Fuck off.
As I stated earlier, I don’t have an entry or even know anyone who does (as far as I know), but I guess I don’t have the right ‘attitude’, because I am totally turned off by the way some are representing this contest.
Hey Anonymous,
I see you don’t have the right attitude, seeing as you started your post off so maturely.
If I ever want to get depressed about the state of humanity, all I have to do is read the comments section of any website anywhere. Are we really all so angry inside? Is a banner contest really that important? Part of the fun of creativity is the process of creating. Sure it’s a bummer not to be picked. But you still spent time doing something you enjoyed and created something you’re proud of. That’s still pretty cool and worthwhile, right?
Again, I never entered anything, so this is not about ‘not being picked’.
The fact that you cannot acknowledge that shows how wrapped up you are in your own bullshit.
It’s a bummer that this City cannot even have a supposedly open banner contest without having it censored by appointed muckety-mucks.
Seriously, its just another depressing sign that despite this push for creativity and transparency, Richmond is still run the same ol’ way.
Is RVA Creates just another name for the latest corporate booster group? I guess I will be ignoring it from now on and keep looking for something more real, progressive, and credible.
I’m not complaining about not winning: I NEVER expected to place. My objection is calling it the PEOPLE’s CHOICE award when it is NOT chosen by the people, but by the judges. IT IS NOT AN OPEN CONTEST AS ADVERTISED, BUT A FIXED PR SCHEME BY THE SAME OLE SAME OLE. I was never concerned about me, but about the overall fairness for everyone. IF YOU can’t tell the difference, that is sad.
And the deepest reason I’m so sad is that Richmond IS a very cool creative city and I am sure there were some really great inspiring designs in those 50 (my own notwithstanding)–some creative designs that would have offered something new and exiting beyond that boring RVA logo that has no creativily and tells us nothing about Richmond. Why have a contest ABOUT creativity that has preset standards that squash creativity and preselects winners based on their willingness to copy the existing logo?
Which entry ended up winning?
Damn, could’ve done with 200 clams, I’m on a seafood diet.
“censored by appointed muckety-mucks” what the fuck are you talking about. I wouldn’t come to soem random asshole and ask what she thought about my paintings or my music. I want to talk to people tha know what they’re talking about. I think it is totally fascinating that “the man” in this case are artists and creative pros.
“the same ole same ole” you mean professional graphic designers and ad experts?
Here is a good reason to have pro’s narrow the field. If you have 48 banners in an internet poll then none of them will have a significant margin of victory over the others. If you have 1,000 people voting on 50 things then the winner is more likely to have fewer votes due to diffusion. its much harder to have a clear stand out winner. Especially when you can vote as many times as you want. Whats you stop Beth Sykes or anyone else with a crappy banner from spamming the site or using a script to win. If you have the best of the best in the public running then this problem becomes less important.
So I guess if you question just how open or ” people’s choice” is actually involved is involved, you are “some random asshole” or you are a potential fraudulent hacker. Got it.
RVACreates, the brand, has a credibility problem. I suggest to you that Beth and the questioners here are not the source of the problem. Insulting them or slandering them as criminal is not solving the problem, but making it worse.
Do not enter design contests. They waste everyone’s time.
I never accused anyone of being some random asshole, nor did I call anyone a hacker. If you could read it again you might pick up that I was pointing in both instances potential prudential reasons why persons entering contests and those who have to live with the results (all of us) might benefit from a professional and impartial screening process.
I how does RVA creates Have a credibility problem? It seems pretty “open source” to me. I cnat think of any previous efforts to engage the community when it comes to how the city presents itself. Can you? I think its really cool that someone finally reached out to me and you and asked us to make a banner for the city, and offered a CASH prize. Regardless of your sourness I think its pretty darn cool
This is a great idea to get artists involved with a community project. Would love to see the designs if you could post it.