Have Design Teams Outgrown Their Worth?

The scrapbooking Design Team. A bunch of talented scrapbookers hand chosen to represent a store, magazine or manufacturer with their creative works. The creative showcase offered by these chosen few is often used to move product off of dusty store shelves, to generate hype over the latest and greatest products available and/or to spread the 'good news' while bringing in a flock of fresh blood to a particular store. Payment for all of these leases on individual creativity varies from place to place.

Some would hold that DT's allow scrappers to get a little taste of the outer edges of the limelight while they make their way up the scrapping ladder of success. Others would contend that they allow for validation of one's creative talents as well as provide a fertile foundation from which to 'grow' in their mastery of this craft. Still others argue that DT's are nothing more than a tasteless way for mags, manufacturers and stores to acquire designers without paying designer wages.

I think that DT's are all of the above. What it ultimately becomes (to you) depends greatly on what you expect from it and what you put into it. Or at least, that's how it used to work. It seems that lately a lot of the DT owners have been playing the blood from a turnip game by expect everything BUT your pinkie toe in return for a spot on their team. Some of the more popular 'contractual requirements' to date:

Exclusivity (DT members are limited as to how many other teams they can man)
Mandatory 'per day' message board posts
Participation in online crops/events
Required number of particularly types of projects (Many with tutorials attached)
Required site advertising on other message boards
Articles and Newsletter entries
Written Product Reviews
Board Moderation Tasks
Coordinating board challenges
Requirements for submitting work for publishing
Teaching Classes
Attending "virtual" meetings
Acting as a mentor on the message boards
...and the list goes on..and on...

Payment for all of this grunt work is either in monetary form(typically magazines & manufacturers) or via compensatory scrapping products. Many stores also give it's DT members a percentage discounted off of their purchases from the site. Some would argue that being paid for a 'gig' is the best way to go...as long as the check does arrive in the mail...and it has zero rubber content. Then there are those who love the prospect of building up a sizable stash and therefore love receiving compensatory product...providing that product isn't outdated or sparse. It's all about the trade-off and some get a better shake than others...tell me something else I've already heard.

This entry isn't going to be about the technical nuances of the illustrious design. I'd rather focus on the burgeoning question of the feasibility of design teams at this juncture. First of all, I have to say that I feel that the whole DT thing has been over-played. The number of DT calls has blown my mind. When I first got started in scrapbooking, there were a few calls here and there. Now, everyone needs a creative team and trust me, this is one instance where "more" is definitely not more.

The DT call inspired "spirit" of competition has helped to divide and mutilated the sense of community that this industry was supposedly founded upon. What has resulted is an embarrassing cacophony of rejection,bitterness , entitlement, elitism and favoritism (that is the shortest description I could come up with) which only serves to further illuminate our differences. Everything, from the way that word of a DT call is spread to the way that DT members are perceived, has been touched by this ugliness:

• The Store owners who announce a DT search and encourage participants but fail to separate themselves from the contestants which allows for favorite 'personalities' to be preselected. Further insult is added when the biased owners fail to mask their blatant favor of certain 'contestants'.
• The manufacturers who encourage scrapbookers of all skill levels to enter their DT search but in the end select only the uber published/DT-ed scrappers (and thus far continuing the tradition of disregarding the true scrapping majority). The DT call results in an increase in product sales as well as disgruntled contestants.
• The contestants who, despite having several active DT gigs under their belts, pursue more and more DT commitments (regardless of the size of the site that is hosting the call) simply because "it's like taking candy from a baby". In many instances, equally talented, long time members of a site are overlooked simply because of the lure of the 'more experienced' scrapbookers interest in the call.
• The manufacturers who are being bombarded with DT sponsorship requests from retail stores.
• The elitist attitudes amongst members of certain design teams. They project a clear 'us against them' agenda as it pertains to interaction with 'lesser talented' scrappers on the boards. Often a few favorites are chosen and those lucky ones' are nurtured, groomed and supported by the DT (who effectively create another 'shoe-in' for the next call).
• The nasty back biting and mean spirited tactics aimed at disparaging the character of contestants viewed as a 'threat'.

The ultimate result of all of this super powered negativity is the wavering (and varied) opinion of the worthiness of the oh-so-special design team. I've heard women refer to DT contestants as desperate validation whores, regardless of how noble their justification for entering is. I don't subscribe to the 'all-DTs-are-staged/worthless' fan club, but I can understand where that mentality got its start. When I first began trying out for teams, I tended to internalize my failures and make it all about me (much of the time), but as I became a bit more savvy I gained the ability to tell the difference between not being selected because of the quality of my submission and not being selected because of the character of the person running the competition. I've had my DT successes and failures. For the record I can now say with emotional freedom that I've had more failures than anything. I know now that I am not meant
for DT work or publishing. That doesn't necessarily mean that I hate the idea of design teams.
No, rather, I dislike the way that the DT concept has morphed into something ugly and distasteful. I have been inspired by many of DT members, but I don't worship them in any way, shape or form. It took a long time for me to accept that some people like taking on 7...8...9..12 DT jobs and that it's the store owners who made the choice to further employ them.
The fact that some of those uber-dters fail miserably in supporting the sites that they represent is not my problem (do I really need to work with someone with dollar signs instead of pupils?).

I think that being on a DT can offer a tremendous amount of validation if the landing of one isn't deemed the end all be all of scrapbooking. I don't see how someone could be somehow less-than or lacking simply because their need for a DT gig varies from my own, to do so is beyond arrogant. I may be a lot of things, but arrogant isn't one of them. Is it considered arrogant to declare yourself anything but arrogant? Oh whatever!

Do I think that DTs are needed? For manufacturers and magazines, yes. For brick and mortar scrapbooking stores, yes. For online communities? It depends. If the DT is actually being assembled to offer inspiration for a site that has masses that need the inspiration, yes. If the DT is being assembled as a means to which to bring more people to a site even if they don't stick around after the call, no. Why would anybody want to have a bunch of people swear up and down that they love your site only to have them leave as soon as they aren't chosen? For online stores, I'd rather the owners do the legwork and hand select a short-termed design team from the members that have posted works in their galleries or, if they really need to, select their team from scrappers elsewhere on the web that appeal to them. The discontinuance of the public DT call (for online stores) would not only work to keep the community focus of the site, it would send a message of possibility and potential to many who feel that the DT gig is an unattainable dream (particularly when the DT is hand selected from the proven loyal members of the site).

I can't say that my views are right. I can't say that they are even foolproof. I'm sure that even in my scenario there will be instances of entitlement attitudes (amongst those who don't receive a random invitation ). I can't say that there won't be hostility derived from bringing in 'outsiders' to inspire creativity. I can say that it would be worth a try, though. Honestly, I think that any attempt to change the negative path that the industry is on would be better than continuing to do what hasn't been working.