Whether you are a professional Creative or just starting out competitions are a great way to gain exposure. Competitions are like mini-jobs, so invest time and effort into them and only enter those that will give you a good return on your investment.
There are a lot of competitions out there, which can be a little overwhelming, and some are not so legit. How to know the good ones from the bad and some tips on how to get a leg up on the competition:
- If the competition is associated with a magazine, festival, organization or company, that is a good sign.
- Search for past winners. This will help you figure out if there is a pattern to what the competition is looking for.
- Look at the judges, their backgrounds, and their credentials. This will also give you a good insight into what the judges are looking for.
- See how long the competition has been around, the longer the better.
- Who are their sponsors, the bigger the names the more reputable the competition?
- What are the prizes or awards? Higher end prizes or awards indicates a more established competition.
- When submitting make sure to review the submission criteria carefully!! You don’t want to miss anything that would disqualify your submission.
If you do win something make sure everyone hears about it promo it on social media, be proud!!. Also remember to add this accomplishment to your resume, CV, and your LinkedIn profile, create on!!
Upcoming Competitions:
- Applied Arts Magazine Student Competition: appliedartsmag.com/student_awards/ May 25
- Emerging Photographer Magazine: emergingphotographer.com/ June 14
- List of PDN Magazine Competitions: pdnonline.com/contests/
- List of Communication Arts Competitions: commarts.com/competitions
- this is a great site that you can create a profile on to make it easier to enter multiple photo competitions: picter.com/photographers/