Design against fur competition...

Competition brief -

For the 2011 campaign poster and animation competitions we would like you to focus your work on explaining the fur factory farm and the cruel reality behind fur. 

Students should produce an artwork that conveys, to potential buyers and wearers of fur, how and where fur is produced and the brutal suffering endured by millions of animals everyday - all for a frivolous fashion item.

We want you to explain the horror of the fur factory farm to potential wearers and purchasers of real fur items – whether that item is a full jacket, a piece of trim on a pair of gloves or boots or on a hat.

We want you to explain the reality of where that ‘luxury’ fur came from and to show the potential purchaser how that animal suffered and died, just to provide a frivolous fashion item.

• What’s required?

An eye-catching, thought-provoking design for a billboard poster for a city street You’ll have to catch people’s imagination, and quickly, as they pass by your design. Note: The artwork you supply should be maximum A3 sized for ease of judging & reproduction.

Here are some Top Tips from our judges:

1. The most important is a good idea.
2. Research your subject.
3. This is not a new issue, so the more unique your approach the more likely it will attract attention. Find a key truth or insight.
4. Distil your idea into it's best expression.
5. Explore the different ways you can express your key thought and then use the idea you feel is the most powerful. Sometimes thinking about your subject from a totally different perspective can offer up an original approach.
6. Think about where your idea will be shown i.e. poster/press ad /web. Context is very important and can offer original ways of expressing your idea. 

When I originally researched this competition, I wasn't that interested, however, having reread the brief several times, I've changed my mind. It's not something I would normally consider illustrating, but this competition has piqued my interest some what, it's a bit different, and may be that's why. This competition doesn't seem quite as complicated to enter as the RSA postage stamp competition or the D&AD design competition, which also makes it some what more appealing.



Although the final visual only needs to be a poster, I think that entering this competition may require quite a lot of back ground research before I began a design. Although I don't believe in the fur trade, I've never been passionate about this, so my knowledge is pretty limited. I would really want to research this a bit more, as I think it would help to generate some visual inspiration. This means that there could be quite a reasonable workload for the competition, however, it seems easily 'do-able' and quite a bit less than some of the other competitions.


Competition deadline -

1. Entry registration opens: 8 October 2010
2. Registration closes: 1 April 2011
3. Artwork to be submitted by: 15 April 2011

Illustrative Practises Deadline - 11 March 2011


The illustrative pratises deadline is about a month before the design against fur competition deadline. I think if I were to enter this competition, then I would try and ensure that I had a rough final visual for my outcome (having completed all research and experimental work) to submit with my illustrative practises module . This would then allow me plenty of time after this deadline to rework the outcome if I was not happy with it, but should also mean that I would not have too much work to complete the design as I would not want this work to interfer with my final major study.


The entry must include - (Submission details)


The Fur Free Alliance logo and the wording inFURmation.com must be included in your poster design.


Submission form: please download, complete, sign and include in your package;


One hard copy of your poster, no larger than A3 size (11x17inches US), printed at 300dpi, mounted on card. Please ensure you name and your registration number is written clearly on the reverse; and


A CD containing all of the following:

• Your poster design in the original file format of the computer program you used to design it (example: an Adobe Illustrator, InDesign or Photoshop file).

• Your poster in both high resolution (2200x1600 pixels @ 300dpi max) jpg and pdf file formats.

I've checked on the design against fur website, and the UK has a national group logo which would also have to be featured within the poster.


Competition judges -


There is not direct information about the judges, which means that the best way to gain an insight into the style of illustrative work which may be favoured would be to research previous winning / finalist entries.


Competition prizes -


First Prize - £500
Second Prize - £250
Third Prize - £100


Plus, the Top three finalists from each region will be entered for the Grand prize ($1000 prize money) and the People's choice award ($500 prize money).


The judges will also select 10 highly commended entries from each region.


The UK competition also provides students with the opportunity of winning the Persula Foundation Award, of inclusion in D&AD talent portfolio and having their work displayed at the Dreamspace gallery in London. 

Winning this competition provides would provide the opportunity to really begin promoting your work and yourself as an illustrator. The prestige and exposure of work which would result from winning this competition far overshadow the cash prize (which is also very nice!). Having work displayed in a D&AD talent portfolio and exhibited in the London Dreamspace gallery is a great way to really expose work directly to those within the contemporary creative industry - it would help to develop new contacts as well as lead to future work possibilities. Coming within the top three would also enable work to be entered into the Grand prize award and the people's choice award, which would be amazing (but seems impossible to consider..) - it would be a real credit to your talent as a creative individual.

Just entering this competition would be an opportunity to get some exposure outside of a college environment, as well as being something which could be included within a CV and self promotional website.

Having researched the design against fur website, I've noticed that all the previous finalists for the last  competitions are posted. If work were to reach within the top three final entries, then it would be great to link the entry present on the design against fur website this to a self promotional website gallery..

I'm really tempted to enter this competition. It's not something I'd normally consider, but it piques my creative interest somewhat. The problem solving element of the competition appeals to me - having looked at previous finalist entries, it appears that the creative idea behind a poster is paramount (although obiviously the design work must be of excellent quality too).

The only element which worries me slighlty is the seeming preference for digital imagery making up the poster design. Having looked at last years finalists - all of which used a collage of different digital imagery, I feel that I would almost be disadvantaged if I entered this competition as my digital software skills are limited, thus my imagery would mostly be hand rendered.

If I were to enter this competition, then I think as before the best place to start would be research - looking at more previous winning entries (and considereing the style of illustration generally favoured by the judges), as well as general research into the fur trade and how it relates to fashion and the trade in luxury fur items. There are several links on the design against fur website which would be worth exploring further, doing these bits of research would hopefully help to start triggering creative solutions and potential design ideas.