Alcohol fuelled violence is not just a challenge that we see in Sydney or Kings Cross, but a global issue that other creative people from around the world and other societies can relate to. Since DesignCrowd, has a talent pool of over 400,000 graphic designers, we thought it would be great to get their input. We knew our talented designers would were up to the job and come up with some great designs for the SMH Safer Sydney contest. Because we regularly run design contests on our site, from poster design, to logo design, and more, we knew poster design crowdsourcing this contest would get great results, and put more weight behind a worthy cause so we teamed up with The Herald to support the campaign and match the $2,500 prize budget.

1,038 Designs from 352 Designers

The DesignCrowd community really embraced the challenge. Our designers are used to working on challenging briefs for businesses all around the world, and this gave them an opportunity to make an even broader social impact. More than 1,000 poster design ideas were submitted and more than 350 designers from Australia, Bolivia, the US, Singapore and everywhere in-between entered the contest. They brought a unique cross-cultural perspective to a social problem that is not Sydney's alone, tackling the design brief from multiple angles.

The Design Brief

The winning DesignCrowd entry will be one that:

• Speaks to the target market - Young Men
• Is actually interesting / appeals to the target market – Young Men
• May be funny or at least attention gaining to the target market – Young Men
• Has a strong slogan or message

The winning graphic could be used in print, digital or both. The strength of your poster design will be its ability to translate across different mediums.

Designer Exposure

A key benefit for the designers involved was the chance to have their artwork displayed in front of one of the largest news sites in Australia when the Herald profiled our international designers featuring a hand-picked selection of poster designs in a gallery showcase for the public to view.

Judging

DesignCrowd was also invited to be on the judging panel of the freelance graphic design contest, which included an ad agency exec, news editor, filmmaker and family of a victim of drunk violence. After 3 hours judging posters designs and video submissions the winners were selected and you can view full contest announcement here.

About the Winners

It was left to the Herald's readers to vote for the best DesignCrowd poster design from the contest. Winning by a margin of 55% was graphic designer Ben Hardingham from the United Kingdom for his poster featuring a man's face cut in half reflecting the consequences of fighting drunk - going to hospital or jail.

Congratulations to NJ / Nick Churchill who won the DesignCrowd contest! Nick's poster demonstrates the power of graphic design to communicate ideas - from the exaggerated light and dark of a gloomy prison cell set up to headline copy that doesn't hold back.

In second place was MNM's poster 'What it feesl like, what it looks like' poster that uses dancing bears to humourously convey that fighting drunk looks dumb. In third place was another serious message about choices and consequences by Bolivian design studio BOXagency, with the slogan Be Smart Not Violent showing two hands wrapped around beer bottles in one image and around jail cell bars in the second image.

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Poster Design Showcase

Nick Churchill says:

My design is strategically based on the cause and effect of a bad decision, directly linked with the NSW government's pending 8 year mandatory sentence. My imagery is simple and strong, and has a written contextualisation strategy sitting behind it as its foundation. It is visible from afar, can be used in a variety of circumstances.

I want to do my bit to help young blokes and their mates to just stop, take a breath and make a better decision then and there.

Judges remarks:

Nick's poster design drives home the message to the viewer of the real consequences of drunken violence to the community. I could see this poster appearing on trains and buses to remind people on their way out for a night on the town that fights can turn deadly.

$500 2nd Place:
How it looks. How it feels.

Designer: MNM

$400 Prize 3rd Place: Be Smart, Not Violent!

Designer: BOXagency from Bolivia

Runners Up...

Weak people depend on alcohol to be brave

Designer: LeStonez from India

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Stop Drinking While Your're Still Thinking

Designer: Earldesigns from the United States

Take Control: Don't Let Fun Turn Into Rage (2 posters)

Designer:

Don't Let Your Night Out End Up Like This

Designer: Tony Price from Australia

Best Of The Rest...

Everybody Has a Limit

Designer: JustMe from the United States

Drunken Violence = A Lifelong Hangover

Designer: Roy

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Think Before You Drink

Designer: Gekdesigns from the Philippines

The Very Narrow Boundary

Designer: Victor Sierra from Austria

Stay Smart: Don't Let Alcohol Take Over

Designer: Conceptus from Portugal

Say No to Violence

Designer: JCR from Colombia

Dear Sydney...

Designer: Anthony Barron from the United Kingdom

Unprovoked, Drunken Violence Compensating Much?

Designer: Glass Mountain Design from Australia

Stop the Violence

Designer: Emango from the United States

Booze It and Lose It

Designer: Mux Riax from Pakistan

Ordinary Night Out In Sydney

Designer: Janar from Estonia

Alcohol & Violence Graph

Designer: Designparrot from India

If we could go, we would Leave a Couple of Drinks Ago

Designer: Kris from Bulgaria

The diversity of creative ideas and volume reveals the power of DesignCrowd's crowdsourcing platform to where businesses can access a professional 'design crowd' with a few clicks. If you need a poster for your business, a flyer design to promote a sale, or a logo for a new brand then start a design competition today. Launch a design contest now and experience the power of crowdsourcing creativity for yourself. Congratulations to our winning designers and a massive high five to the 352 designers who entered this contest.

Which poster design do you think is the best? Did the judges get it right? Let us know in the comments below!

Written by Jo Sabin on Friday, March 21, 2014

Jo Sabin is Head of Designer Community at DesignCrowd. She's led the company's public relations and social media programs since 2012. With more than ten years' experience working with Australian and international tech startups in the creative industries, Jo has been instrumental in meeting DesignCrowd's objectives in Australia and abroad. Get in touch via Twitter.