Peel Police aims to get a head with bass drum badge
The Grade 1 Peel Regional Police Pipe Band of Brampton, Ontario, wants to flash a new badge next year and is asking the pipe band public for help.
The band is taking the novel approach of putting a new head design out for tender in a contest for “graphic artists, graphic art students, and anyone who has a knack for this type of art work to submit a logo for consideration.”
The competition will be judged by the Peel Regional Police Chief of Police and a leadership group from the band.
“We are hoping that you will use your talents to create a new look that is fresh and modern, yet clearly represents our close relationship to the Peel Regional Police,” said Pipe-Major John Cairns. “We are excited about the idea and to see what creative minds who have a knack for this sort of thing can come up with.”
The band said that in designs a reference to Canada would be welcome, and that the design should also be usable in other applications, such as promotional merchandise.
The winner will be decided by January 31, 2015, and will receive $250, a letter of recognition from the Chief of Police, a certificate from the band, band tote bag and other promotional merchandise.
The Peel Police band represents the police force for the Ontario region of Peel and its 1.3-million residents. The band has had several bass drum head designs and a few logos over the last 15 years. The image is seen widely around Ontario, as the band is one of the hardest working for its sponsorship, and a musical ambassador for the police force.
The design needs to work with a 30-inch diameter bass drum head and can be tested at a special design website, and must be submitted by e-mail as an Acrobat pdf file by January 7, 2015, with name, address, phone number and email address.
In 2014 the band used the special fortieth anniversary logo of the police force on its bass drum. Ian Gibson is the bass drummer and section leader for the band.
This is NOT a ‘great idea.’ This is a seriously BS move and an insult to any real graphic designers out there. Sorry, but this is the problem with graphic design today. Here is the thinking…
“Hey, we need a new logo… Let’s have a design contest so we can get dozens of designers (and students and housewives and whoever else has a Mac) to work for us for FREE and then pick our favourite and throw ONE person a couple hundred bucks and a tote bag!”
Voice of reason… “Uhhh… Maybe we should hire an actual designer who, like, went to school and stuff. Then we could work with them to come up with a design that really represents who we are and the image that we want to convey to our community…”
“Forget that! That will cost lots of money and we will have to actually be a part of the creative process. That means thinking and, like, work! No. We’ll stick with the contest idea. That way we can sit around twiddling our thumbs and let everyone come begging to us with their ideas and hard work….”
This is up there with asking models or actors to work for free to “add to their portfolio” – If you value your image and you value quality, professional design work then find a designer, check out his or her portfolio, hire them, work with them through the process and PAY THEM for their time and effort.
Whilst I appreciate the dedication to your art Qareen, I think your frustration is somewhat misguided. You (as a designer?) couldn’t possibly look at this case in isolation. The horse has bolted, it happens everyday on many levels, you can visit a site like fiverr.com and have literally thousands of designers working on your stuff for the opportunity to earn $5. At least Peel is offering some decent cash and trying to engage with the pipe band world. This is a bass drum design for the forthcoming year- not a big corporate portfolio. Most bands I know do this stuff themselves anyway- I doubt any band has ever paid large amounts of money for any design work UNLESS it in turn was done as a money spinner (like concert promos etc). They are non-profit organizations generally.
Peace