European Union searchs for new «organic» logo

The demand for organically grown and produced food increases continuously. After a lot of scandals in the context of food production during the last decade more and more people want to know about the circumstances under which any ingredients of their meals are grown and processed before everything gets together on a dish. The European Union tries to provide a clue to consumers by a kind of seal of quality: a «organic» logo. The license to mark a product with this logo is only granted if organic methods of production are proven.

Now the EU announced a competition within which a new «organic» logo is supposed to be found. Design or art students from the European Union, at least 18 years old, are called to submit their creations till 25 June 2009. The winner's logo could be used on organic products in all 27 Member States. It's creator will be rewarded with € 6.000. More infos can be found here.

Competitions like this one (e.g. the Cottbus logo) have been discussed intensely during the last few months. Many designers see an advancing inflation of worthiness of their work and entire profession in the way companies and – often enough governmental – institutions use competitions to gather a lot of design concepts for free. It's hard to stay calm if you imagine hundreds of designers or even just students – as I am one – working on concepts in consideration of the fact that only one or two submissions will be rewarded.

The arguments produced to justify this way of solving design related tasks are nearly the same each time. Young and unknown designers or artists would get a chance to present their work and might benefit from being noticed by the general public. I already realized that many people have strange ideas about being a design student. Design is all about fun, right? And as a student you'll need a benefactor that offers possibilities to go public with the games you play. Designers are just like pro-gamers! They just get less money for what they do. So – please – be thankful that you are allowed to work at all.

The public discussion – especially among graphic designers – is all about fair conditions in view of rewards, how they are distributed and how rights of use are handled afterwards. Certainly the discussion has become a bit too polemic these days and the fronts are hardened. So there is breaking out a new storm of indignation each time when a competition remotely smells of crowdsourcing. The question is: Can a competition like this be fair? Is there a real benefit for young creatives or are they just utilized for bringing together the simultaneous demand for design and saving money?

Online platforms like jovoto try to establish reliable frameworks for carrying out crowdsourcing-like competitions. But I think these competitions aren't the real problem. They are just a symptom of a crisis design is undergoing these days. It's the basic question of the value of design.

I'd like to hear Erik Spiekermann's opinion about this new competition as he was lately selected to be an ambassador of creativity of the European Union. (via Fontblog, ec.europa.eu)