la toma design

I’m a firm believer that competitions are a great idea as they offer designers in the making opportunities to be seen and found that they wouldn’t otherwise have. It’s a win-win scenario as the competition organisers get free artwork for their website and products whilst the designer gains exposure which can lead to greater things down the road. I’ve only entered two competitions so far and will definitely look at doing more in the future.

My very first one was the PAOM Endowment competition and I was very lucky to win it too!

I wrote a short blog post about it back in February with details about the theme and how well it fitted with what I was interested in at the time (street art).

When I was notified of being one of the winners I was very happy indeed and being sent $2000 worth of PAOM clothing of my choice with the designs I had entered for the competition was amazing. There was one thing to do next and that was to execute the project proposal which at the time of entering the competition was a photoshoot of the garments.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do this due to time and lack of resources as I was extremely busy with my own design work so instead of putting it off week after week I decided to create a digital collage of the clothing to fit with the style of the brief. I must add the team at PAOM were great as they were flexible about this from the start telling me I could produce anything I wanted. I’ve posted the results in my case study page so take a look!

If you’re considering entering a competition I would be mindful of the possible outcomes of winning as you need to ensure you can find the time and are able to put in the effort in executing whatever you set out to do.

I’d also advise being clear about the copyrights to the work you’re submitting; ultimately you want to know if it’s still your property after submission or winning in case you want to sell the rights or licence the design in the future.

Lastly, schedule time in your diary to promote it! I feel this is a bit tricky now for me as twelve months on my design aesthetic has improved and changed a lot so I’m not sure whether showcasing this work now makes a lot of sense but ultimately we have to take pride in what we do and achieve so I’m happy to share it!!!

2017 has already brought so much into my life already...a temporary move to Spain to work on design, a fresh perspective to move forwards creatively as well as a bit of peace from the noise and pace of city life. Yet, with all this positive mojo on my back, my to-do list seems never-ending and forever expanding like a black hole in my universe! So the thought of entering a design competition wasn’t quite planned...especially when I found out I only had 2 days to come up with a design concept and produce a collection to upload onto over 20 garments just to enter it! But I immediately knew I had to forge ahead when I read the brief on the theme of the competition by PAOM which was: “Resistance” (definition: the refusal to accept or comply with something). Quite topical though taking a political point of view wasn’t required.

As I had been photographing a lot of graffiti in the previous few weeks, I decided that this would be my starting point/inspiration. I love street art in all its manifestations and recall fondly taking a two hour street art tour in Berlin a few years back which for the first time really made me appreciate the artistry involved and the spirit behind it.

To get started, I referred back to a Pinterest board I had created a while back appropriately called “Artistic Licence” based on a WGSN trend I was interested in. I think graffiti art is the ultimate artistic licence an artist can take to some extent. This Pinterest PAOM Resistance board I created has some of the photos I took around me. So here’s how things developed from there…

I’d love to hear from anyone who’s done anything like this before for PAOM or other print on demand websites. I definitely think it’s a worthwhile exercise irrespective of the final outcome. Let me know your thoughts if you have or are thinking of doing these types of competitions in the Comments below!