So I got a “No thanks” from the Come out and Play competition in response to my submission. Am I disappointed? Sure, but in a way, at least I got to think about an area I had only vaguely worked on till then: locative games (ill post my game soon promise!).
This is where my ability to work under tight deadlines and with people I like comes in. I know that if I only relied on myself to get a personal project done, it wouldn’t go anywhere… so I submit work for competitions (lately Dave and I worked on a stationary idea for Muji and I just submitted an idea for an interactive display for the town of Baton Rouge, Louisiana for Moment Factory) and for clients.
In times where client work is slow, these competitions force me to keep going, to re-invent what it is that I do, keep me problem-solving for different contexts. The great thing about competitions is that you don’t need to submit your resume to apply, you can decide to work on an architectural competition if you fancy, noone would be there to tell you you can’t coz you’re “just a designer”. Of course it’s not a perfectly honest game to play and, as Matt points out, a good way for companies to get free ideas, but I know at least it’ll never be my last one :)