I'm sorry, but this is a complete and total crock o' shyte. You have completely discredited yourself as an organization in my mind. It's not that I mind that my work wasn't "chosen" as a finalist, in fact I wouldn't expect much looking at the previous selections from judging. And in fact I know how bad film festival logos are, aside from Tribeca and a few others who have invested in their identities. But for you to say that out of 1605 entries a decision could not be made was irrelevant. If anything you needed less judges. Judging by committee is the worst thing ever and everyone with half a sense of business knows it does not work.
As a graphic designer, my opinion about design competitions is that they are evil things. They are for people who don't want to pay for design services and so they offer a "competition" instead of hiring a couple firms whose work they like and asking for sketches. And in my mind film festivals are the worst offenders of this. I entered another film competition for GenArt last year (begrudgingly) and of course they chose some drop-shadowed, contrived, photoshop deluxe solution, but I am proud of the entry that I produced and have received great feedback about it from some of the best studios in New York.
So what am I getting at?
1) Stop offering these "competitions" if a panel of designers by committee can't make a decision.
2) Don't cover it up with a blanketed response on your site with some semi-apologetic response. At least email all of the people who wasted their time with a blanketed response.
3) Don't expect much from future entries, anyone with any self-respect as a graphic designer will no longer be entering your competitions.
To all of the other "competitors" I know you probably invested just as much time as I did. Though our entries may seem simple, I know that I spent about 20 hours on my entry through the sketching/ideation process, final selection of type, and then the completed version. Given my rate this equates to about $1000 in lost time. So I suggest maybe you take a look at what you did, value your time opposed to what you are getting back, and reevaluate the competition route. And maybe write an angry rant like I have to let them know how you feel. I do have to commend quite a few designers and design firms who really presented strong solutions that I admired. At least it's some portfolio filler for you since nothing else is to be gathered from this experience.
Cheerio, I am deleting your site from my list of places I visit as of today. Better design? Where is it?
